topic Re: Empty in Welcome and orientation

Empty

Guest_29628429 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:52:14 GMT

How bad is it that I barely feel anything at all? Or at least I don’t really feel positive emotions. The last thing I felt was nerves and sadness but they were also really dull. Is this a bad thing because I can’t relate to people when they say how they feel? I also don’t feel any empathy which makes interactions pretty difficult. Is there anything I can do to stop this?

Re: Empty

white knight — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 22:56:00 GMT

Hi, welcome

We probably need more information to evaluate your situation but I'll do what I can to help you based on my lived experience.

When in doubt always look at what is common for other people. Generally people have a balance of - work, hobbies, family activities and interests. Ultimately when someone has a passion (a dedicated interest even to obsession levels) they are never bored and less mental challenges because they are busy, often too busy to think about things other than their interest. This is logical for some but not for others.

I recall when first separated from my 1st wife the level of activities building my kit home. I soon found the separation of myself from my young children much more tolerable due to a very active mind.

So if you could reply with a more detailed post of your situation I can go into more detail to help. This page is anonymous so you are safe.

Until then I hope you are ok.

TonyWK

Re: Empty

Roses_191 — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 03:54:41 GMT

Hi what your describing sounds really sad. Ive definetly had the feeling of emptiness, but as soon as I put my mind into activities such as crafts or dancing that went away

I guess the emptiness hasnt been an issue for me ever since I did that. Hope this helps!

Re: Empty

Psychdiaries2 — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:13:45 GMT

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums, I'm so glad you have found this community.

Since you mentioned not feeling any positive emotions at all, you may want to think about where those roots are coming from. Do you feel that way all the time, or in certain situations? How often are you feeling sad? Do you have anything you enjoy doing for fun?

I think once you have a think about all that, hopefully you can find out what the cause is and work towards feeling positive emotions again. Hope this helps and keep reaching out to us, we're here to support you!

Re: Empty

therising — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 08:54:51 GMT

The warmest of welcomes to you as you wonder about and explore feelings and the challenges that can come with them.

I've found there to be a whole variety of reasons for why we feel in the ways we do or why we can't actually feel all that much at times.

From feeling or sensing on a natural level or what some may call a soulful level through to feeling what our chemistry's doing through the side effects it produces, sometimes how we feel can depend on which angle we're coming from. For example, we could be feeling what could only be described as a soul destroying lack of a sense of joy in our life. On the other hand it's helpful to know that there may be certain structural abnormalities in our brain that may be preventing dopamine uptake (with dopamine offering a sense of joy). You could say the first is a natural experience, whereas the second is a chemical or biological experience. This leads to the question 'Why does a lack of feeling exist for me; could it just the way I'm wired or does it go deeper than that?

I've found quite a lot of my feelings have developed over time through a whole variety of experiences. As a mother, I had to learn to feel or sense in far more constructive ways than I did when I was single and without kids. A lot of my senses developed through motherhood, with a sense of empathy being one of them. In some ways I was very self focused as a kid, which does nothing in the way of leading to the development of a sense of empathy toward others. I never learned to make deeply felt connections until later in life. My ability to feel more has come with experience. On the other hand, I can recall the story of a paramedic with high functioning autism who simply didn't have the ability to feel for others at all. With a truly brilliant analytical mind, he had to develop the ability to appear like he cared for people facing traumatic experiences. He learned to act like he cared so as to be able to calm and help a patient through a sense of connection. His passion was to help people and acting like he cared was a skill that he knew helped them.

Whether we can't feel much at all at times due to a lack of experience, neurological factors, pure exhaustion or some other reason, it always pays to wonder. I found one of the ways I've been able to develop a sense of feeling relates to often asking the question 'If I could give this feeling a name or label, what would I call it?'. With us being somewhat conditioned to give a typical name to certain feelings, such as sadness, anger, happiness etc, the challenge becomes about giving certain feelings specific names. For example, while I could say 'I feel sad' or 'I feel sadness', it may be more accurate to say 'What I'm sensing is what completely lost and alone with no sense of direction feels like' or 'I'm feeling a saddening lack of guidance'.

Btw, sometimes it can be hard to feel for others because they're not articulating well enough for us to be able to fully understand how or what they're feeling. As I say, being able to feel or unable to feel can be based on so many different reasons.

Re: Empty

Rustyswingset — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:31:58 GMT

My depression manifests differently on meds, one of the ones I tried made me feel like I was living with a thick sheet of glass seperating me from the world and my emotions. I hated it so much. I've always been a very emotional and sensitive person so hearing about things that would have deeply emotionally affected me make me feel apathetic,was worse than being miserable. I used reading and watching shows as an escape when I did feel numb, because it was easier to relate to the characters than experience my own life. So yeah, it sucks. I'm sending hugs, I hope that you find a way to feel again safely ❤️