A callous, unemotional person: why is he like this and what to do?

To a person It's common to experience emotions , both pleasant and not so pleasant.

As a rule, a person is aware of what he feels, since he has the ability to recognize his experiences and knows how to describe them.

But there are those who can neither recognize nor express their own emotions in words.

What is this phenomenon called? Let's look at the definitions of basic concepts, causes, symptoms, prognosis and treatment methods.

What is a state of emotional deprivation? Find out about this from our article.

What are such people called?

In everyday life, unemotional people are called callous, indifferent, thick-skinned, dry, soulless, cold, indifferent, insensitive, cynical.

From a scientific point of view, such individuals are considered alexithymic.

Alexithymia is a disorder in which a person is unable to express his own emotions in words.

Alexithymics are distinguished by their conflicting nature, poor resistance to stress, and poor imagination. They often encounter somatic diseases that are formed on human emotions.

Healthy individuals experience emotions intensely , are able to recognize and understand them, and therefore eliminate and calm them.

Since the alexithymic person is not aware of his experiences, he is unable to find a competent approach to eliminating them. Such people look at the world with hostility and do not know how to react normally to stress.

They have no motivation, no moral guidelines, no goals that appear under the influence of positive emotional stimuli.

Techniques to help you distance yourself from feelings for another person

If the relationship with a person has ended, and feelings have not yet cooled down, then the question arises: how to distance yourself from feelings that bring emotional pain and disappointment.

Lucas Derks' Social Panorama Method

The essence of this method is to present pictures-images of those people who are part of a person’s social circle. Thus, a loved one will be presented at arm's length, the image will be clear and bright, and the emotions during visualization will be pleasant. A person for whom there are no special feelings, for example, a salesperson in a store, will be located far away and the image will be gray, blurry and incomprehensible.

Then the image of the person for whom you need to get rid of feelings should be placed in the place of the indifferent person. This distance is usually 20 m or more.

Next, you need to imagine a sheet of paper in front of you, on which you should “write” in golden letters all the qualities that were valuable in this person. For example, he is caring, he shows a sense of humor, he can support you in difficult times, and so on.

Then thousands of copies are mentally made from this sheet, which fly into the future, towards those people who will meet along the path of life. Thus, a program is laid down for your brain so that it pays attention and finds exactly those people who can satisfy a person’s specific values.

Simple technique for independent work

To get rid of a highly charged emotion towards a person, you need to remember all the positive or negative situations associated with this person. To do this, you need to speak out loud all the bright episodes, starting with the acquaintance. It is necessary to talk through these episodes until they lose their emotional significance.

Definition of concepts

Emotional rigidity is manifested in the fact that the individual weakly, very selectively and within a narrow range shows emotional reactions to all kinds of stimuli.

Emotional dullness is a special mental state in which a person either very weakly expresses or completely loses higher emotions (sympathy, respect, tolerance, tact, modesty, honesty, conscientiousness, etc.).

Emotional coldness is a disorder in which an individual does not experience emotions at all, or their expression weakens.

With emotional stupor, under the influence of intense mental experiences (fear, horror, danger to life), a state arises in which affective activity and motor activity are blocked, and the thought process slows down.

Emotional depression , a pathological mental state, which is characterized by a drop in mood, loss of interest in everything around, and deterioration in well-being.

What to do if “everything is complicated” with feelings

Psychoanalyst John Nemiah proposed the concept of “mental production of emotions.” Every person has a deficiency to varying degrees, not just alexithymics. It is difficult for some to express in words at least some experiences - while others, using metaphors, will talk about the vivid feelings that they experienced while standing in front of an expressionist painting, but at the same time they will not be able to convey what they feel in relation to a specific person.

Over the course of life, we all learn to say and show what we feel, including in the therapist’s office. A specialist helps to work through affect, that is, to translate bodily experience into images and words. As a result, a person can express in words feelings that he did not even suspect existed before. This may help him get rid of compulsive behaviors (such as overeating) that were his only way to suppress unconscious sensations.

