Learned Helplessness: Finding Motivation & Recognizing Your Capability

Sofia Isabella Flores
Feb 24, 2021
4 min read

It is all too common to feel hopeless and unmotivated at times. With the state of the world being what it is, most of us can also feel helpless and incapable of making a genuine change.

Most especially when experiencing mental health and illness challenges, we can quickly become overwhelmed and lose sight of all that drives and uplifts us.

Allow me to teach you a bit about our brains and mental processes.

Learned Helplessness

In the simplest of terms, learned helplessness is a phenomena categorized by an individual “learning” to be “helpless” as a coping mechanism of sorts in response to chronic/unresolved trauma, grief, stress, anxiety, depression, and uncertainty.

This prolonged state of struggle permeates and comes to shape the individual’s mindset. And because they have endured such a painful burden throughout an extensive period without any relief, the individual’s thought process begins to alter. Their negative cognitive restructuring has therefore made them feel and believe that they will remain helpless forever - even when given an opportunity to escape from or be rid of the hardship they face. -

“How can that be?”

Unfortunately, this occurrence is in a sense a coping strategy and method utilized by the brain to remain alert for new stimuli while

dulling the effects of habitual ones. The brain is constantly at work. And your thoughts are subsequently ever-present as well - almost running through your stream of consciousness like a never-ending audio recording. When you first experience a feeling of helplessness, (say, the shutting down of your school) your mind is consumed by a new and unsettling thought. Your brain and body store this sensation and eventually secure it within your memory to be revisited when and if you experience it again in the future. Flash forward about ten months later, you have revisited that memory more times can you could ever count. As a result of this incredibly common occurrence, you have become increasingly familiar with it and therefore no longer feel its effects.

Applying this principle to mental issues is crucial in understanding the complexities of mental health, for psychological struggles are nothing if not prolonged periods of helplessness, hopelessness, and/or lack of motivation.

When battling general anxiety, you may often find yourself physically incapable of calming yourself down, or you may feel entirely incapable of not worrying about every possible worst case-scenario imaginable.

When battling social anxiety, you may not have the ability to stop panicking in public, social, or unfamiliar settings.

When battling depression, you may fall into a spiral of unrelenting hopelessness and feel utterly incapable of ever performing seemingly simple tasks and fulfilling your obligations.

And when you have an opportunity to escape this helpless state, you may not believe in yourself enough to think that it could be done. Or, you fear it so terribly that your anxiety makes you emotionally, physically, and mentally incapable of making that decision.

Many people that I have spoken to as this time of helplessness and uncertainty rages on have expressed to me that they now feel “numb” to everything occurring in the world. This numbness sensation is learned helplessness in a nutshell.

Time and time again, you feel as though you cannot do anything to improve the situation. Soon, you protect yourself by severing ties with the voice in your head that optimistically drafts new ways of potentially making a worthwhile impact. Alas, you become “helpless” by conceding to the belief that - just because you have not been able to do anything about your situation in the past or at this present moment in time - you will never be able to in the future.

You may simply feel helpless at the moment, because, well, a pandemic really tears away at what we as social human beings can do in the world around us.

Despite all that you have encountered, you are here now.

You have been hopeless and helpless in the past; yet, you overcame those obstacles and stand before your technological device reading this sentence. -

You are not always going to be burdened by the battles you face now. Life changes, and you change alongside it.

If you begin to feel helpless in any situation, do your best not to go down a rabbit whole of pessimism.

Instead, take stock of what is occurring immediately around you. Recenter your thoughts and senses. Try to remain calm. Breathe; look around you. Focus solely on what is happening and what you are in control of. -

You are in control of how you respond to negative thoughts.

You are in control of how you approach the problem at hand.

You are in control of how you allow this experience to affect and shape you.

When combating the influence of learned helplessness, begin by recalling past instances in which you felt you were powerless or incapable of remedying a situation. Keep track of how you felt, how strongly and deeply you felt those emotions, what you thought, how often you thought those things, and evaluate whether or not you legitimately believe them. Afterwards, compile a list of possible actions you could have taken and efforts you could have made that did not come to mind while experiencing the event firsthand. If there genuinely was nothing you could have done, then begin compiling a list of what you can do moving forward. You must work towards accepting and forgiving yourself for the past.

Giving in - whether it be to the darkness of your own thoughts, or to the demands of those who do not wish to understand and guide you - will not allievaite your troubles.

As difficult as it is, you must never stop fighting for yourself. -

It is not your fault that you have been thrust into a pandemic.

It is not your fault that you alone cannot find the motivation or solution you need.

I desperately wish that I could write in this blog post the exact piece of inspiration, advice, or insight that you long for; I would give anything to ensure that you realize your own strength.

You are not alone. You are not a burden. And you are not helpless.

Helping yourself - even in the smallest of ways - is a contribution to bettering the world around you. -

In light & peace,

Sofia F.

“What you must never forget or underestimate is the power of your own mind. Within you, and in the same entity, lies your greatest ally and fiercest foe - be wise and strong enough to overtake the latter.”