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Transcript

Why Is It So Easy To Feel Numb? · The imuRgency Room

• 0:00
  Being Chalant is out, being numb is in.
• 0:02
  Take that beta blocker girl. Hey guys, it's up to emergency
• 0:06
  and welcome. Welcome back to my channel.
• 0:07
  And something that has been taking a hold of the Internet
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  recently is this almost push for numbness.
• 0:13
  And when I say numbness, I'm talking specifically about
• 0:16
  emotional numbness here. And yes, numbness, maybe not be
• 0:19
  physically numb all the time, but definitely this emotional
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  numbness and almost a numb affect, whether it's a trendy
• 0:26
  look with a dissociating pout to being nonchalant to normalize
• 0:29
  beta locker usage, which to be clear, isn't that big of a deal
• 0:32
  because it helps with anxiety, but it has become a large part
• 0:34
  of this conversation. It just seems that there's this
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  almost chic aestheticization and coolness to being them, to being
• 0:40
  unfeeling and to ultimately winning the I don't give war.
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  Because truly, in today's day age and climate, who does want
• 0:47
  to give a gaffe? There is too much to actually
• 0:49
  give a gaffe about. And all of this is seemingly a
• 0:51
  response to how generally overwhelming the world is,
• 0:53
  almost like a drummer response. And the reason why I wanted to
• 0:56
  make this video is because I feel like it is so interesting
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  that we've seen this stark shift in just general affect of what's
• 1:02
  considered to be cool. Where things used to be super
• 1:04
  vibrant and expressive, doubling down on things like yearning,
• 1:07
  heartbreak, and generally joy, which are all very intense
• 1:12
  emotions. We see it in our music, We'd see
• 1:14
  it in our media all the time. It just seems like now the
• 1:16
  pendulum has shifted the other way, where now it seems cool to
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  not care and almost dive further into the can't be bothered
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  aesthetic, falling deeper and deeper into stoicism and
• 1:24
  indifference. Like I'm thinking about it grows
• 1:25
  in the moment like Rachel Sennett, who I personally love
• 1:27
  but has gone viral on social media for saying like that.
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  Just take your beta blocker girl.
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  And just generally seeming very chill and detached from whatever
• 1:33
  situation she's in. And as we'll get into later in
• 1:35
  this video, this goes deeper than just celebrity.
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  It goes into different aesthetics.
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  It goes into how we approach life.
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  And this does go a lot deeper than you may think.
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  The concept of not caring or being nonchalant took a vice
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  grip hold over the Internet a few months ago.
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  Well, actually longer than a few months ago, I'd say for the past
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  couple of years, but definitely spiked a few months ago with
• 1:58
  people talking about the rise of nonchalance or not caring,
• 2:00
  usually in relation to friendships or dating.
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  But like I was saying, this was a general behavioral shift that
• 2:05
  completely swung the pendulum over from our forefather
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  millennials that seemed to care deeply about everything.
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  Like the term millennial optimism was a thing for a
• 2:13
  reason. And now that we as Gen.
• 2:15
  Z are the new adults, it's interesting to see how things
• 2:18
  have changed because unfortunately, everything is
• 2:20
  that deep. And is that serious?
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  Like, yes, yes. And especially now I know
• 2:26
  everything feels super tinfoil hatty, but like, who does it
• 2:30
  benefit if the younger generation doesn't care and is
• 2:32
  generally unfeeling? I'm gonna let you sit on that
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  one and get back to me because we've talked about this before
• 2:36
  in other videos. And I think this is all so
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  interesting. And so I guess contradictory
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  because for a generation that is just so generally anxious, it's
• 2:43
  so crazy that this is all transformed its way into a mask
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  of like not giving up unless all really bleeds into different
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  aspects of our lives as Gen. Z, as we've talked about ad
• 2:52
  nauseam, It plays into the dating politics.
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  It plays into the friendship politics.
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  It plays in how we're perceived at the workforce and even our
• 2:59
  own personal interests. And all of this isn't to say
• 3:01
  that we don't care, but it almost feels like a lot of us
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  have given up on caring because we just have not seen the
• 3:07
  dividends of anything. Like to be real, why should we
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  care if everything in the world seemingly keeps getting worse or
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  eviler? We're existing in a time of
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  constant oversimulation where there has not been a previous
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  time on this planet in human history.
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  Or people have this much access to real time information all
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  happening simultaneously. And that's a lot, because is the
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  world more evil than it has been in the past?
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  No, not necessarily. But there's never been another
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  point in history where a average human being on the planet is
• 3:36
  able to perceive and know and see all of it happening at once.
