Abulia: meaning, symptoms and treatment

Have you ever felt that you are passionate about nothing, nothing motivates you and you simply don't care what you do or stop doing? Have you met someone that he has no desires or aspirations for anything and that he is always apathetic? Would you like to know why you do not really feel like doing the things? If this is something that is happening to yourself or you know someone who happens to it and you would like to know the reasons why which this happens, it is necessary that you know that there is a disorder that causes a lack of motivation and will in the people.

This type of disorder is known as abulia and is present in many other mental disorders. But what exactly is abulia? What are its symptoms? And above all, how can we treat it in order to cure it? In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about the abulia: meaning, symptoms and treatment, In addition, we are going to let you know in detail what exactly this type of pathology consists of.

Index

1. Abulia: meaning according to psychology
2. Symptoms of abulia
3. Abulia: psychological and psychiatric treatment

Apathy is the total lack of will, motivation and initiative it takes to carry out an activity and even to make a decision. "¿Why I don't feel like doing anything? "This is a question frequently asked by people who have apathy.

It is a psychological disorder in which our own voluntary motor activity is altered, so that a person who suffers from it is characterized by experiencing a constant feeling of helplessness, problems making their own decisions and therefore directing their actions towards a specific goal due to that all people need to have some motivation, no matter how minimal, to start an activity or carry out an action plan and achieve any goal. This can range from the need to look for a job to obtain financial resources and support ourselves, to the need to begin to carry out a series of activities such as studying for an exam and finally finishing a university degree, etc.

Apathy and depression

People with apathy do not feel that initial motivation that arises from wanting to achieve something, so it is difficult for them to start taking actions in a way voluntary and this makes it difficult for them to make their own decisions since they feel apathy for almost everything so they tend to act impulsively and automated.

Apathy is highly related to depression. This is because it is a symptom that is part of the depressive picture. When a person has no will or motivation, it usually leads to some type of mood disorder.

Schizophrenia and apathy

It is important to note that abulia can also be part of a schizophrenia picture, so it is important to carry out a thorough psychological and medical examination to determine if there is any disorder that accompanies abulia.

People who suffer from this disorder present a series of symptoms that make it evident, the main ones being the following:

• Lack of motivation and disinterest in carrying out any activity and / or reaching a goal.
• Disturbance by the desire of the person to want to achieve some goal or objective.
• The affectivity and emotionality of the person is altered. For example, if one of his loved ones becomes seriously ill, he cannot really contact the emotion that he would normally be experiencing as the sadness, so she is emotionally apathetic in the face of this situation and it hurts more to feel this way and not be able to feel pain than to see her loved one suffer.
• As time goes by, it becomes harder for him to think because he has no will or motivation for anything.
• Due to his own apathy and lack of will, he is no longer interested in talking and communicate with others.
• Although he knows that he has to do certain things, he is not able to start and prefers to entertain himself and waste your time in other things.

Now that you know the meaning of abulia and its symptoms, let's talk about the best treatment. Sometimes this disorder can go unnoticed, so it is necessary to observe very carefully which are the symptoms that the patient presents, question in which the relatives closest to this are of great help.

Likewise, a comparison with behavior that the patient now has and with his previous behavior and the possible causes that led to the appearance of abulia are also investigated in depth. Apathy can appear from having suffered a brain injury, cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impairment, depression, schizophrenia, among other disorders. Therefore, it is necessary to determine under what context this type of condition is found, which is part of the initial evaluation, because of this, the treatment is not the same for all patients.

How to treat abulia

Usually treatment is at the psychological and pharmacological level. The objective of psychological therapy is to awaken in the patient the interest in carrying out their activities daily and for the new ones that he has never done, for this he is proposed to carry out those that are nice. Motivation is also helped by the administration of some stimulant drugs.

It works in the same way with techniques such as cognitive restructuring where those ideas and beliefs that the person has ingrained and that make the problem continue to be maintained over time are modified, changing them for other more positive and objective ones. It is recommended to teach the patient's relatives certain techniques and strategies that you can implement at home to help awaken the interest and motivation of the affected person.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Abulia: meaning, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Rojas, Z. R. TO. (s.f.). The psychiatric examination of the patient. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from http://www.binasss.sa.cr/bibliotecas/bhp/examenpsiquiatria.pdf
• Abulia. (s.f.). Retrieved December 14, 2018, from http://www.neurowikia.es/content/abulia