How to overcome apathy? 6 practical tips

Some simple tips to apply to your daily life and that you can use to leave apathy behind.

Apathy is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in many people who seek professional support from psychologists. While in certain quantities it is part of the normal life of the average human being and there is nothing wrong with feeling this way from time to time, the truth is that in some cases apathy becomes so present in the day to day that it is necessary to attend therapy.

But of course, there are always intermediate situations, in which this emotional state is felt as a problem but, at the same time, perhaps it is not so problematic as to attend psychology professionals. With this in mind, here we will see a series of tips on how to overcome apathy by introducing new habits into your life. into your life.

What do we understand by apathy?

As almost always happens with the concepts of the world of Psychology, there are several ways to define apathy, although all of them have a series of common elements. To summarize, we will say here that apathy is a feeling characterized by the absence of sources of motivation and a low predisposition to focus the mind on emotionally stimulating aspects of life..

Thus, apathy is related to affective flattening, that is, the lack of easily identifiable emotions, and also to the tendency not to spontaneously express feelings through non-verbal language, and not to focus attention on specific aspects of the present, due to the lack of interest in everything in general.

As I have advanced before, apathy is not in itself a very bad thing, nor does it constitute a psychological disorder, but when it is very persistent and greatly affects the person and his or her normal functioning in society, it is considered a symptom of a potential psychopathology or neurological disorder.. In the most extreme and clearly pathological cases, apathy becomes what we call abulia, which is the total inability to feel enthusiasm or interest. This phenomenon occurs mainly in psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, and also in dementia and other diseases linked to brain damage.

Apathy according to Csikszentmihalyi's flow model

Another way to understand apathy is through the flow model devised by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This researcher has developed an explanatory scheme that helps to understand the functioning of the emotional states of enthusiasm and involvement in tasks.The flow is a psychological state characterized by a perfect balance between the level of difficulty of the task we perform, on the one hand, and our level of competencies involved in that kind of activity, on the other hand. Flow would be a psychological state characterized by a perfect balance between the level of difficulty of the task we perform, on the one hand, and our level of competences involved in that kind of activity.

Thus, at the point where the task to be performed reaches the maximum point that we can successfully reach with our skills and knowledge, the state of flow appears, which leads us to direct all our attention to the challenge we are addressing and floods us with a sense of excitement and well-being, to the point that in many cases we lose track of time.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, apathy can be understood as the opposite of the state of flow: the practical absence of a state of mental stimulation and the lack of illusion and enthusiasm to carry out any specific actionThe lack of enthusiasm, that which assaults us when there is nothing that we interpret as a significant challenge for us or that requires us to put complex skills into practice. On the other hand, if the state of flow is characterized among other things by being punctual and based on a delicate balance that normally can only be maintained continuously for a few minutes, apathy can last much longer, and if it is linked to a psychopathology, it is even frequent that it is the "default" mental state of the person, and that it is maintained for months.

How to overcome apathy?

If you think you suffer from too much apathy, follow these tips to increase your chances of leaving behind the omnipresence of this psychological state in your life. However, if it is clear to you that it is causing you a lot of problems and that it is affecting you more and more, it is important that you go to therapy as soon as possible,

1. Check that you are getting enough sleep

Lack of sleep is an element capable of triggering affective and cognitive problems in the short term, just in a matter of a couple of days.It only takes a couple of days. Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases, when you return to a normal sleep pattern, these problems go away.

So, if your sleeping pattern is chaotic or insufficient, create a clear and detailed sleep schedule that records the exact time each day of the week that you go to sleep, making sure that you never sleep less than six and a half hours or more than eight and a half hours. What's more: also include a brief mention of the main activity you've been doing just before going to bed (for example, reading a novel), and print out the schedule so that you can hang it in a place in your home that you'll see frequently. This will make it easier for you to commit to this schedule.

2. Avoid drugs

There are many drugs whose known effects include the phenomenon of making us less sensitive to what used to give us pleasure or arouse interest in us. These anhedonic properties have been observed in cannabis, for example.. In addition, almost all drugs make us more prone to develop psychopathologies associated with apathy or abulia.

3. Make sure you are eating well

Mental health is, in practice, the same as the health of the whole body: a poorly functioning organism is more vulnerable to psychological problems.. Particularly if we lack vitamins or nutrients, it is not surprising that we feel apathy, since our body prioritizes the use of resources in basic Biological processes for survival, which have nothing to do with mental activity.

You may also feel apathy because you are suffering from anemia, a problem to some extent independent of what you have been eating. If you suspect this is the case, see your doctor as soon as possible.

4. Learn to manage time better

Many people feel apathy mainly because the responsibilities they have to take care of are so overwhelming that they can't even think about it.So they can't even entertain the idea of doing something they like or are interested in, because they don't have time for it. In this sense, focusing on following a well-designed schedule that allows you to complete those tasks at an appropriate time can be the key to overcoming apathy.

To increase your chances of success, make sure you are not neglecting rest times, which are critical to efficient performance. Be careful not to overdo it; if there are distractions that tempt you too much and lead you to procrastinate, limit your access to them before you start your day.

On the other hand, if you can't manage your time, don't worry.It is not uncommon for someone who is feeling apathetic to be unable to commit to a new set of habits on their own. If you need it, go to a psychologist so that with professional help, you will be able to transform your daily life.

5. Segment your objectives

It is easier to defeat apathy if you always have simple goals in front of you that you can achieve in a matter of minutes or a couple of hours. In this way, you will make it easier for your attention to stay focused and stop wandering. Once you have entered into this dynamic of interacting with your environment, this energy is likely to generalize to many other activities that you do, and to predispose you to the new energy.and predispose you to detect actions and projects that you are interested in carrying out.

6. Practice moderate exercise

Practicing exercise three or four times a week will help you maintain a physical and mental activity that will predispose you to adopt a more active role in your life. Make sure they are sessions of at least 35 minutes and that they do not lead you to force your muscles too much, to avoid injuries and pains that prevent you from following a frequent exercise routine.

Looking for psychological assistance?

If you notice that you are going through a time in your life when you are experiencing emotional or behavioral problems and you are looking for professional help to overcome them, I invite you to contact me. I am an expert psychologist in the cognitive-behavioral model, which is characterized by being very effective and adaptable to different needs to be covered, and that allows you to adopt new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that are more appropriate to meet the challenges of life. You can count on my services in person at my office in Madrid, or through the online psychology service by video call. If you are interested in knowing more about how I work, access this page where you will also find my contact details.

Bibliographical references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Masson, Barcelona.
• Bortolon, C.; Macgregor, A.; Capdevielle, D.; Raffard, S. (2018). "Apathy in schizophrenia: A review of neuropsychological and neuroanatomical studies". Neuropsychologia. 118 (Pt B): pp. 22 - 33.
• Levy, R. & Dubois, B. (2006). Apathy and the functional anatomy of the prefrontal cortex-basal ganglia circuits. Cereb. Cortex; 16(7): pp. 916 - 928.
• Martz, M.E. et. al. (2017). Association of Marijuana Use With Blunted Nucleus Accumbens Response to Reward Anticipation. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(8): pp. 838 - 844.
• Nobis, L.; Husain, M. (2018). Apathy in Alzheimer's disease. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 22: pp. 7 - 13.
• Radakovic, R.; Stephenson, L.; Colville, S.; Swingler, R.; Chandran, S.; Abrahams, S. (2016). Multidimensional apathy in ALS: validation of the Dimensional Apathy Scale. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 87(6): pp. 663 - 669.