Apathy: what to do if you don’t want anything? Psychologist's advice and treatment

Probably everyone is familiar with the state of apathy, when passion for what is happening has disappeared, the desire to act, when everything planned seems useless and aimless. If an individual says that he wants absolutely nothing, then he often means that a motivational element is missing, and not the desire itself. Reasons and desires differ in internal content. The first is to encourage subjects to engage in a variety of activities, focusing them on meeting specific needs. The second is a need that has taken on a certain form, the desire to acquire something. The desire for idleness, idleness, and doing nothing is also a desire, but not supported by motivation.

What is apathy syndrome?

What is apathy, what to do if you don’t want anything? In recent years, these questions have been asked not only by patients, but also by doctors. This problem is very common all over the world. A state of apathy can occur at any age. However, the syndrome is increasingly common among young people, children and adolescents. Apathy is expressed as a lack of interest in activities, events and everything around you. Previously, it was believed that a similar condition occurs after emotional breakdowns provoked by serious problems. Currently, this syndrome appears at first glance for no apparent reason. Nevertheless, it is necessary to fight apathy. Otherwise, it will lead to depression.

Warning signs are:

Violation of the emotional background. It is expressed in an inadequate reaction or its absence to any events.
Decreased appetite.
Slowing of thought processes, memory lapses.
Inhibition of physical reactions. Patients begin to perform more and more slowly.

Take your time and ask for help

During difficult periods, we look forward to any bright interval - a day when our mood is a little better and we have a little more energy. And when it comes, the temptation immediately appears to rush to solve a million problems and make heroic plans. However, there is no need to rush.

There is a chance that the next day your energy will run out again and all these unfulfilled obligations will fall on you as a dead weight.

David Burns in the bestseller Mood Therapy. A clinically proven way to overcome depression without pills” says that when getting out of the vicious circle of apathy, inactivity and self-flagellation, it is very important not to rush things and start with simple things, gradually increasing the load.

He advises writing down in a diary even such seemingly elementary actions as brushing your teeth, reading or eating lunch, opposite each one noting on a five-point scale how much benefit and/or pleasure they brought. Having completed the main tasks, a person feels an uplift in mood and enthusiasm to do something more difficult.

And so, step by step, he gradually gets out of the emotional hole in which he finds himself. However, if you still cannot cope with apathy on your own and return to a resourceful state, this is a reason to seek help from a psychotherapist.

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Disease “apathy” - what to do if you don’t want to do anything: causes

Even though there are no obvious reasons for apathy, this syndrome does not arise without reason. There are always some factors that contribute to this. Therefore, before you complain that a loved one has apathy, laziness, or doesn’t want to do anything, you need to talk to him. In most cases, the cause of this condition lies in unspoken experiences that constantly bother the patient. Psychological factors include:

Problems at work. Often, apathy occurs if a person is not interested in his activity, and he engages in it only out of necessity.
Love experiences. Often the cause of apathy is unrequited feelings or concern for loved ones.
A serious illness due to which a person suffers not only physically, but also psychologically.
Transitional age. This category includes teenagers and older people.
Loss of a loved one.
Inability to realize your plans.
Changes in life: change of sphere of activity, team, place of residence.
Premenstrual syndrome.

It happens that all these reasons are absent, but the problem still exists. In these cases, patients ask: why is there apathy and don’t want to do anything? If such a problem arises, you need to find out what else can lead to it.

Loss of strength symptoms

loss of energy drowsiness
constant fatigue
no strength to live depression
no energy apathy
feeling like I have no strength
no strength or desire to live
I get tired quickly
I have no energy in the morning
after work there is no energy for housework
bouts of fatigue
little vital energy
no strength to communicate with people
weakness drowsiness
loss of strength, no mood
I can’t, I don’t have the strength to endure work
no strength to get a job
constantly want to sleep, drowsiness during the day
sometimes I can't get out of bed
severe irritability
tired of going to work
no strength to get off the couch
I don't even have the strength to wash myself
loss of motivation
And, as a result, “I just got up and I’m tired”

