the.com/numbing
the body's mercy switch, flipped when feeling becomes too much to bear
means Causing a loss of sensation or feeling, whether physically (cold, anesthetic) or emotionally (overwhelm that dulls you).
from From the verb 'numb,' which comes from Middle English 'nomen,' meaning 'taken' or 'seized' — the past participle of 'nimen,' to take. The idea was of a body part 'taken' or deprived of feeling, as if seized by cold or shock. The silent 'b' was bolted on later by writers who imagined a kinship with words like 'thumb' and 'dumb.' Distantly related to German 'nehmen,' to take.
cold trickIce works by slowing nerve signal speed
dental originCocaine was the first local anesthetic in 1884
emotional versionBrains numb feelings too, not just nerves
pins and needlesThat tingle is nerves waking back up
frostbite paradoxSevere cold feels warm before it kills tissue