«

When working with alexithymics, cognitive-behavioral methods specially developed for them are usually used. They also use the psychodynamic approach and the mentalization method. All of them are aimed at teaching the brain to identify emotions,” comments Kirill Sychev.

Improving the mental production of emotions is useful not only for people with alexithymia, but also for any person, because it affects intellectual growth, health and quality of life in general.

To get started, you can read Paul Ekman’s book “The Psychology of Emotions. I Know How You Feel,” in which he talks about various emotions and their connection with physical sensations. You can work on the connection between the body and feelings by regularly focusing on what is happening in the body. Breathing practices and meditation are suitable for this. Try group therapy where you can see other people talking about their emotions. And in order not to forget about what feelings there are, and to highlight them in yourself, hang a huge poster on the wall with the spectrum of all emotions.

An emotionless person, why is he like this?

An unemotional or low-emotional person, why is he like this?

Some consider alexithymia to be a disease, others believe that it is a personality trait . Alexithymia is conventionally divided into primary and secondary.

Primary is caused by congenital defects that occur during the development of the fetus, the birth of a child, and the passage of the first childhood diseases.

Secondary is due to reasons that can manifest themselves at a more conscious age:

• traumatic experiences
• stressful situations,
• mental disorders.

Some experts see the causes of this disease in aspects related to public culture .

A person is not educated, he lacks a social culture, an elementary education in which he could study himself, his emotions and ways of expressing them.

Something strange in the chest

Let's be honest: many of us have a hard time processing certain experiences, such as mild irritation. But most people won't confuse this feeling with joy or grief. An alexithymic person may well do this or interpret the irritation as a physical sensation.

You'll likely perceive butterflies in your stomach as excitement, while a person with alexithymia may think it's just hunger. The “lump in the throat” that we feel when we are very upset will be something really stuck in the throat for him.

The intense experiences that alexithymics feel in their body can be frustrating and frightening. For example, horror or falling in love, which are accompanied by a rapid pulse and sweating, can be interpreted by them as physical discomfort that needs to be gotten rid of quickly.

“I remember looking into the eyes of one girl I had been dating for a couple of months, and I felt something strange in my chest, as if something was shaking there. I understood that she was beautiful and we had good sex, in which we experimented freely. But I didn’t like the state that appeared next to her at that moment, so a little later I told her that I wanted to break up. She was shocked because she thought that I would confess my love to her. But what is love? Maybe it was her? - Alexey reasons.

Psychologists Beata Herbert, Olga Pollatos and Cornelia Herbert have found that the better we feel bodily changes, the better we understand our emotions. And with alexithymia, on the contrary, it is difficult for a person to focus on the internal processes of the body - this was the conclusion reached by Oxford professor Geoffrey Bird.

For the first time, alexithymia began to be studied in connection with the body. Psychiatry professor Peter Sifneos, who coined the term in the 1970s, studied the personality traits of patients in psychosomatic clinics. Some patients could not clearly formulate their emotional state and convey physical sensations in words. Their postures and movements were tense, their facial expressions were poor, and their actions resembled robots. But what was primary - manifestations in the body or alexithymia - was never determined.

Russian-Soviet psychiatrist Pyotr Gannushkin wrote in his book “Clinic of Psychopathy: Their Statics, Dynamics, Systematics” that alexithymia may be a factor predisposing to obesity in combination with depression.

For an alexithymic person, food is a regulator of internal tension. A person “eats” stress, partly because he has ignored and did not express his feelings for a long time.

The same goes for alcohol abuse. According to Polish sociologist Marek Zielkowski and his colleagues, 48% of male patients with alcohol dependence had alexithymia. And the American scientist Leonard Handelsman found that the level of alexithymia among alcoholics is higher than that of people without addiction.

Moreover, it is believed that alexithymia may be associated with coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, bronchial asthma, gastric and duodenal ulcers, Crohn's disease, malignant neoplasms and chronic pain.

