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Emotional on/off switch

Kev N

So this is subject I've tried many times to look into and I've never really found as satisfying answer. 

From as long as I can remember I have had the ability to switch off my emotions at will. So much so after many years of doing so and beginning to better understand my emotions, I began to be able to compartmentalise my emotions and switch them off individually. This was great for times when I'm focused and active because it allows me to block sadness and still feel an anger which motivates me etc. 

But when something like a relationship breakdown, loss of family member or other major trauma I switch off completely, I'm still me, but I'm withdrawn, on auto pilot, I do the things I enjoy, but not because I enjoy them, but because of time. I feel nothing so I become very aware of time. Shutting off doesn't mean it's not there, when I want to switch it all back on, it's an open floodgate. 

Does anyone else here the ability to do this? Is it a childhood trauma response, is it autism related?  

To many people the idea of this it's not great, but the reality is to do this emotional yo yo, I have to open a floodgate which usually sends me into a shutdown, which I never come back the same from.

Parents

  • We need that ability to detach into innate analytical reasoning. It’s crucial because we are arrested by our emotions and if we cannot escape they will sweep us up under a flood and we will drown. Most of us deal with alexithymeia  anyway, and battling the inability to understand how we “feel” is exhausting  switching into Reasoning Through a Problem with the analytical part of the brain is how we normally operate  finding solutions is how our reward centre is triggered. Sometimes best to cry away the tears and then get up and fix the problem  

    We don’t actually switch off emotions at whim, it appears like that. There are particularities which we can isolate from and others we cannot. Part of this has to do with being invested in the function and exchange of an other  rather than what it “means”. A loss will leave us stranded as if we’ve been dropped into the middle of a forest without backup. We switch into survival mode. And one needs a clear head to survive. 

    Rejection is more severing than loss. It’s intentional. It is far easier to cope with losing a pet as death is beyond our control and immanent than intentional betrayal or withholding compassion or calculated cruelty. Humans are not designed for isolation but connexion. 

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  • We need that ability to detach into innate analytical reasoning. It’s crucial because we are arrested by our emotions and if we cannot escape they will sweep us up under a flood and we will drown. Most of us deal with alexithymeia  anyway, and battling the inability to understand how we “feel” is exhausting  switching into Reasoning Through a Problem with the analytical part of the brain is how we normally operate  finding solutions is how our reward centre is triggered. Sometimes best to cry away the tears and then get up and fix the problem  

    We don’t actually switch off emotions at whim, it appears like that. There are particularities which we can isolate from and others we cannot. Part of this has to do with being invested in the function and exchange of an other  rather than what it “means”. A loss will leave us stranded as if we’ve been dropped into the middle of a forest without backup. We switch into survival mode. And one needs a clear head to survive. 

    Rejection is more severing than loss. It’s intentional. It is far easier to cope with losing a pet as death is beyond our control and immanent than intentional betrayal or withholding compassion or calculated cruelty. Humans are not designed for isolation but connexion. 

Children