Have you heard people say,
"I want to get into the flow."
That's an actual thing.
It's a state that's opposite the state of apathy.
I'm Dr. Tracey Marks,
a psychiatrist and I make mental health education videos.
Apathy is one of those mental states
that can be very debilitating.
You really don't care about anything.
Apathy can be defined as reduced motivation
to engage in goal-directed activities across three domains,
initiative, interest, and emotional responsiveness.
You can be become apathetic as a result of depression,
schizophrenia, neurologic disorders like stroke,
traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease,
and dementias like Alzheimer's.
Another thing that can cause apathy
is antidepressant medication.
I talk about this in a video that I did
on becoming emotionally blunted from antidepressants.
The emotional blunting would be an example
of the third domain of emotional responsiveness.
You can feel like you don't have
much of a reaction to things.
You can't get super excited,
but you also don't feel super sad either.
You just feel flatlined.
And that problem can be improved
by decreasing your antidepressant just a little.
And of course, this is something that you'd want to do
with your doctor.
But the full experience of apathy also involves
just being in this place of just existing.
You're not motivated to do anything.
And more than that,
you don't care whether or not you do something.
And even though this sounds like it could be a nice,
relaxed, low-key state, it's not.
It actually causes internal distress and dissatisfaction,
even if you don't express it.
Motivation requires that you are willing to do the work,
that you do can sustain the attention
and effort towards the work,
and you find that the work is worth your effort.
Apathy is not the same as feeling depressed,
but some people can have a hard time telling the difference.
You don't feel like yourself.
You can't get engaged in things like you used to.
And it may cause problems in relationships
because you emotionally detach from people around you.
Now, you don't have to be depressed to experience apathy.
You can have waves of apathy that are triggered
by situational factors like losing your job,
or being isolated because of a prolonged quarantine.
A psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
who I'll refer to as Dr. C,
developed a model of psychological states.
And these states are based on your level
of mental and emotional engagement in an activity.
Your engagement is determined by your skills
and how much the activity challenges you.
And out of this construct came the concept of flow state,
which is the opposite of apathy.
And this is how the model looks.
You have a graph with challenge level on the Y axis
and skill level on the X axis.
At the top of the graph,
you have arousal that represents high challenges
and mid-range level skills.
The opposite of that is boredom,
where you have low challenges with the mid-range skills.
In this corner, you have anxiety that represents
challenging situations with a low-skill level
to handle the situations.
The opposite of that is relaxation,
where you have the skills, but the challenge is low.
Next is worry, which has a mid-range challenge level
with low skills.
The opposite of that is being in a state of control.
Apathy is at the bottom of the graph
where you're not challenged
and you don't have the skills to deal with the challenges.
The opposite of that is a flow state
with a high level of challenge and a high skill level.
This is where you want to be,
and inducing a flow state is a way to overcome apathy.
The flow state happens where you're fully immersed
in an activity that's challenging and requires your skills,
knowledge, or creativity.
Dr. C first observed this behavior in musicians
who could play their instrument
and completely tune out their environment.
They would often lose track of time,
and emerge from the activity feeling great satisfaction.
It was like they entered into a meditative state
where they feel like they're just one with the activity.
And in the state,
they were able to block out external problems and judgments
and limit their awareness
to their own thoughts and the activity.
Doesn't that sound like a beautiful place to be?
You're not worrying about problems
or thinking about things that you don't want to do.
You're just in this zone of contentment.
There are different activities
that can trigger a flow state,
but your choice of activity depends on your personal style
and what challenges and interests you.
The Flow Genome Project has done a lot of work in this area
and developed a set of profiles that dictate
what kinds of activities are more likely to engage you
and create this positive mental state.
They have a free assessment on their website
that you can take by answering 10 questions,
and it will tell you what profile you fall under.
Their four profiles are Crowd Pleaser,
the Flow Goer, the Hard Charger, and the Deep Thinker.
Activities for the Crowd Pleaser would be things like
attending festivals and conferences,
or getting consumed with social media.
Activities for the Flow Goer would be yoga,
meditation, and growth retreats.
Activities for the Hard Charger would be adventure sports
like hiking or rock climbing or travel.
I took the assessment
and was classified as the Deep Thinker.
This didn't surprise me.
I know that I feel my most charged up
when I have adequate time alone
to think without interruptions.
Flow activities for the Deep Thinker
are creative things like painting or gardening,
or other mentally intensive activities
like digital photography or gaming.
Even if you're not that in tune with what you enjoy doing,
here are some general activities that have been known
to induce a flow state in people.
Swimming, cooking or baking,
cycling, running, and Tai Chi,
which is sometimes called shadow boxing.
And it's similar to yoga but involves more movement.
So to recap, apathy is a negative mental state
of low motivation and feeling like
things have little meaning or value.
You can overcome this by working to achieve a flow state,
which is a positive mental state
where you're absorbed in activities
that are sufficiently challenging to keep you interested,
but are not too hard for you to feel mastery
and control over the activity.
What you do to get into a flow state
depends on how you're wired.
The assessment at the Flow Genome Project
can give you some ideas of activities that you can pursue.
For more information on apathy
as a subtle sign of depression, along with some other signs,
take a look at this video that I did.
Thanks for watching.
See you next time.