If thoughts such as “Nothing interests me. Everything is meaningless. I don’t care what happens next. Nothing matters…” you may also be suffering from apathy.
Apathy, severe environmental indifference, indifference and insensitivity. While healthy individuals react positively or negatively to all the events they experience, individuals with apathy remain unresponsive.
apathy syndrome, “although not always” It can be seen in psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, burnout syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, pick’s disease, ataraxia.
Their energy and desires have disappeared, they are almost as if they are prisoners of absolute physical and mental dullness.
Poet Mario Benedetti “Time passes but I do nothing, nothing happens and nothing excites me I get that awful feeling that makes me feel like he said years ago. This mood prevails in apathy; indifference, insensitivity to the whole world, emotional depression, numbness, unresponsiveness are seen.
Apathy is usually seen in patients whose life has been painful and traumatized.
In such a psychiatric condition, although it is desired to calm the patient by giving antidepressant drugs to the patients, in this case the patients side effect As a result, they can become completely introverted, indifferent, apathetic and unresponsive.
Since the patient feels as if he is completely absent, he treats his surroundings as well.
In such cases, the person isolated from all It drives itself into loneliness and aims to disappear. Apathy is a very common syndrome, especially in people who are forbidden in closed areas and lost within the rules. It’s like they hit the “stop” button in life.
There is no single source of apathy. It can depend on multiple factors and you definitely need to consider all of them. Some of these reasons are as follows:
- Anemia
- some infections
- weak immune system
- Nutritional deficiencies
- lack of sleep
- lack of exercise
- thyroid problems
- Possibility of onset of dementia. Essentially, you should keep in mind that apathy is one of the most common neuropsychiatric manifestations in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Similarly, brain injuries due to traumatic accidents can also be a cause of indifference.
- Malfunction of the limbic system or the connection between the frontal cortex and the basal ganglia.
- substance abuse
- Bipolar disorder
- major depression
- dysthymia
- high anxiety levels
- environmental factors
While it is true that depression sometimes accompanies apathy, this is not always the case. Apathy isn’t always part of depression. Some people have been diagnosed with depressive disorder without apathy, and vice versa.
Apathy became more known after World War I.
Living in the trenches amid bombing and machine-gun fire, and seeing the battlefields littered with dead and crippled friends when soldiers return from war they developed a feeling of intense disinterest in normal social interaction. Although it is not that severe, apathy may develop due to situations caused by daily life.
Living in environments where there are no positive stimuli can naturally lead to depressive thoughts and an apathy-infested state of mind.
where nothing seems attractive and feeling stuck in a routine or stressed out, they often live with frustration and apathy.
To get out of this situation psychological therapy should be sought. It may be good to get rid of the routine, try new activities, change the environment, meet new people, and find new interests. Physical exercise and a balanced diet, being in contact with nature, and practicing disciplines such as yoga may also be beneficial.
Sources: 1, 2