Numbness is such a strange state. When I receive praise from others, I feel nothing. The death of a dog or even a person stirs no emotion within me. Being abandoned doesn’t affect me. Laughing, crying, feeling excitement… these all seem like false reactions to me. The only thing I truly feel is a constant, unyielding anger—an anger directed at myself and the world. And then, there’s the peace I experience when I find someone who can quell that anger, followed by the unease I feel when that person isn’t around.
It’s painful to know that my emotions are limited to this, but I was born this way. Even in my earliest memories, I recall giving people the reactions they expected from me, even though, in most cases, I would’ve remained indifferent. No fear, no joy, no sorrow, no excitement. The emotions I pretend to have, just so the people around me won’t think I’m less than human, simply don’t exist.
Every day, I wake up wishing I could feel those things, praying for the ability to experience them. Maybe that’s why I sleep so much—because this emptiness and numbness inside me feel as though they will never end. I often ask myself, What is this?