As it is with any medication, antidepressants can have side effects, including the possibility of what is termed “emotional blunting.” According to studies, nearly half of people taking antidepressants at some point experience emotional blunting from antidepressants.
Emotional blunting is a commonly reported side effect of taking antidepressants for depression and other mental health issues. It affects 46% of people taking antidepressants for depression. That's according to a three-country survey by the University of Oxford.
Patients on SSRI antidepressants feel numb because the drug reduces reinforcement sensitivity, that is, our sensitivity to positive feedback, which you can also call rewards or pleasure.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), commonly used to treat depression, are associated with loss of motivation, anergy, and lack of curiosity often referred collectively as apathy.
About half of users who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) report a sense of emotional blunting, a psychic flatness that limits their emotional range, particularly their ability to experience positive feelings like pleasure and joy.
Emotional blunting can be temporary, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours at a time. It can also occur over the long term, from months to years. It all depends on the underlying cause. Experiencing emotional blunting may affect your relationships and how you feel about yourself and the world.
Derealisation refers to a similar set of feelings and perceptions, but in this case it is the world itself that seems strange or unreal; everything may seem far away or staged in some way – as though life is being watched rather than lived. Depersonalisation and derealisation are relatively common on antidepressants.
When it comes to antidepressants, the types of “personality” changes are actually side effects of the medication - like agitation, irritability, an increase in anxiety, an increase in extroversion, and more.
The Evidence for Personality Changes
Study authors suggested that the SSRI may have altered two key personality traits linked to depression—neuroticism and extroversion—independently of their effect on depression symptoms.
A common side-effect among anti-depressants users is feeling emotionally numb or experiencing emotional blunting. Their hobbies are no longer fun. And their sex life is not as pleasurable as it used to. Researchers estimate that between 40% to 60% of people who take antidepressants experience this side effect.
Antidepressants were lauded back in the 80s as the miracle cure for major depression, but as more and more clinical trials are revealing, as many as 50% of the patients who were prescribed antidepressants did not experience a successful result—on antidepressants but still depressed.
Emotional blunting—inability to feel positive or negative emotions, detachment, or reduced emotional responsiveness—is common in people with depression. However, there is a paucity of studies comprehensively investigating this symptom and its functional impact.
Antidepressants help balance chemicals in the brain. Antidepressants are not addictive or habit forming. Many people find their sleep and appetite improve first, while their mood, energy, and negative thinking take a few more weeks to get better.
Antidepressants help by adjusting the neurochemical signaling in the brain. This change helps to reduce depression, but since these same brain chemicals are related to other mental health conditions, people could find themselves feeling more stress, more anxiety, and more panic from the antidepressant.
Your Mood or Energy Improve Too Much
If you're taking antidepressant medication and you either feel unusually elated, or you become very terse with your loved ones, feel noticeably more irritable, or have an uncharacteristic bout of rage, then it's likely that your antidepressant dose is too high.
Passing feelings of depersonalization or derealization are common and aren't necessarily a cause for concern. But ongoing or severe feelings of detachment and distortion of your surroundings can be a sign of depersonalization-derealization disorder or another physical or mental health disorder.
Psychotic depression is a condition in which a person with depression is also experiencing a detachment from reality, known as psychosis. The disorder is sometimes also referred to as “major depression with psychotic features,” according to MedlinePlus.
Someone with a blunted affect displays little feeling in emotional contexts. For example, a person recalling their father's death might simply recount the factual details of the death. The person might not share much information about how they felt. They may show little facial expression or speak in a monotone voice.
Antidepressant drugs, already known to cause sexual side effects, may also suppress the basic human emotions of love and romance. That SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — the most common type of antidepressant — cause sexual dysfunction is common knowledge.
On antidepressant medication, it is possible that you might experience a sense of feeling numb and less like yourself. Though the symptoms of depression have decreased, there may be a sense that other emotional responses – laughing or crying, for example – are more difficult to experience.