Does anything turn you on? That is, it arouses emotional interest? Anything? Your present, future? Or complete apathy? This state speaks to you about important things! Look! “Without excitement and without passion” - this is how “apathy” is translated into Russian. This is the difference from boredom and laziness (not associated with energy burnout). Boredom is a mental reluctance to do anything, to concentrate on the process. Laziness is a physical lack of motivation to perform any action. Both are associated with a lack of desire, motivation, but with the presence of strength, energy, and internal excitement in you. With apathy, the “vessel” is empty. (More about boredom and laziness - HERE) The reasons can be physiological and psychological. In depressive personality disorder, both are both, and everything is interconnected. Tests will help determine biology: lack of hormones, vitamins and microelements, and so on. It will be difficult, sometimes impossible, to manage without medications. We look for psychological reasons through thinking. How do you evaluate yourself, your present, your future, and so on. At what point did the excitement and passion for something disappear? It happens that a person overloads himself with work in an attempt to escape from fear or shame, to earn love. Burns out under the influence of self-esteem “I am worthy of respect when I am the best, the first.” The absence of any emotions in a person (including excitement) is often a defensive reaction of the body in a situation that cannot be changed. Not correcting it in reality or in the imagination is not important, since for the brain both are reasons to fall into apathy. Our reptilian brains are programmed to do: fight, flight, freeze. The latter reaction is akin to apathy. Do you agree? As a cognitive therapist, I help identify thoughts that lead to apathy. Aaron Beck described a negative triad of (depressive) thoughts: about myself (I'm a loser/worse than everyone else); about the world and environment (No one respects me, no one loves me); about the future (There is nothing good ahead, everything is useless). The presence of all voiced facets in thinking leads to apathy and worse. You can and should work with this and change it. Having discovered the cognitive reasons for this condition, you can move on (physicians help identify them). As a behavioral therapist, in such a difficult condition I insist on making adjustments to physical activity (but not with dysthymia - high-grade depression). The main thing is to understand that apathy is temporary. Is the difference between apathy and boredom, laziness clear? With respect to you, practicing psychologist, member of the AKPP, author of books Peter Galigarov - I help individuals who want to improve their relationships! Sign up for a consultation HERE.