The amotivational syndrome it is a state in which passivity, lack of motivation, conformity, isolation and total inactivity are experienced. It is characterized by symptoms such as dysphoria, decreased attention, intense anhedonia, memory disturbances, and little desire to compete, work, or perform any activity..
The person suffering from this syndrome never feels like doing anything. That is, at no time does he find anything that motivates him enough to get up from the couch and do it..
The amotivational syndrome turns the person into someone totally incapable of doing anything, totally incapable of enjoying anything, and who will only carry out those activities that they are totally obliged to do.
The person with this syndrome allows himself to lose his job due to inability to go to work, and is able to stop doing any activity, no matter how important it may be..
This state causes the person to gradually isolate himself, lose his ideals and ambitions, stop experiencing emotions or feelings completely, and present a total indifference to what is happening around him.
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Amotivational syndrome is not synonymous with being lazy, not wanting to make an effort or being conformist. It is a state in which the person is totally incapable of experiencing emotion, motivation, interest, enthusiasm and affection, so indifference and inactivity predominate.
Because if we stop for a moment to think ... If you have to do something but can't find any reason to do it, will you do it??
Many times we do things that we do not feel like doing, such as going to work, studying, helping someone, etc. But even if we don't feel like doing it, there is always a reason why we do it.
We work to earn money, we study to pass the exams and we help to demonstrate our commitment or friendship, there may be no desire or motivation ... But there is always a reason.
This is precisely what happens to someone with amotivational syndrome, they have no reasons. He is not able to find the reason for going to work, studying or helping, he is not able to find the reason for anything, so he ends up not doing it.
Now we know what amotivational syndrome is, we are going to see in a little more detail all the symptoms that a person with this problem experiences or may experience..
The person with amotivational syndrome becomes totally passive with respect to all the stimuli around him. Finds it difficult to focus and pay attention to things, act actively, and perform any type of task.
Apathy is a state of disinterest in which there is a total lack of motivation. The person with this type of alteration is not simply passive towards the stimuli around him, but rather that he has no interest in them.
The two previous symptoms cause the person to adopt a state of conformity with respect to everything. Anything you say to him will not seem right or wrong, he will simply not care about everything.
In the same way, this state of conformity and disinterest will cause the person to become irretrievably isolated from everything. He will not be interested in anything or anyone, so he will separate himself from everything and will not get involved or participate in anything.
You will adopt an attitude that will be characterized by concentrating on your internal processes, your thoughts and your inner world. Will not focus on the things or thoughts of others, or on outside activities, events, or stimuli.
The lack of interest in everything will also cause you to lose concern for your own ideals. These will no longer make sense, since as with everything, you will not find any motivation in them.
Likewise, he will be totally incapable of experiencing emotions and feelings towards anything and towards anyone. As we have said before, if a person with this problem were to win the lottery or were given very good news, they would not be disturbed..
It will present a state of mind marked by absolute indifference. He will never be inclined for one thing or another, neither for the good nor for the bad.
You will feel sad and depressed most of the time, but you cannot say why you feel this way. The fact that you like nothing, nothing motivates you and nothing interests you will make you feel sad without knowing how to identify the reason.
In the same way, you will not feel affection for anyone or will have a lot of difficulty doing so. The inability to experience emotions and feelings that the person with amotivational syndrome has makes that affect does not make any sense for them either..
Nothing will motivate you enough to do so, and self-care is no exception. You will not find any reason to groom yourself, take care of yourself or groom yourself, so you will not do it if you do not insist too much.
During the amotivational syndrome, you will hardly interact or communicate with other people, since you will not feel like doing so. This will gradually lose the social skills that you previously had, and it becomes increasingly difficult for you to interact with others.
Nor will he be interested in sexual relations or his own sexuality. Therefore, your sexual impulse will decrease, until you can become totally inhibited and be unable to have sexual intercourse..
Your status will also make you have no interest or concern for your own future or that of others. You will not be able to develop plans or project what your life will be like in the future.
The amotivational syndrome also produces cognitive alterations (referring to our ability to think and process information).
Of all of them, the most noticeable is the decrease in attention, since the person with this syndrome will have difficulties to focus on the stimuli around them (mainly because they have no interest in them).
In the same way, you will have enormous difficulties concentrating and keeping your attention on anything..
Your computing power will also be impoverished and your performance will be slower than usual..
As he is indifferent towards most things, you will have difficulty judging or interpreting things as good or bad, including his own actions.
Likewise, in the amotivational syndrome, psychomotor alterations are witnessed, mainly related to reflexes, which are slower.
Finally, in the person with this problem, a greater general slowness of all their movements will be connoted.
With what you have read so far, a question may be coming to your mind ... Does the person with amotivational syndrome have depression??
The truth is that many of the symptoms are practically identical to those that a depressed person may experience, but not! Amotivational syndrome is not depression!!
The main difference between the two is in the awareness that the person has about their state. A person with depression is fully aware that he is depressed and knows what his thoughts are that make him sad.
However, a person with amotivational syndrome is not fully aware of their condition and cannot identify why they feel this way, so it is difficult for them to seek help..
Today it is still not known exactly what the origin of this syndrome is, but it is clear that drug use (especially marijuana) is closely related. And it is that the majority of cases of amotivational syndrome that have been registered are marijuana users.
It seems that the effect that Marijuana has on the frontal parts of our brain involved in functions such as social behavior, motivation or reasoning ability, is the main cause of amotivational syndrome.
However, there are professionals who believe that this syndrome responds to a type of personality prior to the consumption of Marijuana, so the fact of consuming the drug would not be the cause, but rather a symptom that there is some alteration in the form of be of the person.
Although the relationship between marijuana use and amotivational syndrome is clear, it has not been fully demonstrated that this problem is directly caused by cannabis.
The first goal of treatment should be the abandonment of drug use, because if you have amotivational syndrome and use marijuana or a similar psychotropic drug, it will be difficult for you to reverse the situation..
Addiction can be overcome through psychotherapy and through psychotropic drugs if necessary. In addition to focusing on overcoming addiction, the amotivational syndrome itself can also be treated, since many times it persists despite having stopped using.
The treatment of first choice should be SSRI drugs (antidepressants) together with cognitive behavioral therapy, to encourage the patient to resume daily activities, improve relationships with family members and work on the thinking style that leads to inactivity.
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