“My emotional peculiarity is strongly connected with psychosomatics. Stressful situations have a strong impact on the body, and I quickly get tired of communicating with people,” shares Vera, who was recently diagnosed with abdominal pain.

This is pain in the abdominal cavity, the causes of which may be psychogenic. Gastroenterologist Emilia Yakovenko explains why chronic abdominal pain is closely related to depression - it’s due to insufficient serotonin synthesis. Therefore, antidepressants are good for both depression and abdominal pain.

Why is there not enough emotion in life?

According to psychoanalysts, alexithymia is considered emotional dullness , developing as a defensive reaction to a certain negative factor. Throughout life, a person constantly faces stressful situations.

If he is not able to overcome them, gradual addiction occurs. The absence of an emotional reaction to what is happening serves as a defense mechanism of the human psyche.

The reason for the appearance of alexithymia may be certain concepts of upbringing that the individual had to go through at a tender age.

Statements like “men shouldn’t cry”, “public display of emotions is the height of indecency” can lead to the development of the ability to suppress one’s own feelings.

How to stop feeling mental pain?

Heartache can linger months after a relationship ends. When one's heart is broken, one's normal instinctive defenses fail. He doesn't trust his mind.

Research shows that it is important for a person to know the true reason for the end of a relationship. But when a simple reason is honestly given, the person rejects it. The wounded consciousness is sure that the reason must be complex and serious.

The inner voice is so strong that even the most reasonable people come up with mysterious theories that have nothing to do with reality. They find themselves trapped in their own thoughts for months after a relationship ends.

It is important to understand that the irresistible desire to indulge in memories, look at a page on a social network or send a message to a former partner only increases mental pain and complicates recovery.

The main thing to do is to accept the reason for the breakup and not raise this issue again. There must be a desire to let go and accept the fact that this is the end.

It is recommended to remember not only good moments, but also unpleasant, annoying episodes. A good idea is to make a complete list of what irritated your partner, his bad qualities, bad habits, and carry this list with you. If nostalgia strikes, you should read the list.

The whole point is to constantly remind yourself that the relationship was not perfect. To get rid of mental anguish, you need to find the gaps in life and fill them, understand your goals in life.

Emotional dullness: symptoms

How to recognize emotional dullness?

1. The individual cannot express his feelings in words. There is a mask on the face without emotions. Due to such emotional “illiteracy”, his intellect does not develop. Since a person does not understand experience, he has absolutely no inclination towards empathy.
   Sometimes he appears heartless and selfish in the eyes of others. Although in reality the individual would be happy to take part, he simply does not know how this is done.

   Because of this, in such situations, he often resolves the issue with a template phrase.

   Read also:  What is apathy in simple words - 10 signs of manifestation in humans and ways to get rid of it without drugs
2. of conflicts with others increases Since a person does not understand his own emotions, he does not know how to change his behavioral reactions and approach to them. The result is loneliness.
3. One of the most striking signs is pragmatic thinking and a total lack of interest in creativity . Creative abilities develop only in those who are capable of vividly experiencing and understanding their own emotions. Alexithymic is not aware of his feelings, so he thinks based solely on logic. At the same time, sudden emotional outbursts are not uncommon, when an individual splashes out his state on other people, without realizing why this is happening.
4. Problems arise with adequate reflection on what is happening .
   Since an individual does not recognize emotions, he is unable to respond in a timely manner to the behavior of others and adapt to it. At the same time, self-regulation does not suffer particularly. If necessary, alexithymics can quickly change both at the external and internal levels, adapting to new conditions.
5. Alexithymics may not dream at all. If they dream of something in their night dreams, then, as a rule, it is ordinary gray everyday life.
6. They deny that problems are caused by emotional impulses . There is no such thing as intuition for them.
7. When talking about their own experiences, these people often use words that describe physical sensations . They are not able to distinguish between physical pain and mental anguish, joy and warmth.
8. The existence of such individuals becomes unbearably boring and dull due to the lack of emotions; their personal and social life is not organized .
   Lacking the ability to understand the feelings of another person, an alexithymic person suspects that the partner is making up problems out of nowhere. The inability to feel guilt and remorse leads to the fact that such a person shifts responsibility onto the shoulders of others, and this, of course, does not contribute to the establishment of strong relationships.
9. These people are afraid of change and avoid expressing their own feelings. The very idea of ​​allowing themselves to be more emotional causes strong resistance in them.
10. Most alexithymics feel lifeless, as if something is missing inside. As a result, they strive to fill this emptiness with anything.
    For this reason, such people often fall into alcohol or drug addiction, because these substances color the world with different colors, filling it with vivid emotions and unusual sensations. As soon as the effect wears off, you want to take a new dose again and again. There are many behavioral addictions that allow you to experience a lot of feelings and experiences at once.

