Abulia: What Is It And What Symptoms Warn Of Its Arrival?
Many times we can find ourselves in situations where we don’t feel like doing anything. For example, a large number of patients with major depression report not wanting to get out of bed, nor to try to achieve their goals, no matter how rational or even simple they may seem to them. This lack of motivation and energy is what we know as abulia.an extreme form of apathy.
But… What is this curious psychological phenomenon due to? Below we will see what causes apathy and how it affects us.
Avolition is understood as the loss or lack of will to make decisions.focus on objectives and have the motivation to achieve them. The person with abulia has a low level of vital energy and practically non-existent interest in stimuli or activities that would have previously motivated them. It can be considered an extreme form of apathy.
The abulic subject tends to have severe difficulties in starting and finishing most acts and activities, so it is common for them to postpone them. This applies not only to hobbies but also to aspects of work and other responsibilities and even basic activities of daily living, such as eating. It is also common to present social difficultieshaving no motivation or will to relate.
On the other hand, people with avolition have problems when making decisions and organizing their own thinking due to the depressed state of their psychological state, with slowed thinking. The subject’s movements also usually present alterationsspontaneous movement being reduced and taking longer to respond to stimulation. People with abulia generally feel helpless and indecisive, sometimes suffering great emotional pain and sometimes reaching emotional dullness.
Although at first this term was conceived as a mental disorder, today abulia It is considered a symptom or set of symptoms indicative of different types of disorders, both mental and physical.
Causes
The causes of avolition can be very varied, depending on which disorder it is a symptom of. At a neurological level it has been found that it can appear in cases of frontal brain injuriesin the basal ganglia or in the anterior cingulate, all of them areas related to motivation and the initiation of movements. These injuries can be caused by different disorders and diseases, as well as strokes or head injuries.
It can also be caused by different types of infections such as syphilis if it ends up affecting the brain. Similarly, symptoms similar to abulia can be observed in anemic people, with a lack of various essential nutrients.
In addition to these biological causes, it is possible to find states of avolition in people who suffer or have suffered prolonged stress over timewith a high level of frustration and suffering that is experienced with helplessness and hopelessness.
Disorders in which it appears
Avolition as a symptom can appear in a large number of disorders and diseases. Some of which are as follows.
1. Dementia
Avolition is a characteristic symptom in people with different dementias such as Alzheimer’sdue to the progressive degeneration of brain structures that occurs in this type of disorders.
2. Major depression
One of the mental disorders in which avolition occurs most frequently is major depression. The state of demotivation, hopelessness and a feeling of little control They can end up generating a lack of desire to act, and many times they occur together with the absence of pleasure in pleasurable activities, a phenomenon called anhedonia.
Apathy too It can appear in a psychotic disorder, as occurs in the case of schizophrenia.. In this case we would be facing a negative symptom that would reduce the subject’s capacity for normal vital functioning, and it frequently appears together with the alogia. If the existence of different types of schizophrenia is considered, schizophrenia of the disorganized, simple or catatonic subtype are some in which they can appear more frequently and with greater visibility. It can also be observed as a residual symptom after a psychotic break.
Possible treatments
Treating avolition as a symptom is possible in a large number of cases, although the treatment in question will depend largely on its causes. Treatment can be performed both psychologically and pharmacologically..
At a psychological level, the use of different strategies applied in cases of depression is recommended. These strategies are based on encourage action and carry out different activities that are pleasant and little by little awaken the motivation and desire to act. Helping and motivating to create and carry out different actions and routines is essential, while working on the beliefs and thoughts that may have caused or maintained the problem.
It may be useful to provide guidelines, tools and information to the patient’s family and close environment, so that they contribute to establishing and maintaining different goals and propositions that generate desire and willingness to act. In some cases Physiotherapy can be very useful in order to cause an increase in motor activity, as well as sports, which in turn can help generate endorphins.
At a pharmacological level antidepressants are especially effectiveespecially those that cause an increase in the level of dopamine. In this sense, other stimulant substances can also be useful.
