We say abulia, we mean lack of will
From the ancient Greek language, the term “abulia” means “lack of will.” In medicine, abulia is a condition in which a pathological lack of will manifests itself.
A person may experience constant bouts of laziness, he is overcome by a feeling of indecision, lack of will, and the desire to perform certain duties that require mandatory fulfillment may completely disappear.
This pathological disorder of the nervous system is a manifestation of apathy. It is not widespread, and the disorder itself is often confused with weakness of will. Abulia is easiest to identify in an adult patient; in children, this condition is usually accompanied by various associated problems.
Reasons for laziness
Before fighting laziness, let's consider the reasons for its occurrence. Perhaps it:
- feeling tired;
- lack of motivation;
- weak willpower;
- fear of responsibility;
- person's lifestyle.
Feeling tired
So, laziness can be caused by the need to rest. Then it’s easy to fight it – you just need to take a breath and gather your strength. If laziness is associated with the feeling that there is simply not enough energy, then this may be a signal of health problems. In this situation, it is advisable to consult a doctor. A specialist will help identify the cause and prescribe, if necessary, appropriate treatment. In some cases, a walk in the fresh air or a little physical activity helps. For example, a light jog in the park.
Lack of motivation
A person does not have a clear understanding of why he is doing this or that work, or he is not doing it for himself or expects others to do it for him. There is only one way out - to increase your motivation. For example, you need to complete a task for which you have absolutely no soul. You are either idle or playing for time by doing any other thing. In this situation, you can do the following. Dream about what awaits you after the task is completed. After all, the prospects can be completely different - from monetary reward to promotion through the ranks. Think about what other changes might happen. Primitive and simple? But it works.
Lack of will
Remember, like a joke: there is strength, there is will, but there is no willpower. It is the lack of will that is the most common cause of laziness, which seems impossible to overcome. It is also possible to cope with it. The following method showed good results. For example, you need to spend no more than 15 minutes to complete a given task. This is much easier than starting a task knowing that you will have to devote a long time to it. Then you can slightly increase the period allotted for completing the task. So, gradually, with each additional minute, you will be drawn into the work process.
Fear of responsibility
In this case, laziness acts as a protective “barrier” to the fear of responsibility. As a rule, this affects those people whose parents, from an early age, overprotected them from carrying out important tasks. At the same time, you need to remember that only you yourself are responsible for everything that happens in life.
Style or lifestyle
If one “lazy person” needs help because laziness has become his way of life, then it helps the second one to cope with the task several times faster. When communicating with such people, you may get the impression that they are chronic lazy people. At the same time, it is impossible to call them such just because they are in no hurry to work. A person prefers to understand the situation and find a simpler and more effective way to solve the problem.
Etiology and pathogenesis of the disorder
Typically, symptoms of abulia can manifest in people with weak mental health who are prone to various somatoform disorders.
Abulic syndrome can manifest itself during disorders in the blood circulation of the right hemisphere of the brain in the frontal part. This usually occurs due to traumatic head injuries or some serious brain disease.
The pathogenesis of abulia is associated with a decrease in dopaminergic neurotransmission in the frontal lobes of the brain. These lobes are responsible for the purposeful motor functioning of the body, the ability to manifest initiative processes, systematic activity, which is aimed at performing certain functions and overcoming difficulties.
Typically, patients with disorders of the frontal part of the brain experience a state of inertia and inactivity.
Most doctors and specialists note that the main factor that provokes the manifestation of abulia is stress.
The presence of abulia leads to the deprivation of the main factor of a person’s full existence - he ceases to be a person. This is due to the fact that this disorder contributes to the disappearance of a person’s motivation, which provokes him to perform functions to achieve his cherished goal.
Such pathological spinelessness is especially dangerous in childhood. Many parents may simply not notice the presence of this disorder in their child and mistake it for a character trait - laziness, apathy, weakness of will.
The most difficult is considered to be hereditary abulia, which occurs in children from the moment of birth. Many parents are happy when their child is very calm, quiet, and sits in one place for a long time, instead of running and playing. And this condition should cause concern in parents and be the first factor for conducting an appropriate examination.