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  So it kind of makes sense why numbness as a concept has become
• 3:44
  so popular. And it's not just information.
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  And I feel like that is just one part of it though.
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  Like I feel like there really are like 4 horsemen of like the
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  numbness apocalypse. Like level with beer.
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  Like, I think definitely the news, the world at large, and
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  definitely that damn bone. Because it seems like every day
• 4:03
  there's something new and terrible in the world.
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  From like the Epstein files being solely released with more
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  and more horrific and egregious information to like the Iran
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  that side in Gaza, our rights and regulations being stripped
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  away nearly every single day, and organizations like ICE
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  invading new corners of our everyday lives.
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  Shout out to the TSA video. You should go check that if you
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  haven't already. And it doesn't matter where you
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  go. And I feel like the thing that
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  really sucks about this and the reason why I feel like this
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  sense of numbness is so widespread is because it doesn't
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  really matter where you go domestically, international,
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  actually, wherever you are, the news seems to be always telling
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  us just how terrible the world can be.
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  And it's more often than not America's fault.
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  It's literally no secret that the world's overwhelming.
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  And we now more than ever can see and have access to the
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  world's horrors, from pop culture to random interpersonal
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  incidents recorded on TikTok to just generally politics at
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  large. Like the fact that we get our
• 4:51
  breaking news now from pop crave is absolutely crazy.
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  Shout out pop crave. I love pop crave but like where
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  are we in the world? Like stressful and end of the
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  world. So many news is always just a
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  scroll away and I genuinely understand the want and
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  sometimes need to block out some of this even when it
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  increasingly feels impossible to do so.
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  Like all of these apps are intentionally created to be
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  addictive so even trying to set healthy boundaries with your
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  phone and moderate your online consumption seems to really be a
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  0 sum game. Because a lot of times it kind
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  of feels like a lose lose. Because if you do inform
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  yourself and engage actively in the world, you get yourself
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  mentally burnt out. And if you don't and block
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  things out and dissociate, you become more passive and go with
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  the flow, which makes you easier to manipulate and just kind of
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  go with the flow of whatever is happening at the moment.
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  And based on things that are happening at the moment.
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  These are not things that you necessarily want to be passive
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  about. And when we're talking about the
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  rise of numbness and Gentsy culture, I feel like it is
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  important to talk about the rise of popular medications that are
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  contributing to this. Then I do want to say first and
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  foremost, this is not an attack on medication.
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  I am not above being medicated. Me and all my girls are either
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  medicated right now or trying to get medicated in the future.
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  And I'm not saying the medication is some kind of
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  health bad or some kind of trend either.
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  Like get right with your mental health for sure.
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  And I, I do think that the general swing of like numbness
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  culturally that we've seen with Gen.
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  Z can also be partially contributed to the swing and
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  medication that has become more popular in the general
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  zeitgeist. And for some of it being used
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  not for its original intended use, meaning more specifically
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  to be used to suppress the user's emotions.
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  Now we're talking about the beta blockers, friends, because one
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  thing that I've been seeing mentioned a lot lately is beta
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  blockers. Beta blockers are everywhere.
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  And I think really it got kicked off because of this interview
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  with Rachel Senate. Is your affirmation before you
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  leave the house when you're going to come to a big event
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  like this? Like what?
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  Do you tell yourself? You look in the mirror and you
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  say I look in the mirror and I go take that beta blocker, girl,
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  swallow it down and block in. Numb is in.
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  Numb is in. And if you look into it, you can
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  find a lot of celebrities such as Kristen Bell, Khloe
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  Kardashian, Robert Downey Junior, and Dan Levy mentioned
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  their usage of beta blockers. But like, what is this magical
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  drug that celebrities are using to stave off anxiety while on
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  carpets and for the everyday person, just reducing anxiety?
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  Well, Jane Morgan, MD is a cardiologist that specialized in
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  Women's Health in cardiovascular research and she explained that
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  beta blockers work by blocking the effects of adrenaline, also
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  called epinephrine on the body, specifically on the beta
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  receptors. There are beta one receptors on
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  the heart and beta 2 receptors on the lungs.
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  She says when it comes to the receptors on the heart, when
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  beta blockers blind to these receptors, they're blocking the
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  effects of the adrenaline, slowing the heart rate.
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  It decreases the strength of the contractions of the heart.
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  In doing so, it lowers your blood pressure because it
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  reduces the oxygen demand of the heart.
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  And for my girlies, I didn't pay attention in bio.
