It is defined as having a diminished emotional response however, flat affect means you can’t feel an emotional response to stimuli and can’t show the required emotional expression either. Emotional blunting can also be a symptom of many mental health disorders. Many people may confuse flat affect with emotional blunting, but they are not the same thing. Traumatic Brain Injury: More than 62% of people with brain injury are likely to struggle with shifting emotional expression and this kind of shifting can include flat affect.Schizophrenia: People with schizophrenia often have a low ability to express their emotions properly which also causes them to fail to pick up the emotional cues of others, causing fault affect.Parkinson’s: In a 2021 study, it was found that people living with Parkinson’s can also struggle with a decline in facial expression which can cause flat affect in many.Facial Paralysis: If you have facial paralysis or other muscle disorder, then it could also cause a delay in physical emotional expression.More often than not, flat affect may manifest itself alongside anhedonia. Depression: If you’re living on the depression spectrum, then you are likely to struggle with flat affect.

Dementia: Dementia is a disorder that can cause changes in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which can cause flat affect in dementia patients.Autism: Autistic people may also struggle with flat affect and respond to social interactions.Antidepressants: Certain medications can cause flat affect as evidenced in a 2017 study where more than 3000 participants were reviewed.While flat affect is commonly linked with schizophrenia, there might be other causes of flat affect as well. While there may be a lack of evidence to prove what exactly causes flat affect, researchers believe that your brain’s chemical imbalance may be a contributing factor. Indifferent body language, gestures, or body cues.Some common signs of flat affect can include: I mean, imagine what your loved ones would feel if they threw you a surprise party and instead of meeting with a pleasantly shocked and excited reaction, they’re met with a bored or indifferent one?

Flat affect definition