Signs of alexithymia

Psychologists recognize the presence of alexithymia in a person by the following signs:

1. Incomprehensible states. They are described as “heavy hearted”, “cat scratching” or something similar that defines moral discomfort. A person simply does not have enough words to convey the experiences that burden or “tear the chest.”
2. Confusion between feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations. Instead of expressing emotions, thoughts are expressed (“I’m not sure,” “I think”) or physical sensations are described (“cramped leg,” “cold,” “uncomfortable chair”). And all because there is mental discomfort, but there is no understanding of what exactly causes it. Therefore, things that are “acceptable” in this state are presented as its cause.
3. Replacing true reactions with ones that are appropriate for a particular situation. Emotions are not experienced; they are replaced by memories and patterns of habitual social behavior. For example, someone joked, you need to smile or play any other reaction that is appropriate in a particular case.
4. Fear of showing emotions. When some emotion arises, people with alexithymia experience internal resistance and even fear. They immediately remember the attitudes “being angry is bad”, “crying is shameful”, “laughing loudly is indecent”, “being rude is impolite” and similar ones. And the only way out, as it seems to them, is total control of their own feelings.

Sometimes emotions still spill out into affective outbursts. A person tries to hide and withdraws because he feels a sense of guilt and shame in front of himself or others. This could be unexpected hysterics, violent crying or uncontrollable laughter, an outburst of rage or another reaction that does not correspond in intensity to the event. After this, as a rule, there is a desire to control yourself even more, not to show emotions and feelings at all. They, fueled by self-dissatisfaction, accumulate to a greater extent, which leads to new affective outbursts. And so on in a circle.

Forecast

Lack of emotion does not affect life expectancy in any way , but it does reduce the quality of existence.

The prognosis is this: a meager life alone, devoid of bright colors and joyful moments.

First of all, it is difficult for an individual to understand himself. He seems to be experiencing feelings, but they do not fill him with the energy that normal people receive.

Positive emotions motivate, negative emotions allow you to feel threatened and learn from certain situations. A person suffering from alexithymia is deprived of this .

Communication deteriorates noticeably. A person cannot show his own emotions and give an adequate reaction to other people’s remarks. A person is incapable of compassion , as a result of which he becomes dry and soulless.

The logical approach is not always effective; the individual is considered selfish and ruthless.

People around you do not understand how to communicate with someone who does not show emotions and does not discuss them.

Social activity becomes impoverished because there are simply no people in a person’s life who are ready to accept it without emotional intimacy. The result of alexithymia is a monotonous, routine existence.

Life is so predictable that it is literally calibrated step by step, since the individual is not able to find himself in situations in which they act under the influence of emotions.

On the one hand, this, of course, frees you from unforeseen difficulties, but, on the other hand, there is no opportunity to experience unfamiliar situations.

