Learned helplessness is a condition where an individual has developed a sense of helplessness due to an experience, thought, perception, psychological condition, physical inability or out of sheer pessimism and negativity. Learned helplessness is more common in adults. Kids are also vulnerable to learned helplessness but the chances are less since they are still in a physical, mental and psychological development process. That protects them from learned helplessness to an extent but doesn’t shield them completely.
Before you can plan a strategy of overcoming learned helplessness, you need to understand the problem properly. Learned helplessness is not just a psychological or personality disorder. It also isn’t a shortcoming in a person. Learned helplessness is a way the mind reacts to certain factors.
Learned Helplessness Explained
If a child is incapable of solving math problems, for whatever reason, he or she can develop learned helplessness towards math. The problem could be as simple as lack of guidance, a kid’s slow learning ability or possibly because of lack of concentration, poor analytical or reasoning skills. All such aspects can be dealt with, even if it is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A dyslexic child could also have such a problem and then eventually become averse to math. But the aversion or dislike for math is not because of his or her inability to solve the problem, it is from the perception that he or she cannot solve the problem, no matter what, that learned helplessness would develop. When a person develops a sense of helplessness for something or towards something, no matter why or how or when, it is learned helplessness.
An adult may develop learned helplessness simply because of past experience. The adult may have no problems whatsoever. He or she may be at their best psychological health, may be emotionally very strong, financially and socially prosperous, may not have any physical problems or anything worrying as such but one could still have learned helplessness. For instance, if a person has been fired from three jobs, he or she would develop learned helplessness towards jobs or working for companies. If a trader loses a lot of money, consistently, over a period of one year or two, he or she may start to feel helpless in the world of trading and naturally in his or her life. The same applies to athletes who have been having a very poor run, a business owner who has been incurring one loss after other or even a normal young adult having one bad relationship after another.
Learned helplessness is a state of mind wherein the perceptions are negative, coiled and stunted to pessimism. However, learned helplessness can also be due to many factors that are obvious. A person suffering from clinical depression or anxiety may have the problem because of that psychological condition. In this case too, it would be learned helplessness because it is acquired from a particular condition which otherwise should have nothing to do with helplessness or a person’s inability to think straight and see the brighter things.
Overcoming Learned Helplessness
Overcoming learned helplessness can be very easy or extremely difficult. It depends on a lot of factors and those factors will vary from one case to another. There can be many varied factors at play which only the diagnosis of a specific case can reveal and then light can be shed on that. In a generic way, the following are the ways of overcoming learned helplessness.
Understanding The Cause
As the aforementioned explanation of learned helplessness would have acquainted you with the condition, you need to get to the root cause of the problem. Learned helplessness is not the problem, the cause of the condition is. If you can find out the cause and address that, then you can easily get rid of the symptom which is learned helplessness. If a past experience is the cause, then try and get over that. If a present reality is the cause, then walk away from that or try to forget about it. Often, the cause may be taken care of by itself when you focus on it. At times, thoughts in your subconscious mind compel you to develop learned helplessness. You don’t even know consciously why you feel that way or think that way but you do. When you get to this cause, you may realize that your perception has been wrong or that you have been thinking too much about something that is not really that important, factual or justified. Understanding the cause is the first step towards overcoming learned helplessness.
Changing The Perception
You have to understand one thing if you have to successfully overcome learned helplessness. You must not believe in reality blindly. Everything is a perception. The perception is a viewpoint or what the reality is according to you. For instance, the stocks having crashed is a reality and you will perceive it as a very bad day. You may lose money if you are invested, as would millions of other people. You may see everything as negative, dark and you will be pessimistic for a while. If the crash is similar to what happens during recessions, then you may remain pessimistic for a long time. But that same reality becomes completely different when you look at it from the perspective of a man who has invested a lot in favor of a stock market crash. For that man, it is one of the best days in his life. The same reality has completely different ramifications for two people. Hence, what matters isn’t the reality but the perception of reality. You can look at being fired from the job as a negative because you have bills to pay but the same incident can be positive if you look at all the things you can do now that you don’t have a job, a possible career change, starting your own business, moving to another city, traveling, writing, singing or everything that you have wanted to do. The reality is just the perception of people and if you can change the perception then you can get rid of learned helplessness.
Setting New Goals
You must always set new goals, regardless of what you have achieved and what you haven’t. Setting new goals will always help you to look at the positives and that is always good for overcoming learned helplessness.
Recapitulating Accomplishments
Learned helplessness can really pull anyone down. You will be stressed, anxious, depressed, lonely, and pessimistic and you may even feel hopeless about yourself. In such a situation, you should think of your accomplishments. Thinking of past achievements will always help you to cope with all the above symptoms of learned helplessness and the condition itself.
Having A Support System
Having a support system is necessary to overcome any problem, be it a divorce or learned helplessness. You should have people around you who care for you and you must be able to talk to them and feel happy. Having loved ones around can always help with any challenge. You should also seek therapy if you think your learned helplessness is inching towards hopelessness or causing clinical depression and anxiety. Bearing with such worsening conditions can have very undesirable consequences.