Depression and emotional numbness are often confused because both involve a diminished emotional life. The distinction is in the quality of the experience. Depression typically includes painful emotions: sadness, guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness. Emotional numbness is characterized by the absence of emotion. A depressed person is suffering. A numb person is not feeling enough to suffer, which produces its own kind of distress: the awareness that something fundamental is missing. The two conditions can coexist, and they sometimes do, but they are not the same thing and they do not always require the same therapeutic approach.
Dr. David Steinbok helps patients in Boca Raton distinguish between these experiences and understand what each requires. A feeling emotionally numb therapist does not assume that numbness is depression or treat it with the same framework. The psychodynamic approach is tailored to the specific contours of each patient's emotional shutdown.