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  Epinephrine is the hormone that is just responsible for
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  triggering that fight or flight feeling in the body, which can
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  often manifest as the heart beating faster, sweating and
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  shaking. Beta blockers can help lessen
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  those effects. Mind you, the numbing effects
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  are the off label effects because the FDA has only
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  approved this for treating heart related conditions.
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  And this is not me saying that beta blockers alone make you
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  some kind of numbness final boss because I'm sure to tell people
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  in various ways. I've seen multiple people on
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  TikTok site how it's helped them with presenting in front of
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  large groups at work. It can be seen as almost like a
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  performance enhancer. And again, this is not me
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  shaming, but it's also not me promoting.
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  Because I guess the point that I want to make here with
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  medications that gain traction in the general zeitgeist for its
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  off label effects is why is this the norm?
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  Like why do we need to popularize medication that
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  functions to calm our nerves and suppress our emotions?
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  I mean the answer to that might be obvious.
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  We all suffer from anxiety. Shout out to everybody with
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  social anxiety. I kind of feel sorry for you,
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  but this is a symptom of our larger society at large.
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  Our anxiety or feelings are something to mute and tone down,
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  not to necessarily work with and heal because like who has time
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  for that? Like this is really honestly our
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  for roomy. But as an anxious baddie myself,
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  I'm personally on Lexapro and I feel like one of the aspects of
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  being on this medication is that like is that it definitely calms
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  me down and clears up and quiets a lot of the anxious thoughts
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  that I've historically had all the time.
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  And that's been helpful. But one thing that I've kind of
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  been afraid of that hasn't happened to me personally as
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  much, but from what I've heard from other friends is like the
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  general numbness that comes when you're on Lex Pro or on like the
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  wrong dose of it where you sort of flat line and become that
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  sort of yes, way. You said way.
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  You need $0.50, you can suck on 50 like again, that numbness
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  final boss. And I feel like and I'm not
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  saying that's happening to everybody.
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  I'm not saying that is actually happening to anybody, but the
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  general medication induced decrease of anxiety can
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  definitely be a factor as to why we're seeing so much numbness in
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  Gen. Z right now.
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  Because it wasn't until I started getting on medication
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  myself that I learned exactly how many people are also on
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  medication like it might be Gen. Z's best kept secret because
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  like like I know I was like to the club.
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  I know that all y'all was on it too or something similar.
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  I know that it's super helpful for emotional regulation, and I
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  do think culturally with all this, we can and should choose
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  to live a little bit brighter. But since we're on the topic of
• 9:38
  substances, let's talk about Ozampic.
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  And again, shocker, Rumi, with another disclaimer because
• 9:46
  people love to misconstrue my points.
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  This isn't meant to shade anyone on a Zampy.
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  I believe that if you choose to go on a Zampy and you believe
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  that's the best choice for you, all power to you.
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  Love that. Some of my good judies, my best
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  and brightest judies on that zampy.
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  So who am I to talk? If that is your decision, that's
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  what you want to do, I'm right there with you as long as you're
• 10:02
  safe. With that said, I did want to
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  point out a common side effect that comes with Ozempic use, and
• 10:06
  that is the general loss of pleasure and the loss of joy.
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  Because The thing is, Ozempic doesn't specifically target your
• 10:12
  cravings for food. It targets and blocks your
• 10:14
  dopamine centers and essentially rewires your brain's
• 10:17
  relationship with pleasure. And while one of the outcomes
• 10:19
  could be that you don't crave your favorite sweet treats
• 10:21
  anymore, and as many users put it, blocks out the food noise,
• 10:23
  you also might not just generally crave things at all
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  anymore. And I mean, that's hyperbole,
• 10:28
  but some people have reported no longer craving things that make
• 10:31
  you feel joyful, like being with friends, watching your kids
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  opening presents, going out dancing, doing a hobby, you
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  know, the general stuff that makes life feel like life.
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  And of course, this impacts people at various rates.
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  And not everyone gets the same side effects.
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  But again, if we want to look at things that could be
• 10:44
  contributing to this, this could possibly be affecting people who
• 10:47
  are already experiencing depression and anxiety.
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  And one thing that could be interesting is how the medical
• 10:51
  people will deal with this. Because another side effect is
• 10:53
  that it's also helped people with habits that have been a
• 10:56
  little bit harder to kick, like alcohol consumption, gambling,
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  or other substance use, which nicely could be great for people
• 11:01
  who are prone to addiction. And I'm no doctor, nor am I here
• 11:04
  to tell anyone how to dictate their life.
