Would you prefer to be...

  • An emotionally flattened person

  • A highly sensitive person who feels mostly negative emotions

  • Very unsure


Results are only viewable after voting.
Alex Fermentopathy

Alex Fermentopathy

Experienced
Feb 25, 2024
240
I have an opinion on it but planning to disclose it later in order not to influence votes and posts.
 
Actovania

Actovania

the same
Mar 30, 2023
58
I am already undoubtedly the second one and it's not a good thing to live with. if i could just live a basic cookie-cutter life with nothing, it would at least be better than what i feel in life as a person right now
 
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C

ConfusedClouds

Specialist
Mar 9, 2024
331
I seem to swing between both. The intense emotion state can feel reassuring as if there is actual 'reason' behind not feeling right and/or attention seeking. But I'm much more day-to-day functional when numb, as long as noone tries asking any meaningful/deeper questions or tries asking me to 'open up' when I have nothing!
 
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Dr Iron Arc

Dr Iron Arc

Into the Unknown
Feb 10, 2020
21,154
What do you mean by an emotionally-flattened person? Like someone who feels nothing at all to most things? I feel like I've become someone like that plenty of times as a direct consequence of being a negatively emotionally sensitive type almost all the time. It's more of a cycle to me and not a question of being one or the other.
 
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Spreadingmywings

Spreadingmywings

Experienced
May 22, 2019
258
Both occur in me already tbh tbqh ngl
 
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Alex Fermentopathy

Alex Fermentopathy

Experienced
Feb 25, 2024
240
What do you mean by an emotionally-flattened person?
Emotional blunting is the inability to experience both positive and negative emotions fully and may involve feelings of detachment.

I had it sometimes as a kid and some time later, and before I knew the term I called it in my mind "an illusion of boring existence" or something like that (in another language).

By the way: Scientists have worked out why common anti-depressants cause around a half of users to feel emotionally 'blunted'.
 
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F

Forever Sleep

Earned it we have...
May 4, 2022
9,822
I'm already a fairly sensitive person who feels a lot of negative emotions but, I don't think feeling flattened out like a zombie would help me. I think antidepressants tend to do that to people. Don't you also lose joy then? And the few positive emotions left? I don't see the point in living like a robot.

Maybe if you were flat from the start, it would be ok. Then, there wouldn't be anything to miss but I think I'd miss my emotions. Even the negative ones. Sometimes, it's a relief to have a good, solid cry.
 
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sserafim

sserafim

brighter than the sun, that’s just me
Sep 13, 2023
9,013
Emotionally flattened
 
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Alex Fermentopathy

Alex Fermentopathy

Experienced
Feb 25, 2024
240
I think antidepressants tend to do that to people
Yes, scientists discovered that, as I wrote recently in this thread.

Don't you also lose joy then? And the few positive emotions left? I don't see the point in living like a robot.
I think it is better to be emotionally-flattened so it should be easier to CTB and not to fall into an impulsive attempt.
 
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Red Moon

Red Moon

Warlock
Sep 21, 2022
722
I'm becoming emotionally flattened anyway but that's because of life.
 
N

NonameNobody

Member
Feb 2, 2023
11
I've experienced both. I'm very sensitive and anxious, but I experienced an exteme numbing effect on an SSRI. Being sensitive is horrible when you are in a bad situation, but the SSRI made me feel like I'm already dead. If I stayed on it longer, I would probably CTB without worry, I didn't care about my family or consequences at all while on it. If one is 100% certain they want to CTB, it's better to be in such a state, makes it way easier. There is no fear, and you already feel dead.
 
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EvisceratedJester

EvisceratedJester

|| What Else Could I Be But a Jester ||
Oct 21, 2023
3,636
I'd prefer to be neither, to be honest. I want to have a healthy deep connection with my emotions, not be an overly sensitive person with mostly negative emotions or emotionally flattened. If I had to choose between the two then I'd be unsure, since both sound like they suck.
 
F

Forveleth

I knew I forgot to do something when I was 15...
Mar 26, 2024
804
I've been a bit sensitive in my life before and it really wasn't fun because almost everything that happened upset me whether it was good or bad. When I was on venlafaxine a few years ago though, it definitely emotionally blunted me, and that was amazing. I felt great all the time because I stopped caring about anything and everything. I Tanked my physical health and didn't care. I spent my money willy-nilly on whatever I felt like buying. I made hurtful choices in my relationships. I had no sense of self-preservation. It was like all the responsibility that I had put on myself for years just came off and it was unbelievably amazing. I really miss it.
 