For whom feelings are the meaning of life

Lack of feelings is not so critical for everyone. Only 5% of people feel alive only when they experience strong emotions. These are people with a visual vector in their psyche. They are very emotional by nature, because their purpose is to love, sympathize, be impressed, and communicate. Others do this too, but much less emotionally and not so dependent on the expression of feelings.

When this ability disappears (but the desire to love remains), people with a visual vector lose meaning, and an uncomfortable state of anxiety and fear of loneliness, separation from people and life arises.

Why don't you feel anything:

• lacks the skill to create emotional connections;
• a ban on feelings in the process of education is imposed;
• there was a loss of sensitivity after severe stress;
• feelings are suppressed due to depression, lack of meaning in life.

Real life stories written on psychological forums will help us understand these reasons.

Lack of skill in expressing emotions

“I don’t feel feelings or emotions. On the one hand, I’ve already somehow gotten used to it. On the other hand, I upset my loved ones, and most importantly, my girlfriend. I can't empathize with people. I have no desire to meet and chat. I spend more time alone, although this does not give me pleasure. My parents divorced when I was 10 years old. I didn’t see my father anymore; my mother was at work all the time. I grew up with my grandmother. It was not customary for us to show our feelings, and I am still surprised when relatives hug and talk about their love for each other. I want to learn to empathize so as not to be afraid of close relationships.”

If this has always been the case, then the lack of feelings is due to the fact that the skill of realizing them was not formed in childhood. Every visual child is born with great emotional potential, but if there were traumas in childhood or parents did not pay attention to the development of the child’s sensory sphere, he does not know how to use his abilities.

We see that our hero suffered painfully from his parents’ divorce: the severance of emotional ties greatly traumatizes the little viewer. It was not customary in the family to show love or talk heart to heart. Feelings did not develop. Although the desire is there, it is not backed by skill.

“I experience emotions only when I fantasize or watch films or read books alone. I don’t know how to contact people, I’m not interested in them. I have to pretend to establish contact with girls or children, but they feel false and don’t want to communicate with me.”

Feelings should be directed primarily at other people. The skill of enjoying life is the ability to live among other people. Substitutes for live communication - books, films - will not help you experience real joy in life. Yuri Burlan explains why this is so. Watch a snippet of the training:

Ban on feelings from parents

There is a social stereotype that men do not cry. Therefore, raising boys often involves a ban on tears: “Why are you being a nurse? Be a man!" But this approach is not applicable when it comes to a sensitive boy with a visual vector. He just needs to cry tears of sympathy over some sad story, otherwise his feelings will be locked up, and he will not be able to manifest his purpose in this life - to love, to empathize.

In the Russian mentality, crying is generally shameful, so such a ban in our country can also apply to girls: “Stop crying! Keep calm! Shame on you, you are strong! What will people say? And a girl with a visual vector turns out to be incapable of love when she grows up.

Listen to Yuri Burlan talk about why you can’t hold back your tears:

Unfeeling after stress

“Two years ago I suffered a severe stressful situation. Since then I’ve been walking like a stone - I can’t be happy, sad, or even afraid of anything. Lost sense of humor. I used to be a creative person, and my emotional sensitivity meant a lot to me. How can I be cured?

“I used to be very cheerful and cheerful, but at the age of 18 my emotions completely turned off after a stressful period in my life. Without them I'm just a vegetable. It was as if everything inside was numb. I don’t feel love for people, not even for my parents. I say words, but behind them there is emptiness. I want, as before, to love, to hate, to speak from the heart.”

Stress can be different - violence, breaking up a relationship with an emotionally significant person, ridicule of first love. There are a lot of such stories when emotionally unbearable situations force people - consciously or unconsciously - to give up their feelings. Consciously - when a person simply restrains himself.

For example, there was a situation of tragic unrequited love and the “lesson” learned from it: “I will never fall in love again. It hurts too much." Or unrealized feelings cause constant hysterics and tears. It seems that life is full of stress. And then the decision is made: “I forbid myself to cry. I will never again watch difficult films or read books that make me cry.”

