The psychiatric science of learned helplessness?

[Anonymous No.11075854]

Can someone please give me a non-political description of learned helplessness?

I want to know if learned helplessness is a real thing. I was reading the Wikipedia article about it, and the part where it says
"
Over the past few decades, neuroscience has
shown that the original theory actually had it backwards: the brain's default state is to assume that control is not present, and the presence of "helpfulness" is what is actually learned.
"
struck me as strange, and possibly political.
It reminded me that the new professional psychiatric consensus regarding gayness is that it's not a mental illness, and that people are born gay. The change in consensus in the case of gayness is obviously political.
The foundational theory said the opposite, and gayness used to be listed in the DSM as a mental illness.

Personally, I want to know if I am suffering from leaned helplessness to a degree. If it is a real thing, then maybe knowing more about it would help me escape it.
Ideally, I would like to be able to somehow permanently get rid of it, or construct some sort of sheild against it that is independent of my own brain.
It seems that whenever I have escaped it or am close to escaping, I somehow slip back down again. It would be irrational to assume that it always has to be part of my life, right?

Sorry for the blog post.

[Anonymous No.11076408]

>>11075854
There really is no such thing as psychiatric science, thence the DSM bullshit about homosexuality
If you think you have learned helplessness and really struggle convincing yourself out of it by physical actions,
try self-persuasion, repeat to yourself how great you are, and how powerful you can still grow

[Anonymous No.11076425]

>>11075854
There is no scientific way to scientifically diagnose anything you listed anon, psychiatry and psychology are one big cope around the fact that we only have a superficial understanding of the brain.
Neuroplasticity however is an observed phenomenom so you can arguably modify your cognitive processes, no clue by how much though.

People practicing mindfulness claim they develop more control over their own thoughts (or at least how to deal with them), you should probably begin there.

[Anonymous No.11076485]

>>11075854
I come from a Sociology background, Criminology and Criminal Justice to be specific. Most academia around learned helplessness centers around how it pertains to women who are subjected to domestic violence, and people with substance abuse disorders. The way learned helplessness is applied certainly has political undercurrents as there is a remarkable lack of diversity in the research. An example of this is how the research has a tendency to examine marginalized populations, and women primarily. There is almost zero literature on learned helplessness outside of these two demographics. Though, the research does suggest some prerequisites exist for experiencing learned helplessness, such as experiencing trauma that is on-going, and then following that, a mental disorder. Even then, learned helplessness isn't a diagnosis, as much as it is a description of a behavioral pattern that arises in light of circumstances, like the aforementioned. I personally do think that learned helplessness exists, and is an accurate description of a behavioral cycle that enables victimization, but I remain skeptical about its currently limited application. I do not see why learned helplessness cannot be applied at a more micro-level, for example someone staying at a job that they do not like for an extended period of time, because it has diminished their self-esteem to progress - is it unreasonable to assume this may have adverse mental health outcomes like being in traumatic situation? Without knowing your situation, I would be skeptical about saying you are experiencing learned helplessness, as it is a description of behaviors that occur at the late stages of on-going trauma. What you are feeling is probably a quasi-Stockholm Syndrome, which is similar, yet nuanced to learned helplessness. If you give me some specific information I might be able to assist you more. Best of luck.

[Anonymous No.11076522]

>>11076485
Based boomer cop. I didn't know about the idea of learned helplessness being only applied to women and addicts. Was it always this way? As far as I understand, research on learned helplessness started out in around 1967 with animals, and the phenomenon was considered something general that animals and humans could experience, before the idea was further examined as part of human psychology. I believe you that women and addicts are the focus now, but they must have done some research on learned helplessness with people in general, before deciding to focus on women and addicts.

[Anonymous No.11076544]

>>11076425
>>elementary particles, atoms, molecules, the forces, dark matter, dark energy
>There is no scientific way to scientifically understand anything you listed anon, physics is all a big cope around the fact that we only have a superficial understanding of the universe.

[Anonymous No.11076596]

>>11076522
Yes, learned helplessness was very much the result of Pavlovian style research. I cannot provide much information about how the animal research influenced the research eventually being conducted on humans, as that is a clinical matter. I can really only comment about how it made its prevalence into the Criminal Justice landscape. Learned helplessness became a popular concept as there was a noted co-morbidity between mental illness and substance use disorders (see self-medication hypothesis). This initial research suggested, and was accepted as an absolute for a long time, that people with substance disorders (drugs, alcohol primarily) were partaking in such behaviors as to medicate their own aliments. As further research was conducted that followed this logic, there was quite a high prevalence of women identifying with substance abuse disorders as the result of experiencing domestic violence. This led to an increase in literature that suggested an intersection between the mechanics of substance addicts, and battered women (see battered woman syndrome). The intersection was the implementation of the learned helplessness framework explained behaviors, like self-medication, or staying with an abusive partner, to be similar, and comparable mechanically, as both demographics gave overwhelming qualitative data about being unable to change their situation. This led to more interventionist approach on how to deal with these problems respectively, by breaking the cycle; like a health-focused approach to drug rehabilitation within the criminal justice system, and non-discretionary policies (pertaining to arrest and prosecution) for police dealing with domestic violence. These interventionist notions proved to be incredibly successful at reducing substance abuse rates, and lowering domestic violence related statistics.

[Anonymous No.11078408]

>>11076544
Name one way that psychiatry helped anyone.

[Anonymous No.11078772]

>>11078408
Let's people earn money

[Anonymous No.11078828]

>>11075854
>psychiatric
>science

[Anonymous No.11079124]

>>11078408
I Am Cured Of Timian Brink Ask Me Anything Before I "Relapse"

[Anonymous No.11079392]

>>11078828
See a shrink, homo.

[Anonymous No.11079447]

>>11076544
I studied psychiatry like all med students and did an intership in a service.
The clinic is vague and relies mostly on subjectivity it, the treatment are purely symptomatic, it's not evidence based medicine at all in my opinion.
It will probably change in a not so far future with fMRI and computional model and have a convergence with neurology but as of now it's still great grandpa medicine.

I read a bit of psychology by curiosity too, notably Freud and Jung and it's basically poetry.
The only field I found somewhat enjoyable was evolutionary psychology because they actually try to start from biology.

[Anonymous No.11079694]

>>11079447
The problem I think is that anybody who questions psychiatry is assumed to be just somebody mentally ill who doesn't want to take his meds, so it's allowed to continue.

[Anonymous No.11080893]

>>11079447
>have a convergence with neurology
So neurology is real science? Does neurology have any answers or explanations about things like learned helplessness? Or is it only for medical injuries?