I’m tired of living: causes and what to do to return to normality

This feeling can go hand in hand with a depressive condition. We tell you how to overcome it.

Most people want to live. Whether they are in a moment of sadness or in a vital moment of maximum splendor and joy, almost everyone wants to enjoy their remaining days, which are expected to be as numerous and peaceful as possible.

However, some people find themselves in a situation in which some people find themselves in a situation where the desire to carry on seems to have diminished or even disappeared.. They say they are tired of living. But what does someone who says they are tired of living mean? Where does this tiredness come from?

Throughout this article we will try to give some answers to these questions.

• Recommended article: "Types of depression: its symptoms, causes and characteristics".

Tired of living: what are we talking about?

It is possible to define the feeling of being tired of living as (or vital tiredness or fatigue) as the loss of physical, mental and emotional strength and energy required by the will to stay alive, which is not due to the effects of an illness and which is not the result of a particular experience.

While the feeling of exhaustion and weariness and loss of motivation is quite common after situations of great emotional pain, life fatigue goes beyond this: it involves the cessation or diminution of the desire to go on living, a situation in which thoughts of death often arise or the vision of it as something appetizing. It is a tiredness and fatigue that is generally maintained over time.

Although in some cases it may not be pathological per se (the consideration of what life or death means may vary according to the culture and the vision of each person), it is usually strongly associated with depressive symptomatology.

Symptoms

In fact, the vital fatigue is linked to very common symptoms in depressive pictures and disorders, and usually hides behind it some kind of depressive syndromeThe appearance of anhedonia or inability to feel pleasure or enjoyment in activities that we used to like and the abulia or lack of will to act are common elements of both life fatigue and depressive disorders, along with thoughts of death.

Likewise, one of the most relevant aspects associated with life fatigue is hopelessness, in which there is no expectation that the future will bring something better or we do not consider that we have a significant role in it.

It is more common that feelings and thoughts of vital fatigue in very old people, although occasionally cases are found in young individuals.Although cases are occasionally found in younger individuals. Often it is about people who accumulate personal losses or who no longer have something that allows them to feel rooted to the world, or who suffer from a history of pain and suffering from which they are not able to get rid of. Sometimes it is a very meditated feeling or sensation on the part of the one who manifests it, not being the product of a sudden emotional outburst.

The presence of fatigue or vital fatigue can lead to an active search for suicide, being a relevant risk factor. However, someone who claims to be tired of living does not always want to die. In fact, this situation could often be reversed if the person could find a role, a role or a motive that would lead him or her to actively engage and participate in the world, or if he or she could change the pain he or she is in (whether physical or mental).

Possible Causes

As mentioned above, symptoms typical of depressive syndromes and disorders can be found in most cases. One of the most common is major depression, in which sadness and anhedonia, together with hopelessness, passivity and thoughts of death and suicide (among other possible symptoms) cause clinically significant distress to the sufferer or alter his or her functioning for at least two weeks.

In addition to major depression, another disorder that can be deeply linked to the appearance of this vital fatigue is dysthymia, also known as persistent depressive disorder. The continuity of symptoms (less severe than those of major depression but which remain almost every day for at least two years), can lead to a persistent and prolonged weariness and fatigue of life.

Even if they do not meet the diagnostic criteria for these or other depressive disorders, the symptomatology may exist in a subsyndromic manner. Most people who are tired of living have a profound sense of hopelessness and rootlessness. Many of them feel detached from the world or feel that their role has passed and they cannot find a reason to anchor themselves to the world. and do not find a motive that anchors them to life. and a lack of visualization of the possibility that such a motive exists.

Some people have found themselves in this situation due to the experience of traumatic situations (as in the case of the young Dutch teenager who died in 2019 after having stopped eating and drinking, as a result of her desire to stop living after having suffered multiple sexual assaults since the age of eleven).

Others are at a delicate moment in their lives when they have lost capacities and have seen all or a large part of their environment (family of origin, partner, friends and sometimes even descendants) pass away, losing most of what made them feel part of this world.

Another of the most common causes of the emergence of life fatigue is continued suffering, the presence of a terminal illness with no expectation of recovery, or the progressive loss of abilities.. Examples of this are found in cancers and dementias, in which the expectation of a painful process with no options for improvement or the loss of skills and abilities caused by degeneration can lead those in such a situation to rethink whether they want to continue living.

What to do?

Vital fatigue is a severe problem since it generates great suffering to those who suffer it.. Treating it can be very complex, and can be carried out from a multidisciplinary approach. In many cases the treatment can be that of major depression or dysthymia.

1. Psychological treatment

At the psychological level, aspects such as the person's beliefs, the meaning of life and death, life expectations or the vision of the future should be worked on.

If dysfunctional elements are present, techniques such as cognitive restructuring can be used to modify cognitive biases and maladaptive beliefs that may be at the root of life fatigue. It is also helpful to help form goals, both short and long term, that are meaningful and relevant to the individual. Thus, it is necessary to work on the individual's life project, as well as his or her values, desires and plans for the future.

Situations such as loneliness or the presence of illnesses can also be worked on to help analyze the personal situation and make decisions in case of need. At the pharmacological level, the administration of antidepressants can be helpful in order to reduce feelings of sadness and anhedonia.

2. Intervention in the social context

Another type of action has to do with the sociocultural and political context, working on some of the sociocultural problems that cause these problems to appear and cause despair and the fact that a large number of people are tired of living: the lack of social visibility of populations such as the elderly, loneliness, the lack of a role or a role to play or the perpetuation of a liquid social model, with few referents and unstable values.

New policies must be put in place to give visibility to parts of society that have been made invisible, such as different minorities or members of the elderly.such as different minorities or members of the increasingly prevalent elderly. Educating in more stable values and generating referents in the different vital moments can be of great utility, as well as providing desirable roles and roles to fulfill in the different ages.

Bibliographical references:

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• Blazer, D. G., Kessler, R. C., McGonagle, K. A. y Swartz, M. S. (1994). The prevalence and distribution of major depression in a national community sample: The National Comorbidity Survey. Am. J. Psychiat.
• Rubinow, D. R., Schmidt, P. J. y Roca, C. A. (1998). Estrogen-serotonin interactions: Implications for affective regulation. Biological Psychiatry.
• Torralba, F. (2017). El cansancio vital. Una exploración filosófica. Bioètica & debat, 23 (82).
• Whooley, M. A. y Browner, W. S. (1998). Association between depressive symptoms and mortality in older women. Arch Intern Med.