Unfortunately, giving up feelings does not solve the problem. Over time, insensitivity develops - the person really seems to gain the emotional calm that he was striving for. But the desire to use your rich emotional abilities has not gone away. It will manifest itself in fears and panic attacks. Psychosomatics may appear at the bodily level. For example, a person does not feel anger, but physically he may experience palpitations, choking, or a lump in the throat.

Lack of feelings during depression

“There was never emotional contact with loved ones and friends. In general, relationships with no one developed. I went on a spree - endless drinking, parties, but in the end there was only an even greater emptiness inside. I try to force myself to be interested in something, but it doesn’t last long. Again I slide into this emotionless state when nothing makes me happy. Recently, I have developed intolerance to nicotine, caffeine and alcohol, and chronic fatigue. Just don't recommend psychologists to me. I went and took pills, but it didn’t help.”

“I don’t feel emotions... Only the fear that life will pass, and I will continue to watch it as if from a window, as if I were watching a movie. I don’t enjoy either my favorite activities or food. The mood is always bad. I want to cry. I live as if in a vacuum, as if in a nightmare.”

If, along with a visual vector, a person also has a sound one, he may experience depression - a painful condition caused by a lack of meaning in life. Whatever he does, wherever he directs his interest, in the end it all comes down to the meaninglessness of what is happening. Only when a person realizes himself is he able to feel true joy in life. And when he does not know why he appeared in this world and what to do, he experiences emptiness from the lack of meaning in life.

This is exactly what a person with a sound vector feels when he cannot understand his desires, which differ from the aspirations of most people, because they are intangible. The vector of his desires is aimed at knowing himself and other people. There are too many things in this world that distract him, preventing him from understanding himself and realizing the purpose of his life. He feels strange, different, different from others. Doesn't fit into life. Compares himself with others and not in his favor. Asks the question: “Why are they happy and enjoying life? Why don't I feel the same emotions?

Depression and apathy go hand in hand when you don’t want to get up and do something, when nothing makes you happy, when you don’t have the strength to live and hopeless fatigue sets in. The sound vector in a state of non-realization affects emotions - they seem to freeze, because they also have no meaning.

What to do to get your feelings back?

Lobotomy against emotions

In 1935, neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz invented a rather cruel procedure called lobotomy. He drilled through the patient's skull through the nose, and then used an ice pick to carefully cut off the frontal lobe of the patient's brain. After such a procedure, anxious people with suicidal tendencies became unusually calm and flexible.

The specialist was confident that an improved version of lobotomy in the future would become a cure for almost all diseases, so he advertised it around the world and achieved his goal. Already in the 40s of the last century, lobotomies were performed on tens and hundreds of patients around the world, and Moniz even received a Nobel Prize for its invention.

But by the 1950s, doctors began to notice that such harsh intervention in the human brain could have certain negative consequences, namely, almost all lobotomized patients slowly but surely turned into vegetables.

Yes, lobotomy helped cope with anxiety and depression, but it literally turned people into zombies, happy with any turn of things in life. The first country to ban lobotomy was the Soviet Union, and by the 1960s, almost all adherents had become its ardent opponents.

Diagnosis

The absence of emotions in itself is not a disease, but it can often serve as a sign of certain diseases or mental disorders :

• organic brain damage;
• psychopathy;
• schizophrenia;
• depression;
• heboid syndrome;
• dementia.

Be that as it may, only a psychiatrist or psychotherapist .

Symptoms of professional burnout:

The first group is psychophysical symptoms:

• feeling of constant fatigue not only in the evenings, but also in the mornings, immediately after sleep (a symptom of chronic fatigue);
• feeling of emotional and physical exhaustion;
• decreased sensitivity and reactivity due to changes in the external environment (absence of a curiosity reaction to the factor of novelty or a fear reaction to a dangerous situation);
• general asthenia (weakness, decreased activity and energy, deterioration of blood biochemistry and hormonal parameters);
• frequent causeless headaches; persistent gastrointestinal disorders;
• sudden weight loss or weight gain;
• complete or partial insomnia;
• constant lethargy, drowsiness and desire to sleep throughout the day;
• shortness of breath or breathing problems during physical or emotional stress;
• a noticeable decrease in external and internal sensory sensitivity: deterioration of vision, hearing, smell and touch, loss of internal, bodily sensations.