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Self-will
What is self-will? This is a manifestation of pride and arrogance, this is “my will is most important.” Often self-will comes with stubbornness, stubbornness, and assertiveness. People with such qualities act, guided not by what is right, as the voice of reason or intuition says, but by what they want. It is extremely difficult for them to perceive information, because they have their own opinion on everything, which will play a major role in decision-making. They most often ignore the opinions and interests of other people or do not hear them at all. But let's think about what happiness and success in life are?
It often happens that happiness and success, although they are in our hands, are, at the same time, closely connected with the world and other people. Only when we can combine our opinion with knowledge of the world, with the knowledge of scientists, with the knowledge of our relatives, friends, neighbors, when we can correctly process information, can we give birth to the correct attitude towards the world and an adequate opinion. But when this is not the case, a person becomes stubborn, acts contrary to everything and, most often, wrongly.
What’s interesting is that we can say that a person of self-will is strong, he is active, he is an achiever. But, as a rule, he always steps on the same rake, because it is difficult for him to learn from his mistakes - he also has his own opinion on this matter.
Self-will is escaping from rules, norms, order. Before the revolution, noble families had a good tradition of sending their children to cadet corps, boarding schools, or for obedience in a monastery. This helped to humble the will and learn to listen and hear other people, so that in their subsequent life they could direct their will not towards resistance and “rake”, but towards achieving goals.
What can cause a violation
Abulia can manifest itself as a symptom of numerous disorders with a psychoneurological nature, among others the following:
- periods after a stroke or traumatic brain injury;
- state of intoxication, hypoxia, various infectious diseases of the nervous system;
- tumor lesions of the brain;
- Parkinson's, Huntington's, Pick's diseases;
- presence of congenital dementia;
- depressive states;
- increased consumption of alcoholic beverages;
- drug addiction.
Abulia often occurs in patients with schizophrenia. People with this pathological disorder often experience a deterioration in their mental state over time, a weakening of volitional impulses is observed, an increase in passivity occurs, and they often lack the desire to perform simple and necessary actions.
The short-term onset of abulia can manifest itself as a reaction to mental trauma. This condition may not last very long; it goes away after the situation that has a traumatic effect on the psyche is resolved.
During stupor with a depressive and apathetic character, as well as during catatonic stupor, the state of abulia can develop within 2-3 months, and can last for several years.
A little theory or what laziness is
In psychology, laziness is viewed as the opposite of will, having a negative connotation.
Will is a psychological process by which a person regulates his behavior and actions necessary to achieve a particular goal. Laziness “blocks” this process, thereby preventing you from living a full life: solving assigned tasks, getting results, reaching new heights, learning the unknown. Laziness covers all areas of life. She has no age or gender, education or social status. Don't confuse laziness and procrastination . Procrastination is the tendency to put off doing or thinking for later. Instead of doing useful things, a person is constantly distracted by unimportant ones: looking at the news or a page on social networks, talking on the phone, putting things in order in the workplace. At its core, procrastination is chaos.
In a state of procrastination, a person understands perfectly well that completing this or that work is important, but will procrastinate until the very last moment, when all deadlines are already running out.
The “classic” lazy person not only does not want to do anything, but also does not experience the joy of new tasks. Procrastinators take on new projects with great enthusiasm and like to take on a huge number of tasks. But they can’t cope with them in time (there are still a lot of other more “important”) ones. As a result, the ongoing struggle with procrastination becomes their constant companion.
A lazy person is not at all worried about the fact that the work is not completed on time, while a procrastinator is ready to simply “tear his hair out.”
If a procrastinator manages to finish things on time, he experiences great elation, while a lazy person is indifferent.
Combination of abulia with other syndromes
Forms of abulia can be mild and temporary, which are accompanied by minor deviations, reduced motivation, as well as more severe, up to complete suppression of will. In an extreme form of lack of will, there may be no desire to perform basic actions - get out of bed, wash, and so on.
Syndromes that accompany abulia:
- Depressive and asthenic type syndrome , which is accompanied by elements of adynamia, neuroses, and psychopathic disorders. During this disorder, a short-term absence of volitional impulses and loss of activity occurs.