Symptoms of loss of strength

Relationship between apathy syndrome and physical condition

In some cases, the patient is not really bothered by psychological problems. Then you need to find out: what kind of lifestyle does he have, are there any diseases of the endocrine system? Apathy also often develops in people taking certain medications. Among the causes causing this syndrome are the following conditions:

Chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system. Due to the fact that a person is constantly tormented by discomfort in the chest or high blood pressure, apathy often occurs. After all, almost everyone knows about the complications of these pathologies (heart attack, stroke). In addition to worries about your health, apathy syndrome manifests itself as a result of lifestyle changes (quitting smoking, mental stress, playing sports).
Past serious illnesses. In this case, the loss of interest in life is explained by the constant fear of a “new blow.”
Oncological pathologies. A state of apathy occurs in almost every person faced with cancer. After all, according to the majority, cancer leads to inevitable death. To dispel this stereotype, coordinated work of doctors of several specialties is required.
Diseases of the endocrine system. Often apathy is caused by hormonal dysfunction that occurs with pathologies of the adrenal glands, diabetes mellitus, and pituitary adenoma.
Chronic alcoholism and drug addiction.
Taking hormonal medications. Among them are glucocorticosteroids (medicines Prednisolone, Dexamethasone), oral contraceptives.
Use of antihypertensive drugs. These include drugs “Enalapril”, “Clonidine”, etc.
Avitaminosis.

How to deal with reluctance to do something

Sports activities add positive emotions and contribute to the development of motivation.

Perhaps you are visited by thoughts that “everything is tired”, “you don’t want anything”, there is no understanding of why you should continue to live. In fact, the time has come to understand yourself and understand that thinking this way is unacceptable, that you definitely need to change something in your life, starting with yourself. Let's look at what actions you can resort to in order to get moving, start acting, and pull yourself together.

Play sports. This will improve your appearance and also strengthen the condition of your respiratory and cardiovascular systems. In addition, during physical activity, hormones are released into the blood, which improve mood and improve well-being. Regular physical activity allows you to clear your thoughts and adds energy to achieve new achievements.
Try to change the situation. Ideal if you have the opportunity to travel outside the city or even the country. You can also simply go to the dacha. The main thing is that you change the visible environment. You can make repairs, buy new furniture or simply move it, put up wallpaper. That is, you need to change something in what surrounds you every day.
Take up reading books. This can be special literature on motivation, or simply fiction books. After all, reading often makes us think about how to live further; we can find inspiration in books. By reading educational literature, you can expand your worldview and look at the situation from a different perspective.
Perhaps you are not in the mood or desire to do anything because you are forced to do something unpleasant for yourself. For example, you work at a job you don’t like and force yourself to go to it every day. As a counterbalance to this, you can find a hobby that will bring you only pleasure. It is also worth considering the fact that many people manage to acquire additional income from their hobby, which over time can turn into their main income.
Learn to think positively. If you do not want to do anything because you expect failure, you are sure that any action you take will lead to inevitable collapse or ridicule, then you need to replace the fear of expected failure with thoughts about possible success, and hope for a good outcome of any business. Try to see something good in everything, don’t give up too soon.
If you lose the desire to act because of a job you don’t like, don’t be afraid to change everything. Sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to not only leave one place of work for another, but also change your occupation and devote yourself to a new profession. You can decide to take this step at any age.
Pay special attention to your diet. Remember that a balanced diet affects the availability of energy, which is so necessary for normal functioning and achieving new heights. After all, a simple lack of certain vitamins depletes us and makes us weak.
Decide on the right priorities. Surely, there are many things in your life that simply take up your time and energy, but do not bring any results. We need to get rid of them.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Remember that successful people make mistakes too. Only they don’t get upset, don’t engage in self-flagellation, but draw conclusions, learn from their failures, and move on with even greater persistence.
Understand that any personality should engage in development and not stop there. This is how our life works.
Normalize your sleep. Do not forget that an adult should sleep eight hours a night and it is advisable that this period should fall between eleven o’clock at night and seven o’clock in the morning.
Start normalizing your self-esteem. Perhaps you think negatively and believe that you are not worthy of anything in life. This is not true, everyone deserves to be recognized and surrounded by love. You just need to work on yourself, understand yourself.

