Uncomfortably numb
Pink Floyd wrote, ‘I'll need some information first, Just the basic facts. Can you show me where it hurts?’ The song describes Waters’ experience with hepatitis and the resulting numbing he received via tranquillisers. (Burditt, 2022)
It’s an interesting idea to be numbed from the pain. Pain is useful information that can keep us safe from even more damaging experiences or warn us of the need to stop and seek care and assistance. But we’d rather not feel intense pain right?
In the therapeutic sense, the lyrics above describe a process whereupon on discovering someone is numb or numbing, there needs to be an understanding of the missing information and facts. Where does it hurt? And what was the pain that caused the need to numb?
People numb for all kinds of reasons: to defend from the pain of emotional trauma, to avoid a depressive lack of interest or pleasure in activities they once enjoyed. After experiencing chronic anxiety they may desensitise emotions. A person may become dissociated because they disconnected from emotions to avoid being overwhelmed. Grief, medication, personality disorders, self-preservation; there are a myriad of reasons why someone would switch off - they are preserving themselves for the future by putting themselves on hold. Emergency action, finding a way to survive…
The difficulty is where that numbing stretches out over time. We do need to feel things, joy, anger, sadness…
Of course defences are there for good reason so they must be respected and treated gently. If a person can gently become aware of the defence (they may only be aware of the resulting behaviour not the painful reason behind it) then a process of healing can begin. A phenomenological approach may also help to understand how they experienced the moment they numbed from in the first place. It may even seem less significant as an adult but it is important to recognise we didn’t experience things the same way back then! What was it like then?
Person-centred therapy allows space to talk through those experiences with empathy, and without judgement. Well done for finding a way to survive.
Burditt, 2022, https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-of-pink-floyds-comfortably-numb-song-lyrics/
