here where I live and work this kind of thing going on is called "lack of affect" and is one of the most common side effects that many things like stress, abuse, neglect, trauma's of all kinds (including naturally occuring like storms, fires,...) leave a person with. around here we see it most with people who have depression and those that have post traumatic stress, and dissociative issues.

I have it with my bipolar disorder, PTSD, Depression and dissociative disorders, it also happens to me with medications. my treatment providers and I combat it by things like self nurturing. the premise is that one cant show or feel positive emotions like love, like, caring, for another very well if they dont love, like and care about their self. self nurturing one self for example buying myself a treat, or self care item I dont normally do for myself like this morning I noticed I didnt have any real emotions for anything, so instead of making coffee and putting it in my thermos I looked at my wife and said I think Im going to treat myself to breakfast today, wanna come? My wife said sure and we grabbed our stuff and headed on out the door to IHOP. there I bought a meal that I wouldnt normally have bought for myself, one that would entice all my senses which in turn would open the gates to at least having an emotional opinion of liking something. As I ate my meal my senses came alive and I started to feel the emotion of comfort, light hearted ness, happiness. then my wife said something that made my day, she cracked a joke that would have embarrassed most people and once again I was reminded in part why I love her, she is the most caring and spontaneous woman I know. when I woke up this morning I didnt have any emotions for anything or anyone and there I was in IHOP feeling alive, loving the food and service and feeling happiness and love for myself and my wife.

With a completely different frame of mind from when I woke up I headed off to work and was able to have a great morning with many positives including feeling like I cared about what happened to all these clients of mine, I even felt the emotion hate for this one guy who sat there trying to answer all the questions instead of letting his wife talk with me alone. I told the couple I was going to get another cup of coffee and asked the couple if they wanted coffee, I went to my supervisor, did a quick rant on the bozo and asked her to find a way to get him to leave the wife and I to our interview. She told me to find out if he drove here and when he and I started discussing car problems he told me what kind of car he had. the supervisor who followed me back towards my desk over head the conversation then came in and asked if anyone had his type of car it needed to be moved the "meter maid" will be around in the next ten minutes and she wanted to save the clients a ticket. we dont have meters on our street but the police still patrol noting what cars are parked and for how long, our street is a half hour zone. the guy got up and moved his car which gave his wife and I time to move into a private interview room in the back thats reserved for those in danger. once there she was able to talk to me. the point is because I took the time to self nurture this morning my emotions stabilized so I was able to once again feel emotions for others.