{"id":118195,"date":"2020-02-25T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/?p=118195"},"modified":"2023-03-13T16:05:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T16:05:33","slug":"learned-helplessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/learned-helplessness.htm","title":{"rendered":"Learned Helplessness – Does Life Constantly Overwhelm You?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"learned<\/a>

By: DeeAshley<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

by Andrea M. Darcy<\/span><\/p>\n

Tend to feel overwhelmed easily by life? <\/strong>Like things are just beyond you? ‘Learned helplessness\u2019 is a behavioural pattern that can be changed. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is learned helplessness? <\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0Somewhere along the line in childhood, you learned you <\/strong>couldn’t control<\/a> things around you, and decided to stop trying to help yourself. <\/span><\/p>\n

The term comes from a series of rather horrible<\/strong> psychological tests led by American psychologist Martin Seligman<\/a> [1] in the 1960s, using electric shocks on dogs. The end conclusion being that if a dog suffered repeatedly, in a way that was beyond it\u2019s control, it would then not take an opportunity to escape suffering if one was presented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Neuroscience later proved it\u2019s not that we<\/strong> \u2018accept\u2019 that we are helpless. Rather it’s that we actually learn the behaviour of helplessness as an appropriate reaction to stress<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

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So learned helplessness means that when we face a stressful situation we can\u2019t control, we have no motivation to change it or take action to deal with it, even when there are things that we could do to help ourselves. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What does learned helplessness look like? <\/span><\/h2>\n

If you suffer from learned helplessness, difficult situations will see you:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n