numbing

numbing
    adj 1: causing numbness or insensitivity; "the numbing effect of
           grief"
    

Numb \Numb\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Numbed} (n[u^]md); p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Numbing} (n[u^]m"[i^]ng).]
   To make numb; to deprive of the power of sensation or motion;
   to render senseless or inert; to deaden; to benumb; to
   stupefy.
   [1913 Webster]

         For lazy winter numbs the laboring hand. --Dryden.
   [1913 Webster]

         Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.       --Tennyson.
   [1913 Webster]
    

desensitizing \desensitizing\ adj.
   making less susceptible or sensitive to either physical or
   emotional stimuli. Opposite of {sensitizing}. [Narrower
   terms: {numbing}]
   [WordNet 1.5]
    

103 Moby Thesaurus words for "numbing":
      Siberian, abatement, algid, allayment, alleviating, alleviation,
      alleviative, analgesia, analgesic, anesthesia, anesthetic,
      anesthetizing, anodyne, appeasement, arctic, assuagement,
      assuasive, balmy, balsamic, below zero, benumbing, biting, bitter,
      bitterly cold, bleak, boreal, brisk, brumal, cathartic, cleansing,
      cold, cold as charity, cold as death, cold as ice, cold as marble,
      crisp, cutting, deadening, demulcent, diminishment, diminution,
      dulling, ease, easement, easing, emollient, freezing,
      freezing cold, frigid, gelid, glacial, hibernal, hiemal,
      hyperborean, ice-cold, ice-encrusted, icelike, icy, inclement,
      keen, lenitive, lessening, lulling, mitigating, mitigation,
      mitigative, mollification, narcotic, nipping, nippy, pain-killing,
      palliation, palliative, penetrating, piercing, pinching, purgative,
      raw, reduction, relief, relieving, remedial, remedy, rigorous,
      salving, severe, sharp, sleety, slushy, snappy, softening,
      soothing, stone-cold, stunning, stupefying, subduement, subduing,
      subzero, supercooled, winterbound, winterlike, wintery, wintry