Apr 3, 2025
The experience of “learned helplessness” was first discovered in 1967 by psychologists Seligman and Maier. Their experiment was initially conducted on dogs but has since held implications for human behavior.
When people experience repeated hardships they may start to believe they have no control over their situation. This can lead people to stop trying to make the situation better or taking an opportunity to escape when it occurs. This learned helplessness is not because of laziness or inability to help oneself. Rather, it is a learned response and internalized belief that nothing you do will ever make your situation better. People with learned helplessness truly believe that they are stuck.
Although learned helplessness is not a diagnosable mental health condition, it is a symptom of many including depression, trauma, and c-PTSD. It is possible to unlearn learned helplessness. This article will explore what learned helplessness is, the causes of it, and how to overcome it.
What Is Learned Helplessness?
Learned Helplessness is a behavioral pattern and mindset that evolves after experiencing hardship after hardship during which you are powerless to escape.
Although everyone struggles at times, learned helplessness is characterized by a chronic issue. Symptoms of learned helplessness include:
- Feeling powerless to change or improve your situation
- Believing you are not capable of improving your situation on your own
- Low self-esteem and high levels of self-doubt
- Giving up quickly
- Feeling trapped
- Inability to tolerate frustration
- Avoiding making big decisions and high levels of procrastination
- Refusing to even try or take initiative
This often results in someone who does not try to help themselves. Examples include:
- A student consistently receives poor grades despite putting in effort and seeking help, leading them to believe that they are incapable of improving their academic performance, and they eventually stop trying.
- An employee consistently suggests improvements to their work process but is always met with resistance from supervisors. Over time, the employee begins to feel powerless and loses the motivation to take initiative.
- An individual consistently finds themselves in toxic or abusive relationships. As a result, they develop a belief that they are unworthy of healthy, supportive relationships, which can lead to them staying in these unhealthy relationships and not seeking to get out or find healthier ones.
- Long-term financial struggles despite efforts to improve one's financial situation can lead to a belief that it is impossible to achieve stability, resulting in a sense of defeat and resignation.
These are just some examples of learned helplessness, and people’s individual experiences may vary.
What Causes Learned Helplessness?
Learned helplessness is, well, learned. It does not come from nowhere and is not an ingrained personality trait. It is based on previous experiences, many of which (but not all) are rooted in childhood.
Causes of learned helplessness include:
- Childhood abuse and neglect
- Poverty
- Natural disasters
- Domestic violence
- Abuse
- Trauma
Any situation in which repeated efforts to make a change are met with no change can create a learned helplessness mindset. Some researchers believe that over parenting can lead to learned helplessness in children as well. Overparenting, or doing things for your kids that they can do for themselves, can overtime create a narrative for the child that they can’t do those things. This can lead to learned helplessness.
Is Learned Helplessness a Sign of PTSD?
Not all the time. Learned helplessness is not a requirement for PTSD diagnosis. However, it is a common experience in people who have suffered chronic trauma. Trauma is often something completely out of our hands, and experiencing something so awful repeatedly without any way to change it can lead some people to believe that they don’t have control over anything in their life. They may stop trying in all areas of their life as a result.
Impact of Learned Helplessness
Researchers have found that learned helplessness in one area of your life does not always translate to learned helplessness in all of your life. For example, a shy child who has trouble making friends may learn to believe that they can never make friends, but they show remarkable determination and initiative in their school work. In the same way, someone may develop learned helplessness when it comes to math, but not in any other part of their life.
Regardless of where you experience learned helplessness, it can lead to or exacerbate mental health issues such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Loneliness
- PTSD
- Phobias
- Shyness
Perhaps most tangible of all, learned helplessness can strip you of opportunities. It prevents you from accomplishing your goals by telling you that there’s no point in even trying. You may let opportunities pass you by. Because of this, learned helplessness can be serious, and talking to a therapist to work through it can be helpful.
How to Overcome Learned Helplessness
It is possible to overcome learned helplessness. Use these coping mechanisms to develop a healthier mindset. Don’t forget that learned helplessness if often rooted in trauma, and you may need the help of a professional to treat the underlying trauma.
- Challenge the negative belief system: Begin to notice when you start behaving like learned helplessness. What thoughts do you have during this time? Try to challenge them, by replacing them with positive, true thoughts, a technique used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
- Lean on your support system: One of the lies learned helplessness will tell you is that you are alone, but this isn’t true. Lean on your support system, talk with them about your goals and the steps you can take to get there. If you don’t have anyone to talk to, reach out to a therapist, who can help you build social skills and the confidence to create your own community.
- Take care of your body: Exercising and sleeping well will make you feel better and give you more energy, both things that will enable you to overcome learned helplessness.
- Manage stress levels: Get out of a fight-or-flight mode by decreasing your stress levels. This might look like hanging out with a friend, engaging in a hobby, or practicing some meditation or mindfulness.
- Set achievable goals: If you set high, lofty goals that take years to reach, you may fail more often. This isn’t a bad thing, but when you’re fighting learned helplessness, try to keep your goals attainable and short at first, to prove to yourself that you can accomplish hard things. After you get used to this, you can start to build out your goals.
- Talk to a therapist: Learned helplessness is often rooted in trauma or some other difficult life experience. Talking to a therapist can help you process what happened to you and combat the negative beliefs you now have about yourself and your situation.
If you experience learned helplessness and want to talk to a therapist about it today, contact Lifebulb. Our online therapists are available and ready to help. Our clients see their therapist within 7 days of calling, so don’t want to start on a trajectory of confidence and self-efficacy. Contact Lifebulb today to get matched with a therapist near you.