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ijustwishtodie

ijustwishtodie

death will be my ultimate bliss
Oct 29, 2023
5,168
Emotionally flattened for sure. I hate being highly sensitive. I tend to alternate between feeling emotionally flattened and being highly sensitive... the latter sucks significantly more than the former for me
 
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eatantz

eatantz

I luv dolls
Nov 4, 2023
560
I wish i had no emotions at all, just neutral. I'm too sensitive and its ruined my life, happiness is impossible to achieve when I'm crying over every minor inconvenience
 
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fleshgarden

fleshgarden

Student
Mar 15, 2023
131
I've experienced both. I used to be very sensitive and had breakdowns and cried hours over small things everyday (ex. feeling rejected by someone not liking a song I showed them) and once I was interested in psychology and learned to deal with those emotions I just felt dissociated and numb. now I switch between both states interchangeably. both are awful, but I guess when I'm more sensitive I feel justified in my pain
 
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Alexei_Kirillov

Alexei_Kirillov

Waiting for my next window of opportunity
Mar 9, 2024
1,027
I'm also someone who has experienced both, and I would choose highly sensitive in this forced choice hypothetical scenario. My reasoning is that it's a lot easier to just keep on keepin' on under the status quo when you're emotionally flattened. You don't care enough to make any changes in your life, whether that be CTB or some kind of improvement. So everything just stays the same, and time passes without you even realizing it. Meanwhile if you're highly sensitive and feeling overwhelming negative emotion, at least in my past experience, it can motivate you to do something to get yourself out of that position, including CTB. SI is easier to overcome when there's another force of equal strength pushing against it (ie. negative emotion). IMO it's harder to go through with when you're just totally numb, apathetic, and hollowed out, because it makes no difference to you whether you continue on to tomorrow or CTB now.
 
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EvisceratedJester

EvisceratedJester

|| What Else Could I Be But a Jester ||
Oct 21, 2023
3,636
As anti humanist I disagree with any assumption about us.
I don't know what that means, I'm just saying that from a biological perspective we are animals. That is the taxonomic kingdom we are a part of.
 
EvisceratedJester

EvisceratedJester

|| What Else Could I Be But a Jester ||
Oct 21, 2023
3,636
I reject that
Okay then, that doesn't mean anything. It's basic biology at the end of the day, not some philosophical shit or whatever. Taxonomic categorization is the grouping of different organisms based on shared traits and relatedness. It's a reflection of evolutionary relationships and has nothing to do with philosophy...


So, objectively, we are animals.
 
A

Ah.ow

scared person
Mar 12, 2024
150
is this like, not feel and harm others, vs feel and get harmed by others?

though, not feeling is something hard to conceptualize, because people who are cruel are feeling, they don't fool me with their trying to seem calm
 
Havnis

Havnis

XXXX'ed out 🌲🌲🌲🌲
May 15, 2024
167
Okay then, that doesn't mean anything. It's basic biology at the end of the day, not some philosophical shit or whatever. Taxonomic categorization is the grouping of different organisms based on shared traits and relatedness. It's a reflection of evolutionary relationships and has nothing to do with philosophy...


So, objectively, we are animals.
Nah, best discribtion of us now is cyborgs, we are literally integrated with technology we can't live without it, the idea of anti humanism of reject the static definition of humanity is plausibly valid, we are changing. Read " cyborg manifesto" by Donna Haraway
 
EvisceratedJester

EvisceratedJester

|| What Else Could I Be But a Jester ||
Oct 21, 2023
3,636
Nah, best discribtion of us now is cyborgs, we are literally integrated with technology we can't live without it, the idea of anti humanism of reject the static definition of humanity is plausibly valid, we are changing. Read " cyborg manifesto" by Donna Haraway
What? Whatever dude.
 
HighFlight

HighFlight

Global Mod
Jun 28, 2023
655
I reject that
Discussion and disagreement is good, but please make sure you're contributing positively to the thread. Comments like these are just baiting other members.
 
crystal_meth97

crystal_meth97

Nie mam zamiaru się poddać
May 1, 2024
155
As a person with BPD, I already feel emotions, both good and bad, very intensely and it can be beautiful, as weird as that may sound. I would never choose to be emotionally flattened, life would seem really meaningless and dull and even less worth living. I'd rather feel negative things intensely, at least I could feel something and as twisted as that may sounds, sometimes feeling even negative things intensely makes me feel alive and human. Can it make me suicidal and exhaust me? Sure. But it still keeps me going.
 
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enough of this

enough of this

Specialist
Jun 4, 2023
378
The latter. At least I have something to work with, and some direction to go from there.
 

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