1. a state of severe alienation and burnout. When the pressures of life and the evils, insanity and corruption of the
outside world are too much and you build a mental wall and you shut yourself out from everything and everyone. You just want to retreat by watching TV or
listening to music a LOT to take you from your inner pain but your
attention span is so minimized you may wind up
on the couch looking up at the ceiling and constantly changing TV channels with the remote. Certain scenes or sounds may bring up painful emotions and make you cry. So you try to quench the pain by smoking, drinking or doing dope.
2. a song from the 1979 Pink Floyd classic double album "The Wall" where the alienated and overburdened rock musician Pink (no, not the real life female pop singer!) is found " comfortably numb" watching the tube and is given "a little pin prick" of horse to "get going for the show". The lyrics (written by bassist Roger Waters) describe in great detail this condition of mental/emotional illness. Dave Gilmour gives a fierce guitar workout and Nick Mason slams an electric drum as the tune fades out. Richard Wright's synthesizers are augmented by an orchestra.
1. Daniel is dog tired after working 12-hour shifts all during the week, and rotating shift schedules every week on top of that. He just sits on his couch and polishes off the Riunite and tokes while
watching 13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from. In the meantime he has scenes from his life flashing back
in his head. He has become comfortably numb.
2. "Comfortably Numb" is a major highlight of a
Pink Floyd concert.