• 11:06
  If it's working for you, then it's working for you and that's
• 11:07
  great. But if you are considering
• 11:09
  getting on Ozempic or have been on it and have been feeling a
• 11:11
  new sense of apathy, I would definitely suggest talking to
• 11:14
  your doctor, especially if you've had a history of
• 11:16
  depression or anxiety. In this subset article, the
• 11:18
  author posits that what if this is the way out?
• 11:21
  Everything in our capitalistic society is made for maximum
• 11:23
  addiction impact. Foods are made with so many
• 11:25
  sugars and additives that get people addicted to them.
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  Social media is made so we endlessly scroll for hours.
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  Alcohol is pushed on us from all forms of media.
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  Like what if using medications is the only way in the society
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  to drown out all that noise? Like what if it's too late to
• 11:39
  change the systems in place? Praying on us to give our
• 11:42
  attention and our dollars to them?
• 11:43
  Let's. Take a look at how Ozempic
• 11:44
  reshapes your relationship with desire.
• 11:46
  I just read a story about a guy who stopped drinking, gambling,
• 11:49
  and watching porn when he went on Ozempic, even cut his credit
• 11:51
  card bill by half because he had no desire to spend money
• 11:53
  anymore. I mean, it sounds amazing,
• 11:55
  right? You're quitting all of these bad
• 11:56
  habits and you're losing weight while you're doing it.
• 11:58
  But it's actually kind of terrifying if you think about
• 12:00
  it. It's an interesting thought
• 12:01
  experiment and honestly the conclusion of this happy both
• 12:05
  thinking deeper and also generally depressed because the
• 12:08
  hope of changing the society that we currently live in is
• 12:10
  kind of lost. We know that we can't instantly
• 12:12
  change these billion dollar industries, but now we do have
• 12:14
  meds that can help take the edge off and battle what these
• 12:17
  companies seek to hook us on. It's just depressing that we
• 12:19
  might have to put our joy for life at risk.
• 12:21
  And honestly this might be more harm than good.
• 12:23
  And there's been a lot of talk in the media right now over like
• 12:25
  holding the powers that be responsible.
• 12:28
  And in fact, platforms like Meta and Google were found liable for
• 12:31
  making their platforms addictive, which the jury is
• 12:32
  still out on whether this ruling is actually a good or a bad
• 12:35
  thing. I initially thought was going to
• 12:36
  be a good thing, but after watching a breakdown from Taylor
• 12:38
  Lorenz, who has had a history of advocating for this stuff, it's
• 12:41
  looking like it's not necessarily the slay that we
• 12:44
  think it is. Which again, sucks, but it just
• 12:46
  kind of shows the catch 22 that comes with like these companies
• 12:49
  and the powers that be winning, whether they addict you to their
• 12:51
  phones or get your data and biometric info from having you
• 12:54
  have to self identify on the Internet.
• 12:56
  And like I've been saying, this numbness epidemic that we're
• 12:58
  going through is not just conceptual, it also is in our
• 13:01
  aesthetics, and it kind of does play into the patriarchy and
• 13:04
  just general double standards on women.
• 13:11
  Brow arches have disappeared and straight brows are taking over
• 13:14
  from Gracie Abrams to Men on from Cat's Eye to Charli XCX.
• 13:17
  But why are they so popular? Straight brows are more
• 13:20
  structured. They make you look more youthful
• 13:22
  by lifting the face since the tail of the brow doesn't have a
• 13:25
  downward turn. This has been popular in K
• 13:29
  beauty, but I also think it's tied to this rise of numbness.
• 13:32
  The straight brow is less. Expressive Just take one look at
• 13:35
  Rachel Sennett preaching Numb is in or the rise of Botox right
• 13:38
  now and you'll realize have intertwined numbness and
• 13:41
  emotional suppression is becoming with femininity.
• 13:44
  We can begin tracing this back to lobotomy chic being coined a
• 13:47
  couple years back, which is basically the aesthetic of
• 13:49
  dissociation with Chloe Cherry as the poster girl.
• 13:52
  And I'd argue things like Botox feed perfectly into this for
• 13:55
  physically disabling women from being able to show emotion and
• 13:58
  not becoming very enmeshed and what we define as beauty right
• 14:01
  now. Because I think this numbness
• 14:03
  aesthetic comes in a very interesting time because where
• 14:05
  there are trends, there is also context.
• 14:08
  And of course trends that have to do with your body, your looks
• 14:10
  and your face will forever and always primarily impact women.