The second group - socio-psychological symptoms:

• indifference, boredom, passivity and depression (low emotional tone, feeling depressed);
• increased irritability to minor, minor events;
• frequent nervous breakdowns (outbursts of unmotivated anger or refusal to communicate, withdrawal);
• constant experience of negative emotions for which there is no reason in the external situation (feelings of guilt, resentment, shame, suspicion, constraint);
• a feeling of unconscious anxiety and increased anxiety (the feeling that “something is not right”);
• a feeling of hyper-responsibility and a constant feeling of fear that “it won’t work out” or “I can’t handle it”;
• a general negative attitude toward life and professional prospects (like “no matter how hard you try, nothing will work out”).

The third group is behavioral symptoms:

• the feeling that the work is becoming harder and harder, and that it is becoming more and more difficult to do it;
• the employee noticeably changes his work schedule (increases or reduces working hours);
• constantly, unnecessarily, takes work home, but does not do it at home;
• the manager finds it difficult to make decisions;
• feelings of uselessness, lack of faith in improvements, decreased enthusiasm for work, indifference to results;
• failure to complete important, priority tasks and “getting stuck” on small details, spending most of the working time in a way that does not meet job requirements on little or unconscious performance of automatic and elementary actions;
• distance from colleagues and clients (patients, students), increased inappropriate criticality;
• alcohol abuse, a sharp increase in cigarettes smoked per day, drug use.

Burnout syndrome also occurs with chronic maladapted stress.

How to recognize stress? Signs of stress:

1. Physical:

• general muscle tension and associated pain in the chest, abdomen, back, neck;
• trembling or nervous tics;
• spasms and associated intestinal and renal colic, constipation, diarrhea, difficulty swallowing, headaches, stuttering;
• high blood pressure, increased heart rate.

2. Emotional:

• Restlessness or increased excitability;
• Irritability, anger, aggressiveness;
• Inability to concentrate, confusion of thoughts;
• Feeling of helplessness, fear.

3. Behavioral:

• Restlessness or increased excitability;
• Irritability, anger, aggressiveness;
• Inability to concentrate, confusion of thoughts;
• Feeling of helplessness, fear.

Causes of emotional burnout

Emotional burnout occurs as a result of the internal accumulation of negative emotions without a corresponding “discharge” or “liberation” from them. It leads to the depletion of a person’s emotional, energetic and personal resources.

Burning out means losing touch with the world, alienating yourself from yourself, other people, and life in general. At the same time, all positive emotions are dulled. In its deeper stages, burnout can be called “death within life.”

Burnout syndrome is characterized by emotional and mental exhaustion, decreased satisfaction from work and physical fatigue. In this case, life does not bring you joy, and work does not bring you satisfaction. Your nervous energy is exhausted; you need to deal with this problem in time. The result is that a person becomes indifferent to everything. In place of pity for others comes a lack of understanding. The attitude also changes not only towards patients or clients, but also towards employees and family, when a stream of aggression and contempt is poured out on innocent people. And where did that friendly person everyone knew go?

Burnout syndrome in social professions occurs quite often; unfortunately, not everyone takes the necessary measures to prevent or treat it. What's even more surprising is that many people don't even know what it is, and the symptoms of burnout syndrome are attributed to ordinary fatigue.

Burnout syndrome can arise as a result of constant and long-term interaction with a large number of people, when there is a need to show various emotions, sometimes not coinciding with the internal emotional state. There are situations when a person sacrifices his needs to work needs, almost completely forgets about himself and his family. It is not right.