10 Signs You Feel Empty Inside
If you feel empty inside, it can be difficult to describe. Some people call it apathy, when they feel nothing at all. Feeling flat or numb can be unsettling if you suddenly have a realization about this emptiness.Like any other emotion, people experience empty feelings differently. Depending on the cause, you may have different signs and symptoms each time. If you are unsure of what you are feeling, below are 10 signs and descriptions of inner emptiness.
1. You Just Feel Empty – No Emotions, Whether Good or Bad
Emptiness is the absence of anything at all. If you reach a state of feeling totally empty, you may describe it as feeling totally emotionless. This means there are neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling – it’s as if they is no feeling. Many describe as feeling like they’re numb.
Feeling absent of emotions can be unsettling – especially if you are used to feeling something, even if those feeling are low key. If you don’t feel anything, whether it is anger, frustration, resentment, satisfaction, happiness, or jealousy, can be a sign fact that you may be struggling with emptiness.
2. Lost Interest in Activities and Hobbies
Emptiness can manifest itself into abandoning hobbies and activities you normally really love. For example, if you suddenly lose interest in going for your daily run, and that daily run is something you typically look forward to and never miss, it may be a sign that emptiness is encroaching upon your life.
Sometimes life gets in the way of being able to engage in the activities you love. For example, on a particularly busy week, you may not have time to squeeze in your usual afternoon run – this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re experiencing emptiness.
You may feel weird that your run didn’t fit into your schedule like it normally would, but the desire to go do it is still there. That is the key to determining whether your interest has waned or not – whether or not your desire to participate in the hobby or activity is there or not.
3. Crave Emotional Attention
When you feel empty inside it’s natural that you may crave emotional connection. But there is a danger if one is vulnerable. Emptiness can cause some people to reach out to others for emotional support – and some of those methods of reaching out aren’t always very healthy.
For example, someone experiencing emptiness may respond to people’s requests for them to go “above and beyond” in their mission to help them, even though the people’s requests may be asking far too much. A person experiencing emptiness might allow themselves to be taken advantage of and emotionally abused for the sake of feeling something again.
4. Change in Important Relationships
When you feel empty inside it often has an impact on important relationships. This may be a spouse, child, partner or best friend. Those around sense that there is something wrong and they often are not sure what to do or say. And without some kind of explanation they may take it personally, and think they are the cause.
When you have nothing inside it can cause interacting with a loved one difficult. When deep down you can’t always describe the you likely struggle to interact with these feeling of emptiness. Maintaining relationships require effort to maintain, foster, and grow them.
Trying to describe your feeling can help them to help you. Even if you can’t say how you feel, try writing them down or showing them articles such as this one. Risk being vulnerable and sharing so the other person understand what is going on and it is not them that is causing your pain and emptiness.
5. Feeling Burned Out
Whether you’ve been at your current workplace or in your current career field for a few months or decades, you can experience burnout. Burnout is a form of extreme fatigue and exhaustion caused by extreme, excessive demands from a workplace.
If your job is beginning to infringe on your personal life, demand too much from you, and make you feel unappreciated, it may be a sign of burnout. You may feel literally “too tired to care.” This will leave you feeling drained and empty. If you notice yourself losing interest in a career or job that once excited you, your burnout may be a sign that you’re feeling empty inside.
6. Sense of Boredom or Fidgety
Whether it’s about your workplace, activities you normally enjoy, friends you love to see, or any other aspect a sense of emptiness can cause you to lose all interest in anything.
You may find your interest waning in different activities gradually, and eventually you may notice that you aren’t doing much more than sitting around or lying in bed unless you absolutely have to get up and participate in life.
7. Feeling Empty Inside Forget What Has Meaning
Did you love to run? Enjoy going to the park with your dog and chat to other pet parents? Were you involved in your local community? If activities and groups that once had meaning for you have lost their appeal, this may be a sign your experiencing inner emptiness.
8. Lack of Motivation to Socialize
If the idea of joining in social activities like going out with friends or seeing a movie with your family sounds exhausting, you may be experiencing emptiness. When you experience that profound sense of feeling empty inside, it’s tough to feel interested in socializing with anyone.
9. Just Don’t Care
If you notice yourself losing the urge to “fight” for a cause that once mattered deeply to you, itspossible you are feeling empty inside. For example, if you once enjoyed volunteering at the animal shelter or visiting a local senior center weekly, and you no longer see the point in what originally attracted you to those activities, there is a good chance you may be experiencing emptiness.
10. Things Don’t Seem as Urgent or Important Anymore
Many people keep a close watch on scheduling dental appointments, remembering loved ones’ birthdays, and other events on their schedules. However, when you start noticing that you’re letting these routine events slip by without bothering or concerning you, you could be experiencing serious emptiness.
