The 6 differences between boredom and apathy: how to distinguish them?

A summary of the main differences between boredom and apathy, often confused.

Sometimes we experience emotions or sensations that bear a certain resemblance to one another and this can lead to confusion.

On this occasion we are going to break down the main differences between boredom and apathyIn this occasion we are going to break down the main differences between boredom and apathy, knowing first what characterizes each one of them in order to learn to distinguish them easily, putting the focus in those elements in which both sensations diverge.

What do we understand by boredom and apathy?

Although at certain times we may have doubts about what exactly we are feeling, the truth is that there are differences between boredom and apathy that help us to distinguish them and to be able to correctly label our state. But for this, the first thing we must be clear about is what each of these feelings consists of, so we will start by defining them in order to have the basis we need before moving on.

Boredom is a feeling of discomfort that a person experiences when he/she is living a certain situation that does not produce interest or motivation.. It usually occurs in the face of repetitive stimuli or stimuli that cause the subject to tire quickly. It can also be generated precisely when there is a lack of stimuli.

On the contrary, apathy has to do with a state of indifference to stimuli.. The person suffering from this condition would show a lack of emotionality and enthusiasm. He would have lost the motivation to carry out any activity, whatever it may be. It would not be a response to a specific stimulus, but it would be a generalized state in this person.

Once we have made this first approach to both concepts, we can delve into the differences between boredom and apathy to further distinguish correctly these two phenomena.

The main differences between boredom and apathy

We will now go on to compile a list of the main differences between boredom and apathy.

1. The question of desire

The first clear difference that we find in this matter is given by the desire to perform an action. When we speak of boredom, the person wishes to perform an action other than the one he is doing (if he is doing any). (if he is doing any). But the case of apathy is different. An individual who is experiencing apathy is not going to want to perform either the activity he is doing or any other activity. He does not want to do any of them.

2. Motivation

Another difference between boredom and apathy comes from the motivation pathway. A person who is bored is motivated to perform an activity that satisfies him/her, since the situation he/she is living in at that particular moment does not please him/her, either because of lack of activity or because the activity he/she is performing is tedious.

However, during the state of apathy, however, there is no such motivation to engage in any activity.. The person is in a state of total loss of interest in performing any exercise, whatever it may be.

3. The goal

If we focus on the purpose or usefulness of these states, we may observe that Boredom is acting as a warning signal to the individual.The apathy of the person would be a stimulus to move him towards the search of another type of action that satisfies him, so in a certain way it would be an impeller to make the person direct his behavior towards activities that would be positive for him.

On the contrary, apathy does not drive the person to act, but quite the opposite. It would be plunging him into a kind of lethargy by which he would not feel like initiating any kind of action. Therefore, we observe that this is one of the great differences between boredom and apathy.

4. Cause

As for the cause, boredom may simply come from a lack of motivation towards the specific task (or non-task) and a desire to perform another, as we have already seen. But apathy, in some cases, may have a pathological component.. In fact, it is considered that at the clinical level, a continued state of apathy may be an indicator of risk for depression.

In other cases, when it is considered that it does not reach the level of minor depression, it can be included within the dissociative identity disorder. In addition, it must be taken into account that sometimes apathy can also have a chemical origin, for example as a side effect of taking certain drugs.

5. Symptom

Continuing with the differences between boredom and apathy, we see that apathy can represent a symptom in a variety of diseases, starting with depression, as we have already seen in the previous point. But it can also be can also be observed in patients suffering from other pathologies, such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Wernicke's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's diseaseWernicke's disease or schizoid personality disorder.

As for boredom, it has no clinical significance in itself, since it is a transitory state that usually disappears when the person finds a task that motivates him/her more or that for whatever reason is more pleasant, thus ending his/her frustration.

6. Remedy

Another point that is one of the differences between boredom and apathy is the remedy that can be given.

In the case of boredom, it seems clear that the solution would lie in finding a purpose with which to spend time in an enjoyable way.. Active entertainment is more enriching than passive entertainment in that sense, which would act as a sort of temporary stopgap.

Therefore, it seems that boredom can be remedied in a reasonably simple way, with multiple ways to do so, since it is usually not a single activity that can eliminate boredom, but a great variety of them. The only thing the subject needs is to find one and get down to work to eliminate the unpleasant sensation in which he is immersed.

But apathy has more complex roots and therefore requires more elaborate solutions. This is especially true when we are talking about clinical apathy, as we saw in the previous points. At that point, the help of a professional psychologist will be required, since apathy would be a symptom within a pathology that requires therapy to be healed.

The dangers of chronic boredom

We have reviewed a number of differences between boredom and apathy to realize that they are actually very different concepts, and apathy apparently involves greater complexity and risks than boredom. However, there is a form of boredom that can also carry some dangers. This is chronic boredom.

There is a profile of people who, when faced with continuous situations of boredom, may experience such discomfort that they will significantly increase the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors to try to compensate for the feeling of boredom. to try to compensate for this feeling. Such behaviors include the consumption of substances such as alcohol or drugs.

Others may try to alleviate the anxiety produced by boredom through disproportionate food intake, and may even develop of food, and may develop eating disorders such as bulimia.

Obviously, these are extreme cases and also tremendously complex, which would have to be analyzed in detail, since it is most likely that the problem involved another series of variables that would have ended up causing this situation in the individual.

Apathy and abulia

Going deeper into the differences between boredom and apathy, we will devote more attention to some of the characteristics of the latter. This affective state supposes in the individual, as we have already seen, an emotional flattening, in which he feels neither positive nor negative emotions. His lethargy leads him not to channel emotionally any stimulus, neither in one sense nor in the other.

But in addition, apathy is usually accompanied by another phenomenon, which is abulia.. It is a psychopathological state in which the person has lost the unwillingness to carry out any activity and also feels that he/she does not even have enough energy to do so. Therefore, it is submerged in an emotional flattening and without the strength or desire to participate in any activity or exercise.

Not all the cases of people with apathy show such an extreme symptomatology.However, when this is the case, we would enter the field of pathology and therefore the individual should receive the necessary psychological help to overcome it and recover an adequate affective state, since we have already seen that in many cases apathy can be the prelude to depression.

After this compendium of differences between boredom and apathy, we now have the tools to distinguish between the two phenomena and to understand in which cases we should refer to each of them.

Referencias bibliográficas:

• Corvinelli, A. (2005). Alleviating boredom in adult males recovering from substance use disorder. Occupational Therapy in Mental Health. Taylor & Francis.
• Goldberg, Y.K., Eastwood, J.D., LaGuardia, J., Danckert, J. (2011). Boredom: An emotional experience distinct from apathy, Anhedonia, or depression. Journal of Social and Clinical.- Guilford Press.
• Mann, R.S. (1990). Differential diagnosis and classification of apathy. Am J Psychiatry. Citeseer.
• Marin, R.S. (1996). Apathy: concept, syndrome, neural mechanisms, and treatment. Seminars in clinical neuropsychiatry.