It’s normal for our levels of motivation to rise and fall.
Whether it has to do with completing our daily chores or hitting our targets at work, feeling uninspired or disinterested in getting things done is natural.
Avolition is a more pervasive version of this, usually tied to other mental health issues that can significantly impair your day-to-day life.
In this article, we will explore what avolition is, and how getting to the root cause of avolition is an essential step to learning how to address it and regain a sense of purpose and productivity in our lives.
Key Takeaways:
- Avolition is an extreme lack of motivation or drive to engage in meaningful activities, often co-occurring with mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.
- Symptoms of avolition include severe apathy, social withdrawal, and neglected self-care. Diagnosis involves psychiatric assessments like the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS).
- Effective treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy to combat negative thought patterns, motivational interviewing to enhance intrinsic motivation, and practical strategies like goal-setting and routine-building to manage daily challenges
What is Avolition?
Avolition is a feeling of a severe, sometimes even debilitating, lack of motivation or drive to complete meaningful tasks.
Most often, avolition does not exist on its own. It accompanies symptoms associated with depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental health disorders affecting the way we think, feel, and behave.
For example, with major depressive disorder, avolition can heighten our sense of apathy or disinterest in enjoyable activities. In both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, avolition is seen as the central symptomatic feature of negative symptoms.
Avolition and Anhedonia
When it comes to feeling low, disinterested, and unable to find joy in the world around us, there might be a few things at play here.
Another common symptom that is often associated with depression is anhedonia.
Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure from activities that would otherwise be enjoyable.
Both avolition and anhedonia are commonly mixed up with apathy, which is described as the ‘umbrella term’ that encompasses a general lack of interest or enthusiasm.
Symptoms of Avolition
Compared to having a general lack of motivation from time to time, avolition manifests in more severe ways.
Signs and symptoms of avolition include:
- Lack of interest, willingness, or drive to initiate or sustain a goal-directed activity.
- Low motivation levels, leading to a decline in productivity.
- Social withdrawal due to low energy or motivation needed to engage in and maintain healthy relationships.
- Impaired self-care, such as neglecting hygiene or household chores.
- Poor academic or work performance due to decreased focus and consistency.
While these are all common characteristics of someone with avolition, receiving an accurate diagnosis requires support from a qualified mental health provider.
Causes of Avolition
Similar to most other mental health conditions, the root cause of avolition is multifaceted. In other words, it is believed to result from a combination of factors including biological or genetic, psychological, and environmental.
Depression
In depression, avolition expresses itself as a more pronounced lack of motivation, desire, and interest in engaging in activities that had once been fulfilling or pleasurable.
Since many core symptoms of depression surround mood, energy levels, and striving towards a goal or purpose, avolition can exacerbate the impact of the disorder. Ultimately, this can lead someone into a cycle of heightened withdrawal or inactivity, further contributing to feeling hopeless, guilty, and generally dissatisfied.
Schizophrenia
Individuals who struggle with schizophrenia also experience pervasive disinterest in previously enjoyable activities. While other symptoms arise with this condition, such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought patterns, and impaired social functioning, avolition is generally a part of the symptom cluster.
Motivational impairments in schizophrenia most often manifest as a combination of avolition, anhedonia, social withdrawal and emotional disorders.
Bipolar Disorder
With bipolar disorder, a mental health disorder characterized by persistent mood swings involving episodes of depression and mania, the low points can involve symptoms of avolition.
Individuals suffering from bipolar disorders dip into depressive states which involve persistent sadness, loss of interest in activities, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and feelings of worthlessness. Unlike depression, bipolar disorder also involves manic episodes, which are expressed through elevated moods, high-energy states, racing thoughts, and impulsivity.
Diagnosing the Cause of Avolition
If symptoms of avolition with underlying mental health challenges begin to affect your daily functioning, receiving a formal diagnosis is necessary.
Psychiatric tools used to assess and diagnose avolition include:
- Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS): This scale investigates apathy/avolition in individuals based on certain behavior characteristics (i.e. hygiene or grooming, persistence at school or work, and physical energy exertion)
- Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS): The two items in this scale which assess avolition include emotional withdrawal and passive apathetic social withdrawal
- Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BNSS): This scale investigates internal experience and avolition behavior, each of which covers the levels of motivation for self-care, recreational activities, work and school, and time spent inactive
- Clinical Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS): This interview assesses both the motivation to work or be in school and the desire to participate in recreational activities
Healthcare providers or licensed mental health professionals can diagnose the underlying cause of avolition to help get you on the path to treatment.
Coping with and Treating Avolition
Accurately diagnosing avolition can provide valuable insights into the underlying causes and severity of symptoms, thereby informing the treatment process.
Although the ideal treatment option may vary from person to person, mental health experts recommend cognitive behavior therapy, motivational interviewing, mindfulness-based interventions, and in some cases medication management.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Among the many psychotherapy interventions available, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is one of the most common approaches for treating mood disturbances. CBT helps target negative symptoms associated with mental health disorders through cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation.
Cognitive Restructuring
This facet of CBT works to address and modify negative or intrusive thoughts that contribute to feelings of apathy, lack of motivation, and general disinterest. It helps individuals challenge their negative beliefs, replacing them with more adaptive and realistic thoughts.
Rather than telling ourselves “It is not worth trying” or “I am too tired to do anything”, cognitive restructuring replaces these thoughts with “I have the ability to make positive change in my life” or “Even small steps toward my goal is progress”.
