Has anyone’s relationship with a BPD blunted your emotions?

[mssalty]

I find it difficult to cry, even when I feel like it might do me some good.  I feel like I can’t have many honest emotions anymore. 

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[Mutt]

I went through a period like that.

After spending so much time dealing with someone else’s emotions, I realized I had turned down my own. Not that I was trying to, it just seemed like the safe thing to do. It’s like my system was in containment mode.

It wasn’t a lack of feeling. It’s like I didn’t trust that it was safe to let go.

Do you find this is something that happens mostly within the relationship, or is it something that happens elsewhere as well?

[SuperDaddy]

Yes, over time the tendency is to toughen up and try to develop a "thick skin," and that's done by suppressing our emotions. In the long term this does not help, but in the short term we are tricked into thinking it does.

However, over time, the holding up of your emotions may make you have a hard time expressing them. Another effect is that the stress may make you feel anhedonia. This happened to me, and I recovered with bottled nutrients that help with stress and can undo the low testosterone problem that happens with men.