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View Full Version : Can depression make you feel incapable of love?



mollyfin
15-07-12, 09:43
I'm going through a severe depression coupled with OCD - right now the obsessive thoughts center around my relationship - and I just feel completely numb to all good emotions. Worst/most distressing, I can't feel the love I KNOW I have for my girlfriend. Can depression cause this? This change literally happened in a few hours; I went from feeling completely in love with her, as usual, to having a massive panic attack over the idea that I didn't love her (even though I didn't have any reason to think that; she put the idea in my head accidentally), and from then on I've been totally numb. Don't feel anything. Everything I usually enjoy, I feel nothing. Is this depression? I don't want to be falling out of love with her, and I don't think I am, because it seems like it just can't happen in a few hours...but why can't I feel anything? I feel so guilty and anxious and miserable.

JonoClouds
15-07-12, 18:07
To Mollyfin.
Yes. depression can do this. It happened to me, and my thoughts were identical.
"I feel nothing" is what I thought. This loss is a terrible one, you can see for example that someone or something is beautiful, but you feel absolutely nothing. You know that you should feel pleasure or love, but it simply does not happen. I loved my sons, but then when I became depressed I was completely hollow. No feelings for them. The same for my wife. I looked at her and she was just a woman, no love for her, no sympathy, it all just disappeared.
But please do not despair. After therapy and medication, my feelings have begun to return. They happen slowly. It can take days to realise that I have some pleasure in a situation or person. I was without feelings, a hollow shell. Now some of it is coming back. I do hope that you experience the same recovery, and that it does not take too long for you. Jono.