How Trauma Therapy Can Help Learned Helplessness.
Learned helplessness is a mental state in which a person, after experiencing a traumatic stimulus, comes to believe that a bad situation is unavoidable or unescapable. The dread of the situation leaves the person feeling helpless and unable to do anything to change the outcome.
The theory was developed by Martin Seligman and Steven Maier in 1967. They were studying dog behavior. Seligman and Maier placed some dogs in a crate and administered them a light electric shock. The psychologists noted that after the first few times, the dogs did not try to escape. Instead, they lay still and gave up trying (they accepted that they couldn’t avoid the electric shocks).
Learned helplessness occurs when a person feels, no matter how hard they try, they cannot control the outcome of a situation. As a result, they become helpless and stop trying to fight the situation all together. Trauma therapists use the study of Seligman and Maier to help diagnose, understand, and treat their patient suffering from learned helplessness.
If for example, a person who has been doing drugs for years unsuccessfully tries to turn a new leaf, they may end up believing that they cannot overcome addiction and may resign to their fate. Similarly, a person, after several failed interviews, may stop applying for jobs.
People with learned helplessness often end up believing that they are a failure. People who have had a traumatic past are at high risk of developing learned helplessness. Childhood abuse can leave an indelible mark on a person’s psyche increasing their vulnerability to mental health conditions including learned helplessness.
A person with learned helplessness does not stop trying because they’re lazy, lack motivation or have a laid-back attitude, but because they have come to believe that they have no power to control their situation and any efforts that they make will end in failure.
If you are struggling with learned helplessness, give trauma therapy near you a try. Therapists are trained to identify the signs of learned helplessness. They have the skills and experience required to connect the dots and get to the root cause of the problem (the why behind their patients’ learned helplessness).
Therapists encourage their patients to inculcate self-belief. They help people with learned helplessness get past a traumatic experience and, thereby, unlearn learned helplessness. The main aim of therapy is to
➢ Explore the origins of learned helplessness
➢ Provide people with learned helplessness emotional support and encouragement
➢ Equip people with the skills required to manage learned helplessness
➢ Identify negative thoughts that contribute to learned helplessness and help patients overcome them
Calm Again Counseling is committed to helping individuals break the shackles of learned helplessness. Our counselors use evidence-based trauma therapy to help their patients manage and recover from trauma induced injuries. To book an appointment, call (415) 480-5192.