What should I do if I used to be full of emotions and now I feel like I'm emotionally isolated?

Hello, question asker.

In the past, you were able to empathize with characters in movies, TV shows, and books. This shows that your emotions are still active.

You used to be inspired and in love with writing. Now you feel empty inside.

You feel anxious and irritable, but that's an emotion. It's important to be able to feel the emotions of characters in a novel and imagine the plot.

You are caught in a state of empty anxiety due to a lack of fulfilling experiences. Your excitement threshold is set to the maximum because of repetitive emotions. Small details from before no longer excite you, and you are less sensitive to sadness. The same stimuli are no longer focused on by the brain.

You feel emotionally exhausted and anxious. This is new and uncomfortable. Your brain is over-sensitive and tense, and it's hard to focus on other things.

Give yourself time to feel empty, relax, and accept this new feeling. Then, your other emotions will return to normal. During this time, we can learn to see things differently, which will make your emotions richer.

Good luck!

Hello, questioner!

I'm glad we met here.

You used to be able to watch dramas and read novels with full emotions, changing with the emotions of the characters in the dramas, and you were also full of inspiration and could write novels. You can get that back. It's going to be difficult, but you can do it. You are very numb, and you don't like your current state very much. I'm going to help you get back to your old self. Let me give you a warm hug first.

Emotional isolation is a psychological defense mechanism. When we encounter things that we can't solve on our own and that make us anxious, using emotional isolation effectively relieves anxiety and provides a sense of relief from feeling "out of it."

Let me be clear: if you feel less emotional than before while binge-watching dramas and novels, it is not emotional isolation.

I believe that if you watch a lot of TV dramas and read novels one after the other, it is more of a sustained, prolonged emotional reaction to external factors, similar to "aesthetic fatigue." It may happen suddenly, making you feel very uncomfortable and think that there is no taste in such a life, but it is also a kind of normalized response. It should have happened before, but it was not so obvious.

If you feel very uncomfortable and a little nervous, relax. Treat this as a holiday. Enjoy a peaceful state of mind. You will get through it well.

I am an enthusiastic answerer and listening teacher at Yixinli. I am knowledgeable about how to face life and I summarize my experience to help others. I am confident that I can help you.

My dear colleague,

Emotional isolation and hollow hearts are things that used to be less common. When people were materially poor, they couldn't imagine the spiritual distress that is becoming more and more familiar to people nowadays. This situation is not an isolated case, but a product of the times.

Don't worry, landlord. Just go with the flow, adjust yourself, and do your best.

Emotional isolation is when someone protects themselves from strong emotions by turning away from them. It's like our body's natural instinct to protect key areas when it feels an external blow: the head and chest. When emotions are strongly stimulated, they'll choose to escape, shut down, deceive themselves, become numb, and so on, to avoid facing the imagined harm or stimulation.

There are traces of human mental stress or sensitivity. One of them is the love of novelty and the dislike of the old. If the plot of the novel described by the host is just bizarre and the narrative idea has no depth to explore, it will only arouse transient attention at first glance because of its novelty. After that, people will lose interest in reading it again because it's just too tedious. After being immersed in a similar atmosphere for a long time and knowing the ending from the beginning, people will lose interest in similar novels. This may partly explain why the host said that he is not interested in reading the novel again. There are a lot of poorly written novels on the market, which is why high-quality works are passed down. In-depth reading can make readers discover something new every time, which is the essence of a classic.

When it comes to creativity, there are a few other things to consider. In general, creativity comes from perception and is all about accumulation. So, the author's amazing writing, which flows like clouds and water, is the writing of the mind, the perception of life, and the sharing of ideas.

If you can't feel it, the work is missing something. If you can't express it in words, it's just a private collection. Writing isn't about tearing yourself apart or sharing criticism. It's about the author's perception and understanding. When the author is dull or lost, the work suffers.

To be lost is to drift along with the flow without really thinking about it. To drift with self-awareness is to take your time and seize the opportunity when it arises. The difference is whether the reader can relate to the story. If you're hooked on a book and can't put it down, you're just a bookworm. If you can enter and exit a book as you please and use it for your own purposes, you're truly reading.