No emotions.?!


Question: I have a good dry sence of humor, love my family and friends. Respect and act curtiously and have a funny peronality. But I lack several emotions. Is that normal. I dont feel sorrow, get over things in a second, never feel sorry and dont feel guilt. If something sad would be going on I would just stand there with a blank mind. I work in the hospital as an ICU nurse and see lots of pain, I dont like the idea of people in pain but still no emotion. I have lots of friends and they noticed that, too. My parents were always wondering about that and so do I. Is normal not to get touched by others pain?


Answers: I have a good dry sence of humor, love my family and friends. Respect and act curtiously and have a funny peronality. But I lack several emotions. Is that normal. I dont feel sorrow, get over things in a second, never feel sorry and dont feel guilt. If something sad would be going on I would just stand there with a blank mind. I work in the hospital as an ICU nurse and see lots of pain, I dont like the idea of people in pain but still no emotion. I have lots of friends and they noticed that, too. My parents were always wondering about that and so do I. Is normal not to get touched by others pain?

You wouldn't be emotionally capable of doing your job if you allowed yourself to feel all the pain you must witness on a daily basis. Your inability to empathize with others or feel or express emotions does not necessarily mean you are cold hearted. I see this as accepting life situations as they come along without adding the element of emotional pain. I don't see anything wrong with that.

At your next check up mention it to the doctor. It could be from dealing with so many ill patients, our emotions tend to harden. We are nurses first and human beings second. We try not to show emotion to help keep family members and patients calm. Sometimes things like that run over into our everyday lives. If you have been a nurse for an extended period of time I can see where you are coming from. Still that doesn't mean we don't honestly care about our patients and their outcomes.

I don't see anything wrong with it. Some people are very emotional and it's their way of dealing with certain situations. I think that the fact you work in a hospital environment and you see a lot of emotional things going on, you have learned to deal with it in your own way. It doesn't mean that you don't care about other people. However, if you see your own family or friends in a situation where they can use emotional support you should be able to show a little compassion. It's just a human thing to do, and it allows others to feel better when you show some support. Just a suggestion...

You have the emotions inside of you. You just for some reason either cannot or don't want to let them out. I'd recommend seeing a psychiatrist to maybe help you learn to manage your different emotions and be able to use different emotions at appropriate times and he/she can help you to unleash the emotions that have been kept inside of you. All humans have all emotions in their body at every point in time. They just dont always show, but they can shine through with the help of a trained professional.

No. It is not normal at all. See a counselor. The fact that you do not feel sorrow, guilt or empathy indicates that something is seriously wrong.

Unless you've always been that way, maybe you have become callused. In a way it's a good thing to not let emotions get in the way of things in the ICU. I really do not know how normal it is. Have you ever lost anyone close to you? I've seen people who have lost a spouse and never cried. Maybe you are on a "higher level" of normal than a lot of us:) I wouldn't be to concerned about it. as long as you are a caring person which I would imagine you are. Keep up the good work in a difficult profession:)

Also I might add that too much guilt can be a very unhealthy emotion. Unless you have done awful things to others you have have no reason to feel guilt:)

Are getting into the xanax? (Being you no doubt have acsess to it at your job)

I guess that you could have been born without the ability to feel Guilt, Sadness and Remorse; because when it comes to the human psyche anything is possible. You do realize though that not having feelings of guilt, sadness and remorse are also signs of being a sociopath / psychopath. I am not saying that you are a sociopath /psychopath, only that you have SOME of the symptoms.
I am just wondering if you may have subconsciously shut down these emotions to avoid feeling overwhelmed by them? I think seeing a clinical psychologist or psychotherapist would be a good start.

for a nurse, no. we get hardened to the pain and suffering of others, or possibly because of our innate lack of emotional response we are able to work in ICU/ED etc. and not fall apart whereas emotional people wouldnt last a few minutes....getting over things in a second, well who has time to dwell on anything---gunshot wound, car accident victim, mi, eat a quick lunch, dehyrated babies, flu, acute appendix, drug seekers, psych patients---go home. again if we allowed ourselves to dwell on the horrors we see each day, we'd be admitted to the psych unit.........guilt, we do the best we can for our patients and we move on, there's no time for playing the 'what-if' game.

I went through a period of having few emotions involving empathy toward others. I didn't really even realize it was going on until some of my close friends started having some serious problems and I had to take care of them. Then, my empathy came back. It's weird, but the emotions I suddenly felt made me feel so much better...they made me feel like I was myself again.

If you feel that you have lost yourself, I highly recommend seeing a psychological counselor and discussing this, even if just once or twice. If that doesn't help, hopefully some event which is not too tragic will come along to jar you out of it.





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