Emotional stagnation: when nothing seems to change
The world of emotions is usually described as something chaotic or complex, a jungle in which it is easy to get lost and where multiple dangers lurk. Dependence, toxic relationships, jealousy ... are risks that undermine our life trajectory. However, these potentially negative elements of our emotional side may end up looking like rewards if we compare them with his nemesis: emotional stagnation .
And is that, if sometimes a roller coaster of sensations can be exhausting and make us suffer, the flattening of emotions is not a better alternative; in fact, once it has been experienced, few people want it.
Next we will explore what the phenomenon of emotional stagnation consists of and what its causes may be.
Emotional stagnation as lack of variety
Emotional stagnation can be described as the absence of an evolution in the experimentation of emotions . That is to say, that the changes disappear from one emotion to another, and whoever experiences it remains in a state of apathy.
As sensations such as euphoria is characterized by being peaks of emotional activation, they can not last long, and therefore the person who lives in their flesh emotional stagnation will have the step vetoed to these intense sensations .
This makes the day to day of people living with emotional stagnation monotonous and tedious. But it is not a monotony that is explained because all the time the same things are done; Someone who faces new challenges every day is able to feel this emotional vacuum. The monotony, in this case, is internal and mental , and it is partly independent of what is done and how it interacts with the outside world.
Thus, emotional stagnation can be described as a desert, a place in which there is no glimpse of enriching experiences not because we do not have resources around us, but because in us there is a dynamic of mental processes that has accustomed us to experience everything to through the filter of monotony.
What can be its causes?
The presence of emotional stagnation can have very different causes. Let's analyze them.
1. Depressive disorders
Depressive disorders, such as major depression, are diagnostic labels that often come hand in hand with emotional stagnation. Many depressed people are not simply sad, but rather notice a certain inability to experience intense sensations.
For example, anhedonia, which is the inability to live pleasurable sensations or euphoria, is very present in cases of depression.
The apathy, which is the lack of motivation and initiative to do things and set goals, is also typical of depression, and is closely related to emotional stagnation. At the end of the day, if we anticipate that doing certain things will not make us feel better ... why do them?
- Related article: "Are there several types of depression?"
2. Experimentation of very intense peaks of emotion
The fact of having passed a stage in which emotions have been very intense can make us later unable to feel things intensely, at least for a while and if we do nothing to remedy it.
For example, this it shows a lot in the love life of people : the fact of having gone through a very passionate relationship makes those who come after dwarf and, by comparison, experience them as a total absence of relevant stimuli.
3. Addictions
Chemical addictions to substances are capable of causing a very abrupt emotional stagnation. Simply, the whole part of our brain that is responsible for producing emotions, the limbic system, makes your number one priority is the search for the drug .
In this way, the emotional vacuum is in this case the other side of the coin of the need for dose; everything that has nothing to do with the search for the substance that is needed disappears from our mind, both cognitively and emotionally.
4. Brain injuries
Some neurological disorders caused by injuries in parts of the brain they can simply cause emotions to stop being experienced.
In addition, in some cases the wounds in the brain cause other mental processes also to fail, which means that these cases of emotional stagnation come hand in hand with other problems.
However, sometimes only the part related to the production of emotions fails, causing the person to begin to experience reality as if a piece failed him, something very difficult to explain. This supposes a radical change in the lifestyle of the person, taking into account that, contrary to what is believed, even psychopaths experience emotions.
Fortunately, these cases are exceptional and can usually be detected through brain-scanning technologies.
