Depression often occurs together with 'learned helplessness'. This means that you often have the feeling that there is nothing that you can change about a situation. After a while, you just let everything happen to you, because you have the feeling that you no longer are capable of dealing with the situation. This feeling often affects whether or not a person looks for help. Many people with depression have the feeling that there is nothing that can help them to get out of their situation. You can experience the feeling that others are not there for you or that they do not understand the situation which you are in, meaning you feel that pressure keeps building up. At the other hand it can be so that you have the feeling that there is too much that is expected of you. You can no longer manage to comply with the needs of other people, because you no longer have the energy for this. Above you can read an example regarding why people might feel helpless. It can be so that you experience other causes of helplessness.
Helplessness? What is it?
Helplessness is a feeling which will consume you entirely after a while. In the beginning you want to push this away and you think 'I can do something about this and I will try everything I can to improve the situation'. If the situation then ends up in a depression after all, it often is so that you have the feeling that there is nothing which you can do about the situation anymore, meaning you just give up. Helplessness is the feeling where you no longer feel capable of dealing with situations,. This can be so because you, for example, have low self-esteem. You no longer believe in your own capacities, because you constantly get to hear that you cannot do it. It could also be so that you, for example, constantly feel pressure to such an extent that you get the feeling that it never is good enough.
Helplessness? What are the consequences?
Helplessness can have large consequences. We often see that people in the later stage of depression experience more severe levels of helplessness. In this last stage people no longer experience anything, nothing positive nor negative. They end up in some sort of apathetic state. Helplessness will add to this feeling, because you 'cannot treat you depression anymore anyway'.
Helplessness? How do I deal with this?
Helplessness can be rooted very deeply in depression. That is why it is useful to start looking for help as early as possible, because your feeling of helplessness can get worse. After a while it can then be so that you reach a stage where you no longer have the courage to deal with the situation. This helplessness is a symptom of depression. You can deal with your helplessness and depression symptoms by following the online program by 15 Minutes 4 Me, for example. The program is inspired by therapeutic techniques in order to let you choose a personal coping style, enabling you once again to pick an option which makes you stronger.
Helplessness? Take the depression test!
As helplessness is a symptom of depression, it can be useful to test your depression symptoms at the hand of our depression test!