Now you know what to do when you give up and don’t want anything at all. Remember that success can only be achieved if you take action. When a person sits with his hands down, he remains in one place, cannot move forward, over time he simply degrades, becomes an uninteresting conversationalist, a life partner, a bad parent. Therefore, it is extremely important to find strength within yourself, set goals and achieve them.

Social aspects of apathy

Psychologists all over the world are trying to figure out: where does apathy come from, what to do if you don’t want anything? After all, this problem has acquired enormous proportions today. Because of the apathy syndrome, not only the patient himself suffers, but also the entire society. Indifference to work, study and social progress leads to the loss of qualified personnel, improper education of the future generation, etc. In severe cases, this condition can even lead to suicide. Therefore, you need to know how to behave towards someone who has apathy, what to do if someone close to you doesn’t want anything. The interest of society in such cases is of great importance. Apathy often occurs when a person believes that no one understands him. Also, the appearance of this syndrome is associated with non-recognition of the patient as a valuable employee or a superficial attitude on the part of others.

No strength or energy. Causes

The psychosomatic hypothesis of the occurrence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) states:

Initially, this state was beneficial for you for some reason. But if you honestly and deeply dig into yourself, you can find why. Remember, maybe you want not to be touched?

And here’s another thing, in the same spirit: maybe you want to remain a little child who is not responsible for his life? Or do you want to work less and let others do the work? Or maybe you want to prove something to someone or take revenge in this way?

Medical hypothesis is different:

Briefly: Ecology, diseases. It is interesting that particularly great importance is attached to past diseases, especially infectious ones. Because during illness I had to mobilize all my strength and resources. Well, now the “recoil” has come.

In addition, in one of Elena Malysheva’s programs it is said that CFS is caused by the Epstein Bar virus. This virus itself is related to the herpes virus, and then they offer standard treatment for herpes. In addition, there are doctors who believe that chronic fatigue is simply an allergic reaction.

Psychological hypothesis

She is the most interesting, in my opinion as a psychologist. Agree, fatigue is a lack of mental energy. But you can see perfectly well how others cope with life normally. And, they are cheerful and energetic. And you remember how as a child you could be active all day long.

Then what about your psychic energy now? - Consequently, it is spent on all sorts of destructive tasks, such as:

Chewing negative emotions
Also, trying to suppress negative feelings instead of dealing with them
The mass of “Visyakov” – unfinished business
Multitasking caused by inability to prioritize
Reluctance, “not giving” yourself the right to listen to yourself, your real needs. And because of this, you don’t go your own way, you don’t live your life.
Energy drain from former relationships

Causes of loss of strength

Why does apathy occur in childhood?

Unfortunately, apathy syndrome has become widespread in children. In this case, parents should definitely consult with a psychologist about what may cause apathy, what to do if the child does not want anything? As you know, children spend most of their time at home or at school. Therefore, the cause of the problem must be looked for there. Indifference to the environment can be caused by upbringing. In most cases, those children who rarely spend time with their parents suffer from apathy. Indifference can also be caused by an incorrect approach to the child on the part of teachers. In both cases, it is necessary to have conversations with the child as often as possible, perform some tasks together, interest him in games, etc. Another reason for apathy in childhood is the child’s inability to find a common language with peers. At the same time, you should try to organize joint events more often. This will help children communicate with each other outside of school hours and find common interests.

Stop procrastinating

Procrastination is a person’s tendency to constantly put things off until later, to drag things out until the last minute. In such a situation, a person often has a lot of unfulfilled tasks in his head, responsibilities that only tend to accumulate. All this provokes chronic stress, anxiety, and fatigue.

As a result, a moment comes when one gives up, loses motivation, and loses the feeling of joy from completed tasks, since there are even more unfulfilled ones. With such a habit, additional emotional disorders may develop, such as apathy and depression.

