Lesson 609: Anti-anxiety medications, painkillers, and emotional numbness
Duration:75 minutes
Topic Introduction (Overview):
Many clients say, "I feel less pain, but I can't feel happy either." After long-term use of anti-anxiety medications, sleeping pills, or painkillers, the brain, in a self-protective mechanism, often lowers overall emotional sensitivity. This not only reduces anxiety and pain but also diminishes joy, curiosity, and emotion. This course will not simply criticize medication use, nor encourage you to stop taking it on your own. Instead, it will guide you to understand how medication puts the nervous system into a "semi-closed" defense mode, and why you become increasingly accustomed to using numbness to resist unbearable emotions. You will learn to recognize the signs of emotional numbness and distinguish between "temporarily needing medication to support yourself" and "over-reliance." Through body awareness exercises, drawing, and journaling, we will gradually help you regain the perception of subtle pleasures, practicing within safe limits the transition from complete numbness to a manageable emotional state with subtle fluctuations.
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▲ AI Interaction: Identifying the "Feeling of Weakening"“
Please describe your recent experiences to the AI:
① What anti-anxiety medications, painkillers, sleeping pills, or sedatives are you currently using or have used in the past? (It's okay if you don't know the name; you can just write the function.)
② What is the state you feel most often: feeling completely weak, empty-minded, not wanting to think about anything, as if "it's none of my business";
③ In which moments do you know that something is worth being happy or sad about, but you only have a faint reaction?
AI will assist you:
① Here are some clues about "emotional numbness" that may be related to medication;
② Identify which parts may be related to long-term stress or traumatic experiences;
③ Use concise sentences to help you form a description that you can use to communicate with your doctor, rather than simply saying "it's just very strange".
○ Let your senses slowly awaken - Music guidance
Choose an instrumental piece with a clear structure and a relatively slow tempo. Ideally, the music should have distinct layers, such as a bass line and a melody in the high notes.
Close your eyes and don't rush to "feel" anything; just follow along in your mind: when the low notes come, focus your attention on your abdomen and chest, and feel the weight there; when the high notes come, focus your attention on your eyes and forehead, and feel the slight lifting there.
If you can't feel anything, that's okay. Just silently tell yourself, "I'm giving my senses some time." The goal of this music exercise is not to become sensitive immediately, but to practice maintaining a gentle observational stance even in numbness.
Aromatherapy Drink: Lavender Herb Warm Milk Drink
Recommended reasons:Lavender and vanilla are often used to help relax and soothe tension, but they don't bring a knockout drowsiness; instead, they provide a gentle, slow sense of calm. For those who rely on strong sedatives, this mild drink is an exercise: allowing the body to experience a tolerable state that is "neither completely shut down nor fully awake," but somewhere in between.
practice:Add a glass of warm milk or plant-based milk, a pinch of lavender, a vanilla pod, or vanilla powder. Slightly heat and let stand for 3–5 minutes before slowly drinking. This is suitable as a "pre-sleep" signal from the body before going to sleep or on a night when you want to reduce your need for sleeping pills, but it cannot replace any prescription medication.
○ French Natural Diet: Vegetable and Root Soup with Whole Wheat Bread
In the French naturopathic diet, warm root vegetable soups are considered "grounding" foods: carrots, celery root, potatoes, or parsnips, simmered with a little olive oil and herbs, provide a stable and substantial feeling of fullness from within. This type of diet releases energy slowly, reducing mood swings caused by drastic fluctuations in blood sugar.
For those who habitually rely on medication to "cut off sensation," a bowl of slow-cooked root and tuber soup paired with a slice of whole-wheat bread is a way to practice a different kind of security: not by instantly covering up the pain, but by allowing the body to slowly remember, in a steady, bite-by-bite rhythm, "I am still alive, I can still be enveloped in warmth." It is not treatment, but a basic form of care that complements the body and mind's healing process.
○ Chinese Calligraphy (Seal Script) · “Retaining a sliver of awareness amidst numbness”
Practice sentences:
Retain a sliver of awareness amidst numbness.
Key points to note:
- The lines of seal script should be rounded and continuous, so that each stroke is like a slow, unhurried breath, symbolizing the transition from "cutting off the senses" to "feeling the subtle sensations".
- “The structure of the two characters ”麻木” is appropriately tightened to express the current defensive state; however, the strokes should not be too stiff, leaving a little fluidity, implying that there is still a possibility of change.
- “The word "丝" (sī) can be written in a slightly finer or longer way, like a ray of light that continues to exist against a dark background.
- “The emphasis on the word "awareness" is slightly raised to remind myself that even if I cannot feel intensely right now, being aware that "I am numb" is an important step in itself.
Mental Healing: Mental Mandala Meditation Text 13
Imagine a mandala gently veiled in mist: the colors are still there, only obscured by a thin veil. Don't rush to lift it; simply observe the greyish-white mist. A mandala isn't about painting anything, but about observation—observing how you once used mist to protect your heart from stings, observing how the obscured patches of color still shimmer faintly. You don't need to force the colors to be vibrant immediately; simply, within the mist, acknowledge, "There was color here, and I allow it to slowly reveal itself." In each contemplation, you reserve a tender space for your numb self.
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Lesson 609: Drawing Guidance Suggestions for the "Diminished Emotional Spectrum"
Purpose:Transform the state of "feeling like you can't feel anything" into a visual emotional spectrum to help you see that numbness is not a blank, but rather a collection of suppressed colors.
step:
① Draw a long horizontal strip on a piece of paper and divide it into several small squares from left to right. Each square represents an emotion: anger, sadness, fear, joy, curiosity, anticipation, etc.
② Try filling each square with color, but don't fill it completely: you can use a very light color, just enough to indicate "this feeling once existed here".
③ If you feel that certain emotions do not exist at all, you can draw a very thin line on the edge of the grid to acknowledge that "maybe it existed, but was suppressed."
④ In one corner of the picture, draw a small eye or a sitting figure to represent "the person watching".
⑤ Write a sentence below:“I don’t force myself to feel it immediately; I’m just acknowledging that the colors are still there, just darkened.”
Please log in before submitting your drawings and feelings.
○ 609. Log Guidance
① Looking back over the past period, in which situations did I most often say "Never mind", "I don't feel anything", or "It's all the same"? Please write down 2-3 specific instances.
② At these moments, am I following medication, experiencing increased pain, or having just gone through a major stressful event? Please briefly indicate the time and context.
③ If we understand this "lack of feeling" as a form of protection rather than failure, then what is it protecting me from feeling?
④ Today, am I willing to try to reserve a little more time for self-awareness, such as asking myself one more time, "Do I really feel nothing right now?"
⑤ Write a sentence:I allow myself to slowly awaken from numbness, rather than being forced to become sensitive immediately.
Please log in to use.
When you understand the emotional numbness mechanism behind anti-anxiety drugs and painkillers, numbness is no longer just "Why am I so bad?", but can become a letter from the body: reminding you to find a bearable balance between protection and feeling.
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