In India, when elephants are babies, they are tied to a stake with a thick chain to be trained and prevented from escaping. The baby elephant tries to escape many times, but cannot break the chain. Years pass, the baby elephant grows and is still in chains. Now the elephant is strong, he has the power to break the chain and pull the stake, but the elephant does not even try to escape. Because he believes that he cannot be free. What can no longer be broken is not the chain on which the elephant is tied, but the belief of the elephant. So why isn’t the elephant trying? Why doesn’t he try?
The fleas, which are placed in a glass-covered bell jar, crash into the glass and fall into the jar every time they try to jump out. After a while, even if the glass cover is removed, the fleas cannot get out by just jumping in the size of the lantern. Because they believed they couldn’t get out. Why can’t he jump? What is this phenomenon? Do people have an answer?
“Whatever I do makes no difference in the end.”
“What job of mine went well so that this should go!”
“Even if I speak, he won’t understand me.”
“Even if I try, I won’t be successful.”
“I can’t, how can I do it?”
“No, I cannot take leave. Ours won’t allow it.”
If you have heard these sentences, it means that you have heard the equivalent of this phenomenon in humans. If the individual’s reactions do not consistently lead to a result, the individual, who believes that he cannot change the result even if he reacts, stops reacting because of this belief. He now believed that he would fail. Does this sound familiar to you? Let me introduce you. “Learned helplessness.”
For example, an individual who applies for a job gets a refusal all the time, he thinks that he will be rejected even if he goes to the next interview, and he no longer applies for a job. He thinks he won’t be hired anyway. He does not accept the situation and look for a job.
While the risk of experiencing learned helplessness may decrease or increase in proportion to the experiences of individuals, it is thought that the starting point of learned helplessness is childhood. It mostly occurs after repeated traumatic events such as childhood abuse (emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical violence, physical neglect and sexual abuse), domestic violence.
Some common symptoms of learned helplessness in children include:
– Low self-confidence
– Passivity
– Low motivation
– Don’t give up quickly
– Lack of effort
– Disappointment
– Procrastination behavior
– Not asking for help
Also, learned helplessness can cause anxiety and depression, or both.
How can we eliminate learned helplessness?
There are many ways to deal with learned helplessness. If you think you are experiencing learned helplessness, you can review your past experiences that may have caused this with the help of a therapist. The aim of therapy is to identify negative thought patterns that contribute to the individual’s feelings of learned helplessness and to replace these thoughts with more rational and optimistic thoughts.