Methods to combat apathy

Before deciding what to do if you are indifferent to everything, you need to find out exactly why apathy arose, what to do if you don’t want anything. The solution to the problem depends not only on the work of a specialist. To get rid of this condition, you also need the desire of the patient himself. Treatment depends on what caused the apathy. In case of influence of psychological factors, it is necessary to seek medical help. Sometimes you can get rid of apathy on your own, but to do this you need to recognize the problem and make an effort to solve it. Similar methods include: changing the scope of activity, relaxation, conversations with loved ones. If the problem is caused by physical factors, then it is worth eliminating them.

Advice from psychologists

In the pursuit of perfection, one must maintain a sense of proportion. Inflated ideals and impossible tasks force people to put in more and more effort, while the set goals remain unachieved. An exhausted person who has not achieved what he wants gives up and realizes that he is tired and doesn’t want anything else.

Psychologists advise to engage in prevention to prevent emotional burnout. If a person has already experienced fatigue from life, what to do to prevent recurrent symptoms:

Refrain from drinking sleeping pills, alcohol and sweets. If you always follow desires, the body will be waiting for “feeding” from the outside;
Realize that you cannot avoid problems. The best way to not succumb to stress is to be prepared for it and not to become hysterical when something doesn’t go according to plan;
Don't take it out on your family and friends. A momentary desire to yell at your mother or husband is not worth the family problems that will arise in the future;
Don't run away from problems. Bad job, unsuccessful relationships, health problems - you can’t turn a blind eye to all this. If the source of irritation is not removed, the feeling of fatigue will return over time;
Plan your vacation. Everyday activities and responsibilities consume the resources of the nervous system; they can be restored during rest. It is better to give up meaningless lying on the couch in favor of walking;
Stop thinking about other people's opinions and demanding the impossible from yourself. There is no point in worrying if something didn’t work out the first time;
Get a pet. Animals make people kinder; walking with a dog will help you calm down and gain strength.

Walking the dog

Note! Women are more likely to feel tired because they often have to make a choice between a career and home. Few people can leave work and devote themselves entirely to their family. A modern woman combines household chores and a career and sometimes feels that she is tired of herself and is no longer happy with anything.

It is unlikely that there is at least 1 adult person on Earth who has never experienced fatigue. If physical fatigue passes quickly, frequent moral overload weakens the psyche. A feeling of fatigue can occur both at 15 and at 50 years old, regardless of status and position in society. To start enjoying life again, you need to admit that there is a problem and eliminate its cause.

“Apathy” syndrome - what to do if you don’t want to do anything: treatment

A psychologist treats apathy. Initial sessions are devoted to finding out the reason for indifference. If apathy occurs as a result of stressful situations, not only psychological but also drug treatment is necessary. Most often this applies to cases where the patient has lost someone close to him or his job. Drugs that calm the nervous system and antidepressants are prescribed. Among them are medications: Magnesium B6, Prozac, Persen. It is worth remembering that these drugs are not indicated in all cases. The main method of treatment is psychotherapy. In case of drug-induced apathy, it is recommended to replace medications that provoke indifference. In case of hormonal dysfunction, consultation with an endocrinologist is necessary.

Why is there a state of “I don’t want anything”?

Getting up every morning for work, perhaps taking the child to school or running to warm up the car, and there is still two hours of driving in traffic jams ahead. Daily tasks can not only take away the desire to fold your arms, but also completely plunge you into depression. The thoughts “I don’t want anything” cause the very emptiness that makes a person indifferent to the world around him.

Eternal plans to do 100 things before the end of the day, open the apartment door and immediately go to bed, and tomorrow is another busy day. How to start a new day not with a headache, but with lightness and a feeling of happiness? It’s not for nothing that they say: “I want to close my eyes and not think about anything.” This rule does help to distract you for a moment, but does not completely get rid of the dilemma.

Lack of desire is a response of the body and psyche to oversaturation with things to do. If the day consists of the alarm ringing, running from one part of the city to another, nervous telephone conversations with clients, you want to grab your head and say “enough!” Sleep allows us to replenish the energy we expend throughout the day.