• 14:14
  Not to say that men don't use Ozempic as well because the push
• 14:16
  to be in a smaller body and a more snatched face almost always
• 14:19
  impacts women the most. Because you got to think who
• 14:22
  said that system up? And all of this has been works
• 14:24
  for a while now with like the whole lobotomized chic or like
• 14:27
  dissociative pout trend to the more previous bimbo trend, the
• 14:30
  trad wife trend and now this beta blocker and Ozempic chic
• 14:34
  trend. And y'all come at me all y'all
• 14:36
  want saying roomie is not that deep.
• 14:37
  I just want to wear that gingham dress.
• 14:39
  Like, I'm not saying that people who like to participate in the
• 14:41
  these trends for the looks are secretly evil and nefarious.
• 14:43
  I am saying, however, that pop culture has always been either a
• 14:47
  sign of the times or a tool used to normalize certain ideals.
• 14:50
  And it's always important to question when and why certain
• 14:53
  trends are gaining traction. And you can still do that while
• 14:56
  wearing your sexy bimbo outfit. Like I promise you, two things
• 14:58
  can be true at once. You can serve and serve
• 15:01
  knowledge. I mean, just look at me.
• 15:03
  I meet you at your place. It's been a.
• 15:05
  Week but I. Missed the way it.
• 15:06
  Tastes all right, all right, let's get back to it.
• 15:08
  I am wary of the trends that categorize women as just girls
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  or only good for traditional feminine things, IE not working,
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  cooking and wearing dresses, or describing thinking and thought
• 15:18
  processes as a masculine trait. Especially in a time where
• 15:21
  women's rights are being stripped away almost every day
• 15:24
  and it's looking more and more like The Handmaid's Tale.
• 15:26
  Pushing these beliefs that being just a girl means not knowing
• 15:29
  how to do things right or aiming to be physically small to the
• 15:32
  point of not giving yourself nutrients or suppressing your
• 15:35
  emotions. To be nonchalant in the time of
• 15:36
  rising fascism. Yeah, that's spooky and
• 15:39
  definitely completely coincidental.
• 15:41
  Like, what's a female alt right pipeline?
• 15:43
  What is that? Who is that like?
• 15:44
  Now is not the time to subscribe and hail allegiance to these
• 15:47
  sorts of trends. Like, it's scary, but the beauty
• 15:49
  myth really does hold up crazy these days, like using beauty as
• 15:53
  a weapon against women for it to take up so much surface area of
• 15:55
  thinking crazy. But OK, we've yeapped enough
• 16:02
  about the surroundings and what's been going on.
• 16:03
  Where do we go from here? Because it may be cool to be
• 16:06
  numb. Where do we go from here?
• 16:08
  Well, I'd argue that right now it may be cool to be numb, but
• 16:12
  it's kind of radical to care. Like, I don't know, watch some
• 16:15
  homecore content, do a little dance in your kitchen.
• 16:17
  I always think of that one lady, that one white lady that be
• 16:20
  dancing crazy in the middle of the target being like, it's OK
• 16:23
  to dance. No one's judging me.
• 16:25
  No one's judging you. I am safe.
• 16:27
  Like moving like a little mystery mascot tool.
• 16:29
  OK, Heidi, you are allowed to dance.
• 16:32
  Yeah, you might feel awkward because you're wearing a Cape in
• 16:36
  a crown and you're dancing. That's okay, you're not doing
• 16:41
  anything wrong like that is that millennial optimism that we need
• 16:44
  to Co opt in Gen. Z?
• 16:45
  Like dance in your kitchen, wear those bright colors, talk to
• 16:48
  your neighbors, compliment a stranger, like have some
• 16:51
  friction in your life and care about the people around you.
• 16:53
  Like, I know it seems like everything is crumbling around
• 16:55
  us and by and large it is, but we kind of have to believe that
• 16:59
  there's some good in it because I mean, we're here.
• 17:01
  And I know it's so easy to get stuck in the loops and the
• 17:03
  cycles of despair. And quite frankly, the powers
• 17:06
  that be probably want us to be in that loop, which kind of
• 17:09
  gives us even more of a reason to not do that out of spite.
• 17:12
  Because more than anything, numbness is a response.
• 17:14
  And honestly, a trauma responds to the world at large.
• 17:17
  But feeling less and less and caring less doesn't make things
• 17:20
  better. Because we really have one life
• 17:22
  to live. And why would you want to choose
• 17:23
  to blunt that in a world that's so actively trying to get you to
• 17:26
  do so? So if it was up to me in my
• 17:28
  regime, I sound a lot like those HomeGoods pillows.
• 17:31
  Be OK with feeling things. Be OK with loving and living
• 17:34
  loudly and colorfully. Because if you won't, who will?