- Abulia of periodic type . This form often occurs in drug addicts, alcoholics, in patients with severe somatoform disorders, in patients with schizophrenia. Repeated periods of lack of will may occur, as well as psychoses of the manic-depressive type.
- Catatonic syndrome and stupor . This form is characteristic of schizophrenics, and also manifests itself in severe organic brain damage. In this condition, there is a constant lack of motivation and volitional impulses.
- Abulia can often be combined with mutism - a complete lack of desire to talk. Verbal contact with patients is disrupted, and it is impossible to get answers to questions from them.
- Apato-abulic syndrome . With this syndrome, emotional insufficiency and automaticity of movements occur. Patients experience complete withdrawal into themselves, they have a lack of desire to communicate, they show with their appearance complete indifference to the interlocutor, to close people, they have a complete loss of interest in their favorite activities and entertainment.
- Abulic-akinetic syndrome . With this disorder, there is a combination of lack of will with partial or complete immobility. This may often be accompanied by inhibition in the thinking process.
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Clinical picture and symptoms
Psychotherapists and neurologists note that during abulia there often appears a pathological reluctance to show interest and effort in various, sometimes necessary actions or previously favorite activities, or there is a complete decrease in the energy level of volitional signs.
Other characteristic clinical symptoms of abulia:
- the patient looks sloppy and untidy;
- movements are slow, inhibited and uncoordinated;
- there are problems with speech and emotional manifestations, speech is often slow;
- the patient has a complete lack of desire to communicate with other people, friends, close relatives, they experience social isolation;
- speech becomes scarce, facial expressions disappear;
- there is a closed state, lack of activity;
- a person cannot make a decision on his own;
- loss of interest in all activities and entertainment that were previously favorite;
- Before answering the question posed, a person can think for a long time and remain silent.
The problem of will in psychology
Will is defined as a certain type of energy, which is still not fully understood. With its help, people gain the opportunity to intelligently and consciously manage their behavior, as well as various mental processes and states.
Will is a phenomenon through which a person is consciously and on a reasonable basis capable of influencing the world around him, changing it according to his own understanding. One of the most significant features of this category is that it almost always refers to the following actions:
- making conscious and intelligent decisions;
- overcoming obstacles;
- making efforts to carry out or implement a volitional decision, etc.
The adoption and implementation of a volitional decision occurs in conditions of multidirectional needs and motives (drives) competing with each other. They are approximately the same in their motivational force, while the difference in it between the corresponding incentives will not always be enough to defeat one over the other. For this reason, the individual must make a decision, carrying it out volitionally and suppressing a competing decision, which will contribute to the implementation of the other.
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For example, a person wants to read a book, but at the same time he has a desire to take a walk. Let us assume that both of these drives cannot be combined with each other in time, but they are approximately equal in strength. In this case, the individual must choose one of the desires and suppress the second, forcing himself to implement the decision made by force of will.
The problem with will is that it always involves self-restraint. A person, acting in accordance with his will, gets the opportunity to achieve his goal, to realize any current need, consciously depriving himself of something else that is attractive and desirable for him. If a person is reasonable, he will give preference to matters that are more significant for him in the future, and will suppress momentary and less significant impulses. At the highest level of its manifestation, will is characterized by reliance on high goals, values and needs.
Establishing diagnosis
Abulia is not a separate disease; it is usually a consequence or symptom of some neurological or psychological disorder.
The main methods used to make a diagnosis:
- to begin with, the doctor conducts a survey and tests the patient, due to this he compiles a general history and establishes the presence of various concomitant diseases;
- Magnetic resonance imaging is performed;
- computed tomography is prescribed;
- ultrasound examination is prescribed;
- electroencephalography of the brain is performed;
- You definitely need to take a general blood test.
Diagnostics
Abulia is diagnosed after a conversation between the doctor and the patient or his family. The patient may be admitted to the hospital to monitor him and conduct special testing.
After this, a number of measures are carried out to determine the root cause of such a deviation:
- a blood test is taken;
- The brain is diagnosed using ultrasound, MRI, CT, EEG.
Research will help differentiate this pathology from other diseases, identify the root cause and prescribe appropriate therapy.