If there is so much physical or moral stress, then the person gradually becomes exhausted and loses precious energy. Nothing makes us happy when everything in the world loses its meaning, and you are already at the tip of the iceberg. The feeling of being “squeezed lemon” takes away any mood to get up and act, even though today is a day off and there are all the opportunities.

Under the influence of responsibilities, debts, an overabundance of information and news, and constant complaints from others, a person stops concentrating on himself. Attention is scattered to any little things that deplete not only the reserve of time, but also vital energy. Acquaintances, relatives, society as a whole can imperceptibly make a person indifferent to himself and distract him for any reason. How to prevent the thought “I don’t want anything” from creeping into the depths of consciousness, completely taking away the taste for life? To prevent the cycle of life from causing critical damage to the individual, it is important to want (we emphasize this word) to see the beautiful side of the world, to listen to oneself.

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How to get rid of apathy: expert advice

How to behave if apathy appears, what to do if you don’t want anything? Advice from a psychologist will help you regain interest in life. These include the following instructions:

Identify the cause of dissatisfaction with life.
Relax in an unusual environment (go to the sea, spend a weekend with friends).
Change your field of activity if the cause of apathy lies in work.
Make time to do what you love.
Change your usual lifestyle.

WHERE OUR DESIRES COME FROM

But, first, we must say where our desires actually come from. From what “I want”, “can” and “need” they grow.

A harmonious person is constantly changing - developing (in a broad sense), growing, learning something new. His environment, his train of thought, his capabilities change. Life sets new challenges for him and opens up new horizons. And at every stage of his life, a person strives to harmonize himself in new conditions - he has changed, the world has changed, opportunities have changed - there is a desire to do something, to achieve some optimal point for this moment. Maybe - to achieve recognition at work, maybe - to gain independence, build a house or buy a car.

The desire we perceive is a choice, the task of which is to bring us closer to some optimal position in life for us. We can say that desire (and its implementation) is a way to harmonize oneself. Find a new balance, find a new optimal position. And it (the choice) is formed not only from our exclusively internal needs, it is directly and indirectly, to a greater or lesser extent, influenced by many other factors - how much it is approved by society, how our loved ones, our friends will react to it, what model of choice adheres to our age and sociocultural layer.

A physical analogy can be given: our desire is a total vector of force, and its direction and absolute value is the sum of our subconscious “I want”, which has passed through the sieve of the conscious “should”, “I have the right” and “can” and has received a high assessment of social approval. The analogy does not pretend to be absolutely accurate; I brought it in order to show that even a mentally harmonious person can have difficulties with his desires. With my “I want”.

You and I once had desires, but even when we had them, we were not always able to bring them to life.

Maybe the total vector was too small - you wanted one thing, but your family expected something completely different from you. Maybe your social circle dictated that you earn money, and your genuine, inner desire was associated with moneyless creativity? The result, in both cases, was clearly not optimal. You either broke through to your goal, to your “want”, with a fight, earning a parallel feeling of guilt (I did something that upset people significant to me), or you retreated, abandoned your “want” and ran - leaving with the bottom line in the form of low self-esteem, psychological discomfort, frustration, the same feeling of guilt and, in some cases, neurosis.

This not very successful experience, repeated several times, is perhaps the basis of your current condition. The result of your desires, your efforts, your deeds did not lead to a positively assessed result, and therefore were not fixed in your psychological program. Moreover, in total they were assessed negatively - your EGO now sees your desires as a threat to itself, to its harmony and integrity - it does not want to experience feelings of guilt, inferiority and low self-esteem.

Bottom line: I DON'T WANT ANYTHING! Why want if it doesn't lead to anything good? If the result was and will be only pain and disappointment? Isn't it better to go with the flow and do what you have to do?

I can say no. In my case, this did not lead to anything good, although I think I was demonstrating “good” behavior.

Age

When thinking about the apathy and mental states of your relatives, it is worth paying attention to the age factor. Teenagers often experience low mood, which, on the one hand, is due to developmental norms, and on the other hand, should not frighten parents too much. Chronic blues are also a common companion for older people. This fact makes them a social group particularly susceptible to feelings of apathy.