Behavioral Activation
As a foundational component of CBT, behavioral activation focuses on using certain behaviors to help activate pleasant emotions. The idea behind this approach is to target depressive symptoms, such as avolition, by encouraging the engagement of rewarding activities.
When dealing with avolition, think of it like getting ready for a walk. The hardest part is putting on your shoes because it’s always the first step. While it may feel uncomfortable for the first minute, it’s a manageable discomfort...
- Nicole Ernst, LMHC
Oftentimes, the hardest part of the process is just getting started.
According to Nicole Ernst, licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) at Grow Therapy, “When dealing with avolition, think of it like getting ready for a walk. The hardest part is putting on your shoes because it’s always the first step. While it may feel uncomfortable for the first minute, it’s a manageable discomfort. Once you’ve got your shoes on, your chances of success, whether it’s going for that walk or completely any other task, is much higher.”
Behavioral activation helps us overcome the barrier of getting started, helping us engage in activities that lead to improved mood and increased momentum to keep moving forward.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing (MI) is another therapeutic modality used to help address the underlying lack of motivation that accompanies avolition.
According to a 2023 study, MI is based on the idea that change is more of a process rather than a standalone event. In other words, changing behavior must unfold gradually, with individuals moving through stages of readiness and resistance. Most importantly, change can not be forced.
MI facilitates and supports this process by guiding individuals towards increasing their intrinsic motivation for change by exploring the tendencies for avolition, promoting empowerment, and utilizing techniques to strengthen motivation for change.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Mindfulness-based therapies have become a popular intervention for targeting symptoms of depression and improving levels of motivation.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) encourages individuals to become more aware of their internal events, such as their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations to change the way they interact with them. MBCT can help individuals detach themselves from negative thoughts, such as “I am too lazy or too stressed to get started” to make room for healthier thought patterns such as “I recognize I am tired or stressed, but I am capable of taking small steps towards this goal.”
Medication Management
Depending on the root cause of avolition, medications are a common method for symptom management.
Seek guidance from your doctor to find out if medication may be right for you.
Strategies to Help Manage Avolition
There are a ton of helpful and practical management strategies available that can help individuals overcome avolition. Given that each person approaches challenges differently, it’s essential to explore a variety of techniques to find what works best for you.
Beneficial ways to combat avolition:
- Goal-setting: Establishing clear and achievable goals can establish direction, making it easier to get started and remain on track (i.e. S.M.A.R.T goals).
- Routine-building: Creating well-defined and structured daily routines can increase consistency and boost productivity.
- Break tasks into bite-sized pieces: Dividing larger, more daunting tasks into smaller steps can lower feelings of overwhelm and inspire confidence.
- Use incentives: Rewarding ourselves for completing each milestone can empower progress and reinforce positive behaviors.
- Engaging in physical activity: Incorporating regular exercise into our daily routine can be an excellent way to boost our mood, relieve our stress, and reinvigorate our energy.
- Practicing self-compassion: Acknowledging that setbacks are a part of reality, progress is never linear, and we are all imperfect humans who can learn from our mistakes is necessary for maintaining motivation.
- Pursue meaningful activities: Getting involved in hobbies, activities, and volunteer work that align with our values and interests can cultivate purpose and motivation.
- Build a social support system: Connecting with loved ones, such as friends, family members, and support groups can provide encouragement, accountability, and mutual understanding.
- Practice mindfulness: Remaining present in the here and now lessens feeling stressed or anxious about the future.
- Limit distractions: Steering clear from phone use, especially mindless social media scrolling, can help keep us on track, maintain focus, and lead to more progress.
- Visualization techniques: Imagining ourselves getting started on tasks, progressing through challenging activities, or accomplishing goals can inspire motivation.
Incorporating new strategies while also remaining open and receptive to new approaches is a great way to address avolition, foster a sense of empowerment, and increase your motivation and productivity.
How Do Lifestyle Changes and Self-Care Contribute to Recovery?
The choices we make in our daily lives, from how long or how little we sleep to how hydrated we are, can impact our mental health.
There are plenty of tiny habits that can be transformative for our mood, energy levels, and sense of purpose in life. For example, prioritizing well-balanced meals throughout the day filled with lean protein sources, whole grains, and colorful fruit and vegetables, along with a variety of micronutrients, such as zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B can support our overall health and well-being.
Getting consistent sleep, physical activity, and social interactions are all self-care practices that help replenish our emotional reserves, relieve our stress, and treat numerous underlying symptoms associated with depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and more.
Where to Find Support and Resources for Avolition?
Community is an essential aspect of managing our mental health. Seeking social support, whether through face-to-face conversations with a trusted friend or participating in local support group meetings, as well as connecting with virtual communities or engaging in online therapy, can offer a profound sense of belonging, compassion, and understanding amidst our challenges.
Engaging with others who share similar experiences as us can make these difficult times feel less isolating. In many cases, it can serve as an excellent resource to propel us into action, instill motivation, and build momentum in these positive experiences.
Getting the help you deserve is a priority. Here’s how to get the mental health support you need.
Long-Term Strategies and Preventative Measures
The most effective long-term strategies and preventative measures for managing avolition require more of a comprehensive approach. It involves not only recognizing the signs of potential relapse but also proactively maintaining progress through consistent self-awareness and self-reflection.
For those who have been affected by avolition, it’s necessary to find a licensed therapist who can provide support and guidance in overcoming symptoms, ultimately aiding in your journey toward realizing your fullest potential.
