Do you feel that sometimes you have no control over what happens in life?
Sometimes we go through periods where we dont see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Keep watching because you will learn what learned helplessness is, see if you have it,
and how to overcome it.
My name is Jerry and this channel has videos on how to improve yourself so if you are new
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Lets begin.
Let’s look at it from the psychology experiment conducted on this topic.
There are 3 groups of dogs.
One group received shocks and that they couldnt control.
Ouch.
For the second group, there was a lever to press to stop the shock when it happened.
The third group was just strapped and didnt receive any shocks.
When tested in a different situation, all 3 groups had the opportunity to stop the shock
by jumping over a short wall.
You would think all groups would stop it right?
What happened next was the first group that endured the shocks and took them didnt try
to stop getting shocked, even though there were actions that could have been made to
change their situation.
Learned helplessness is when someone feels like they have no control over what happens,
so they tend to simply give up and accept their fate.
Its like failing so much that you accept you will just fail in life.
Heres an example in the real world.
A man who feels shy in social situations may eventually begin to feel that there is nothing
he can do to overcome his symptoms.
This sense that his symptoms are out of his direct control may lead him to stop trying
to engage himself in social situations, which will make his shyness even worse.
It is said that learned helplessness often originates from ones childhood.
Repeated experiences that contribute to more feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
can result in growing into adulthood ultimately feeling that there is nothing one can do to
change his or her problems.
Symptoms of learned helplessness are low self esteem, passivity, poor motivation, giving
up easily, lack of effort, frustration, procrastination, and not asking for help.
This is very a dangerous situation to be in because you lose your personal power and self
love.
You will start creating bad habits and self sabotaging yourself because you believe you
are destined to fail.
But ultimately, some say that this is a result of the capitalist system.
We are taught to go out there and get it.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
It's wrong to ask.
We have to earn our own way.
And so some people sit alone, helpless.﻿ If you feel this way, know that you can get
help from others.
There are multiple parts of learned helplessness.
The first is that when you feel helpless, you think the problem will last forever.
The second is that you believe that one problem that lead you to feel helpless is the thing
that is destroying your life and makes you a failure in life.
These combined is why learned helplessness is so dangerous.
You are allowing that one issue to take over your entire life.
But, it is possible to have learned helplessness from multiple negative areas in your life.
This increases the chance of severe depression and you want to seek help if you are in this
situation.
Now how did they get the dogs to overcome learned helplessness?
Treats and encouragements didnt work.
The researchers had to physically move the dogs away from the shock area at least twice
before the dogs learned they could control their fate.
For other dogs, it took way more than 2 times.
Now what about us?
The first thing is to start noticing them.
When are you having these negative thoughts?
Try following up the negative thoughts to positive thoughts.
When you are thinking about the things you can and cant change, start thinking that you
can change more than you can.
A lot of things seem impossible until it is done.
Start working on something you can change so you start slowly overcoming the limiting
belief.
You want to be less negative because negative thoughts will attract negative outcomes in
your life.
You also dont have to deal with learned helplessness alone.
Therapy is a great choice to help overcome learned helplessness.
Together with a professional, you can learn the origins of your helplessness, replace
old and harmful beliefs with new and healthy beliefs, and develop a sense of self love.
If you want an activity right now that can help, notice how you feel right now and then
list down 5 things you are hopeful for in the next day, month or year.
Maybe its a promotion or getting a relationship or starting a business.
It doesnt have to be as grand as those.
If you feel helpless, simpler goals will be better.
Be specific and focus on what really motivates you.
After you are done, try noticing how you feel after this activity.
You might feel a bit more motivated and hopeful.
You feel more positive because you can see the goals in front of your eyes.
You made them clear and can now go and try to achieve them.
Even if they are small, knowing you can control what happens in your life can really help
free you from learned helplessness.
Heres a really interesting way to reduce learned helplessness.
Take it with a grain of salt.
Research from psychologist Carol Dweck showed that failure can help reduce learned helplessness.
In her 1975 study on the subject, participants who experienced extreme reactions to failure
were split into two groups.
So one group received intensive training in which they failed tasks and were guided to
take responsibility for their failure and attribute it to lack of effort.
The other received intensive training in which they only experienced success.
The results showed that those in the success only treatment showed no improvement in their
extreme reactions to failure, while the group that failed showed a marked improvement.
On the other hand, there is learned optimism.
This is the opposite of learned helplessness.
If you were to start being more optimistic, you can slowly get rid of learned helplessness.
Develop a sense of persistence where you keep going.
This takes time and you should definitely look into it.
Thanks for watching.
If you want more of my content, check out this playlist on emotional mastery or watching
my other videos.