Feeling numb or emotionally numb is a common human experience. It refers to feeling detached, empty, or unable to access certain emotions. Numbness can be caused by trauma, depression, stress, or simply feeling overwhelmed. While numbness can sometimes be a way to cope with difficult situations, it can also leave people feeling isolated and disconnected.
Quotes about feeling numb provide insight into this complex emotional state. They capture the sense of emptiness and disconnection. Though numbness may seem like a uniquely modern phenomenon, these quotes reveal that it has been experienced across cultures and eras.
In this article, we will explore thought-provoking and inspirational quotes about feeling numb. The selected quotes come from a diverse range of sources, from ancient texts to contemporary song lyrics. They remind us that we are not alone in going through periods of numbness. And they offer wisps of hope that numbness does not have to be permanent.
Quotes About Feeling Numb
- “Numbness is not a victory.” – Yasmin Mogahed
- “When you are paralyzed by numbness, you are incapable of moving forward.” – Bryant McGill
- “Numbness and losing the ability to feel are worse than pain.” – John Bradshaw
- “Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.” – J.K. Rowling
- “A terrible numbness presses down on my soul.” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou
- “The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality.” – Andrew Solomon
- “When you feel nothing, you are willing to go along with anything.” – Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- “If we don’t feel, we’re lost. Yet feeling terrifies us.” – Anne Rice
- “There is a time in life when you expect the pain to pass, when it lessens. Then you realize that it’s not going to stop. That’s the moment when you accept that this is your life.” – Meg Wolitzer
- “Depression is living in a body and mind that feel like a cage.” – Kriston Johnson
- “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” – Lois Lowry
- “I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” – Oscar Wilde
- “When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Kahlil Gibran
- “I felt nothing, or nothing that I could trust as true emotion. Everything seemed pose, or made up, as for a television camera.” – Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
- “Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.” – Graham Greene
- “There is a numbness in the heart which comes after great loss.” – Toba Beta
- “Emotional pain cannot kill you, but running from it can. Allow. Embrace. Let yourself feel. Let yourself heal.” – Vironika Tugaleva
- “To go numb means you’ve had too much trauma and can’t cope with the emotional fallout.” – Fodor Stebbins
- “When you are dead inside, you don’t actually live; you just exist.” – Anthony Liccione
- “The opposite of anger is not calmness, its empathy.” – Mehmet Oz
- “If I could tell you how terrible it is to backslide into depression after finally crawling out, I would, but I don’t want to scare you. I’m just glad I’m alive.” – Shauna Aura Knight
- “Emotions, when blocked, never really go away – they are merely buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” – Sylvia Plath
- “There is a time in life when you expect the pain to pass, when it lessens. Then you realize that it’s not going to stop. That’s the moment when you accept that this is your life.” – Meg Wolitzer
- “Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. A bruise in your mind. You just got to be careful not to touch where it hurts. It’s always there, coloring everything.” – Jeffery Eugenides, Middlesex
- “The worst feeling is not being lonely, it’s being forgotten by those who you thought would never forget you.” – Oliver Gaspirtz
- “Wake up early and tackle all the little things that make you feel dead inside.” – Anonymous
- “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.” – Dale Carnegie
- “When you’re feeling numb, you lose your sense of self. You become simply a shell shaped by other people’s expectations.”
- “Feeling numb is like being a ghost – present in body but detached in spirit from the people and activities around you.”- Anonymous
- “Numbness creeps up on you slowly. One day you realize you haven’t felt anything in weeks, and you wonder when the last time was you felt alive.” – Unknown
- “When you’re numb, joy feels out of reach – a foreign concept you can no longer grasp.”
- “Numbness is a prison that locks up your emotions and swallows the key.”- Anonymous
- “Feeling numb is believing the fairytale is over but being forced to keep living in the castle.”
- “When you’re numb, hugs don’t feel warm anymore. Laughter doesn’t bubble up from within. The colors of the world fade to grey.”
- “Numbness steals your ability to connect – with others, with beauty, with emotions. It isolates you even when surrounded by people.”
- “The danger of numbness is it masks problems rather than resolving them. The roots remain underneath the deadened surface.”
- “Numbness causes more pain than feeling because at least pain reminds you there’s still something alive inside.” – Unknown
- “When you are numb, life becomes like a movie you’re watching but not really experiencing.”
- “Trying to fill the void of numbness with distraction is like trying to fill a canyon with pebbles – it may cover the surface, but the emptiness remains.” – Unknown
- “Numbness is a siren song – it promises relief but delivers only isolation.”- Anonymous
- “Beneath the still waters of numbness churn heavy currents of unresolved emotions.”
- “Feeling numb is like being a marionette – going through the motions while detached from your own actions.” – Unknown
- “When you feel numb, happiness flickers into view but disappears before you can grasp it – like trying to catch smoke.”
- “Numbness brings rest but not peace – your troubles remain, muted but unresolved.”
- “Feeling numb traps you between worlds – unable to go back to who you were but unable to move forward as someone new.”- Anonymous
- “Numbness is quicksand disguised as solid ground – easy to step into but inescapable once you do.”
- “When you’re numb, the words ‘I love you’ become just sounds, devoid of their intended warmth.”- Unknown
- “When you’re numb, you drift through life like a phantom, unseen and unfelt by those around you.”
- “Feeling numb is a state of purgatory – neither fully present nor blessedly gone.”- Anonymous