I get this severely, it is not constant but it usually last for 3-7 days at a time. It is the toughest symptom for me to deal with. Avolition also accompanies this with it. then i isolate myself because i feel bad that i cannot express myself cuz i am constricted.
Wikipedia
Clinical diagnoses with symptom of blunted affect[edit]
Schizophrenia[edit]
Patients with schizophrenia have long been recognized as showing “flat or inappropriate affect, with splitting of feelings from events … feelings seem flat instead of being in contact with what is going on”.[7] One study of flat affect in schizophrenia found that “flat affect was more common in men, and was associated with worse current quality of life” as well as having “an adverse effect on course of illness”.[8]
The study also reported a “dissociation between reported experience of emotion and its display”[8] – supporting the suggestion made elsewhere that “blunted affect, including flattened facial expressiveness and lack of vocal inflection … often disguises an individual’s true feelings.”[9] Thus, feelings may merely be unexpressed, rather than totally lacking. On the other hand, “a lack of emotions which is due not to mere repression but to a real loss of contact with the objective world gives the observer a specific impression of ‘queerness’ … the remainders of emotions or the substitutes for emotions usually refer to rage and aggressiveness”.[10] In the most extreme cases, there is a complete “dissociation from affective states” on the part of the patient: “not only has he hacked his intellect away from his feelings, but he has smashed his feelings and his capacity for judgment into smithereens”.[11]
Another study found that when speaking, schizophrenic individuals with flat affect demonstrate less inflection than normal controls and appear to be less fluent. Normal subjects appear to express themselves using more complex syntax, whereas flat affect subjects speak with fewer words, and fewer words per sentence. Flat affect individuals’ use of context-appropriate words in both sad and happy narratives are similar to that of controls. It is very likely that flat affect is a result of deficits in motor expression as opposed to emotional processing. The moods of display are compromised, but subjective, autonomic, and contextual aspects of emotion are left intact.[12]
For me I still feel but my expressiveness is completely gone, facial expressions are minimal and my voice is restricted . Kinda like someone put a lid on me
But I also have days where those symptoms are totally gone and I feel “normal”
There seems to be no reason for whether the symptoms are there or not they just happen
I end up feeling covered in wax. It’s odd because what you mentioned @anon31257746- is sort of my second stage in decent. I can still feel but I can’t express.
My stage one is a deep energy sucking apathy. I just don’t care enough to do anything about anything. That is not me. I’m pretty optimistic and active so when I get irritated and apathetic I know something is coming… I just feel turned off.
My worst is when I don’t feel anything much at all. There was some time that I was as emotive and mobile as a piece of furniture. I was completely shut down in a negative swing.
It bites to feel like this. But I’m glad your getting some good days mixed in and your not feeling this flattened all the time. I’m just pulling out of a deep apathy and Wow does it feel so much better.
I had a lot of ‘flatness’ or blunting when I was on a moderate to high dose of Abilify. Sometimes the flat affect is caused by meds. When I was on a high dose of Depakote, a mood stabilizer, I had some blunting as well
I am plagued by flat affect. When I talk I go rigid and start talking in a monotone, and people start yawning. I got it bad. It’s not as demoralizing now as it has been in the past, but it is still frustrating. I do have emotions - strong ones, but I can’t express them.
in the past i’ve tended toward the “inappropriate” affect, but the last couple of years it does seem to have gone just flat. i can’t say that i have very strong emotions otherwise though. i used to. it seems i have nothing at times now though. just nothing. i’m not especially distressed by it, but others around me are.