Link – Learned Helplessness and Depression
It is a psychological state in which you may have learned to believe that you are helpless in particular situations. You may feel that you have no control over your life and “give up.” The result is that you have learned to remain passive in the face of unpleasant, harmful or damaging circumstances, even when you actually have the power to change things. You just don’t realize that you do.
Learned helplessness is further defined as the “giving up reaction” or “quitting response” that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter or doesn’t change things.
What’s difficult about this, is that when you grow up being abused, this is exactly what you learn! It is a struggle to see that you can change things as an adult, even though that is the truth.
