Learned Helplessness -AKA- Victim Mentality and how to Address it

You are not always a Victim of your circumstances. Addressing Learned Helplessness

Learned Helplessness -AKA- Victim Mentality:

A behavioral state and personality trait of a person who believes they have little to no control over their life, even when control is possible. People who have learned helplessness tend to take on a victim mentality and give up very easily on a consistent basis when trying to accomplish important life goals. A common mantra is “What’s the point in trying?”

Learned Helplessness and Mental Illnesses

Learned helplessness has often been associated with several different psychological disorders. Depression, anxiety and certain phobias are the most common. When people feel a lack of control over their feelings and emotions, sometimes they quit trying to be anything different than depressed or anxious. Learned helplessness is dangerous in mental illness because it implies that the disease has control over the individual. Unfortunately, he individual is also controlled by the medication being used to treat the disease and is terrified of not having it. In some cases, the feeling of helplessness can lead to hopelessness, which can then lead to suicidal thoughts or attempts.

Solutions For Overcoming Learned Helplessness

Included are some DIY techniques.  However, it you struggle with them on your own, it is recommended to seek the help of a certified Mental Health Counselor.

When it comes to learned helplessness, the most important factor seems to be control. Humans need to feel they have some level of control over their lives. When someone feels as though they have no control, the feeling comes from a perception and perceptions are formed as a result of sensory input from our experiences in the world.

The good news is that because the feelings and behaviors associated with learned helplessness are the result of negative perceptions, they can be changed. Negative thinking may bring negative results because your thinking dictates who you are and where you’ll go. Changing perceptions involves changing thinking, but not just from negative to positive. It also requires changing the response to a stimulus from the one you have already learned (learned helplessness) by associating it with a new response.

There are some techniques that can help facilitate the development of new perceptions.

1. Reframing- Reframing was one of the first techniques developed and is still quite useful today. Part of its power comes from the fact that reframing can be performed with language alone. With reframing, you are training the part of the mind that causes a behavior (or response). Reframing works best when someone, ideally a therapist, is doing it with the person who has learned helplessness.

Steps of Reframing
• Identify the unwanted behavior. In the case of learned helplessness, the unwanted behavior is the immediate negative response to your perceived lack of control.
• Initiate communication with the ‘part’ of the client that is causing the behavior.
• Ask the ‘part’ to identify what the positive outcome of the behavior is (every behavior should have a positive outcome)
• Ask the ‘part’ to find several other ways to achieve the same outcome
• Gain the ‘parts’ agreement to try out the other behaviors to find a more useful behavior.

2. Belief Change- Since learned helplessness is a limiting belief about oneself; changing the belief can eliminate it. One technique that is used is called the Belief Change technique.

Steps for Belief Change-
• Identify a limiting belief you’d like to change. (E.g., I’ll always be overweight; I don’t ever have enough money, I can’t be happy because I have a mental illness). These beliefs are ‘negative affirmations’
• Construct a realistic/positive affirmation using the following form: I am xxxxx.

The keys to creating powerful affirmations are as follows:
Make them realistic and/or positive (What you want, not what you don’t want)
Make them identify-based (‘I’)
Make them present-tense (‘I am…’)
Make them emotionally powerful

▪ Say your new affirmation. Notice what thoughts and feelings are triggered and accept them. (The first time you say your new affirmation it will not seem ‘true’ to you. It is likely that you’ll have certain sensations and thoughts as a result, so be especially aware of any pictures that pop into your head, voices in your head, and feelings in your body. Often it is the feelings that keep an old belief in place, resisting the new one.)

▪ Reinforce your new belief by repeating your affirmation daily, allowing yourself to feel how you’ll feel when it’s true, and by noticing proof that supports it.

While learned helplessness is a behavioral response to certain perceptions we form about the world we live in, it is not a terminal illness. Learned helplessness is a behavioral response that can be changed through the use of some of these techniques that work toward changing perceptions from old negative thought patterns to new realistic/positive affirmations.

Written by: Charity M. Loring, LMSW

Loring Therapy LLC

loringtherapy.com

Adapted from Personality Disorder, Out of the Fog & Solutions for overcoming Learned Helplessness, D. Baret, Behavioral Brain Research 2005

Helping yourself during Depression

Self-Help for Depression

Depression can appear in our lives unexpectedly causing major issues with our health and well-being.  Some forms of depression are situational, seasonal, chronic, major, or depression linked to another mental health condition.  Regardless of type, depression can cause any number of unhealthy thoughts and behaviors.  There is treatment available in the form of talk therapy, monitored prescription medication use, and lifestyle changes.  We’ve all heard how exercising, diet changes, and adequate sleep can help depression.  But what if our depression gets in the way of being able to do those things?? If you’re stuck at this point, the key is to start small.  Break things down into manageable pieces.  We may not be able to get in a full exercise routine, but perhaps we can take a small walk.  Baby steps are essential to battling depression.  If we set goals that are too large then we can sink even deeper into depression when we don’t meet them.

Some other things we can do to alleviate our depression:  talk to a close friend or family member, join a support group, try to regularly see friends and family (even if it’s only briefly), remember things you enjoyed doing and take small steps to reincorporate them into your life, physical movement (start small), logical thinking, and avoiding things that contribute to depression.  Most of those things are self-explanatory, but let us take a closer look at logical thinking and avoidance.  What do we mean by logical thinking?  When you’re thinking negative thoughts that directly impact your mood, take the time to sit down and analyze why you’re thinking this way.  Ask yourself the following questions: is this a valid thought?  What evidence do I have to support this thought? Have I always felt this way? What are other explanations for how I feel?  What’s the worst that could happen, the best, the most realistic? How would I respond to a friend dealing with the same problem?  And, finally, what are the benefits or costs to thinking this way?  Taking the time to analyze our thought process often allows us to see the irrationality of our thoughts that contribute to depression.  Once we recognize that pattern we can take steps to change how we think.  In terms of avoidance, we want to avoid things like alcohol or substance abuse, locking ourselves away from others, and participating in any risky behavior.  These behaviors will only serve to deepen depression making the path to recovery longer and harder.  

Remember to be kind to yourself.  If none of these things help, consider contacting your medical doctor or mental health provider for more assistance.

   

Written by: Amanda Furca, Graduate Level Intern, 

Loring Therapy LLC

loringtherapy.com

Adapted from the WebMD Feature, “Help Yourself out of Depression,” by Martin Downs, MPH

http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/help-yourself-out-of-depression