Blog Post Two: Learned Helplessness

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Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, nothing changes, so you just stop trying altogether? If so, you have experienced learned helplessness. Learned helplessness occurs when a person who has experienced repeated challenges comes to believe that they have no control over their situation, which then leads to them accepting their fate and giving up trying to make changes. (https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-learned-helplessness-2795326). The concept of learned helplessness is highly associated with animals, but it can also apply to human behavior. Personally, I have experienced it many times throughout my life.

Starting about four years ago, I began to have excruciating pain in my shins whenever I would run. At first, I thought it was shin splints and would just let myself rest for weeks at a time. But whenever I tried to get back to running, the pain would return almost immediately. Over the course of the past four years, I went to six different doctors trying to get a diagnosis for something other than shin splints, but was unsuccessful.

After the sixth doctor, I gave up trying to get any answers and accepted the fact that I would never be able to run pain free. Learned helplessness is characterized by symptoms such as bad attitude, low motivation, and poor self-esteem, all of which I experienced. 

Although it may seem like those who experience learned helplessness are just being lazy and giving up when things get tough, it's a very real and frustrating thing to go through. It can even be a sign of mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. It can be overcome, though it takes time and effort. 

This video does a great job summarizing learned helplessness and may help further your understanding of the concept  and help determine if you've experienced it before! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVPfpRJDmdI

Source:

Cherry, Kendra. “What Is Learned Helplessness?” Verywell Mind, 5 Apr. 2021, https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-learned-helplessness-2795326.

Comments

  1. Deyalith MJune 3, 2025 at 8:15 AM

    Thank you for sharing your experience—it really helped me understand how difficult and discouraging learned helplessness can be. It’s frustrating when you do everything you can to fix a problem and still get no results, especially with something as important as your health. I appreciate how you pointed out that it’s not about laziness, but about feeling stuck and hopeless after repeated setbacks. Your post does a great job showing how learned helplessness can affect motivation and mindset in a real, personal way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah cJune 6, 2025 at 8:29 AM

    I really relate to this, and I think you explained learned helplessness in a way that makes it easy to understand. It’s so frustrating when you keep trying to fix something and nothing works, and after a while it just feels pointless. I’ve definitely had moments like that too, where I stopped trying because it felt like no matter what I did, it wouldn’t make a difference. Your example with your shin pain really shows how this happens over time, not all at once. I also liked how you mentioned that it’s not just laziness, it’s way deeper than that.

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