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 in which multiple dangers lurk. Dependency, toxic relationships, the jealousy... they are risks that undermine our life trajectory. However, these potentially negative elements of our emotional side can come to seem rewards if we compare them with his nemesis: emotional stagnation.

And is that, if sometimes a roller coaster of sensations can become 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 a lack of variety

Emotional stagnation can be described as the absence of an evolution in the experimentation of emotions. That is, the changes from one emotion to another disappear, and the person who experiences it remains in a state of apathy.

As sensations such as euphoria are characterized by being peaks of emotional activation, they cannot last long, and therefore the person who lives in their flesh emotional stagnation

will have the passage forbidden to these intense sensations.

This makes the daily life of people living with emotional stagnation monotonous and tedious. But it is not a monotony that is explained because the same things are done all the time; someone who faces new challenges every day is capable of feeling this emotional emptiness. The monotony, in this case, is internal and mental, and it is partly independent of what you do and how you interact with the outside world.

Thus, emotional stagnation can be described as a desert, a place where there is no hint of enriching experiences, not because we have no resources. around us, but because in us there is a dynamic of mental processes that has accustomed us to experience everything through the filter of monotony.

What can be its causes?

The presence of emotional stagnation can have very different causes. Let's go on to analyze them.

1. Depressive disorders

Depressive disorders, such as major depressionare diagnostic labels that often come hand in hand with emotional stagnation. Many depressed people are not simply sad, but rather have a certain inability to experience strong sensations.

For example, the anhedonia, which is the inability to experience pleasurable or euphoric sensations, is very present in cases of depression.

Apathy, which is the lack of motivation and initiative to get things done and set goals, is also typical of depression, and is closely related to emotional stagnation. Ultimately, 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. Experimenting with very intense spikes of emotion

The fact of having passed a stage in which the emotions have been very intense can make us later we are 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 people's love lives: the fact of having gone through a very passionate relationship makes those that come later dwarfed and, by comparison, we experience them as a total absence of relevant stimuli.

3. The adictions

Chemical addictions to substances are capable of causing a very abrupt emotional stagnation. Simply, the entire 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 emptiness is in this case the other side of the coin of the need for doses; everything that does not have 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 on parts of the brain they can simply stop emotions from being experienced.

In addition, in some cases, injuries to the brain cause other mental processes to fail as well, 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 begins to experience reality as if a piece were failing, 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 the psychopaths they experience emotions.

Fortunately, these cases are rare and can usually be detected through brain study technologies.