Shutdown

Shutdown & Emotional Numbness — When You Can’t Feel Anything Anymore

You’re not freaking out. You’re not lashing out.
But you’re also not really there.

Shutdown can look like silence, numbness, dissociation, or going through the motions.
At ShiftGrit, we don’t mistake that for calm.
We see it for what it is — a freeze response, triggered by a deeper belief that it’s not safe to engage.

🧩 Pattern Summary:

• Name: Shutdown & Emotional Numbness

• What It Feels Like: Emotional flatness, fog, detachment, no reaction

• What’s Really Happening: Your threat brain is doing its job — protecting you by disconnecting. This is a learned survival pattern, not a personality trait.

• Therapy Focus: We help you identify the trigger that cues the freeze, then recondition the belief beneath it so that re-engagement becomes possible (and safe).

🧠 How ShiftGrit Treats This:

1. Name the shutdown cues: When do you start to numb or check out?

2. Surface the core belief: “I’ll be rejected,” “I’ll lose control,” “I’m not safe”

3. Use imaginal exposure to retrain the nervous system’s freeze reflex

4. Rebuild trust in re-engagement through real-world re-patterning

📍 Related Patterns:

• Emotional Dysregulation

• Executive Dysfunction

• Threat Brain Activation