On Hope

Something to cheer you up after you read my blog

We are studying depression in my psychology class and, though depressing, it's nice to be able to put a name to some of the feelings that wash over me while I sit on my sofa weekend after weekend watching shows that I have already seen or don't really like.

Today we learned about a phenomenon called Learned Helplessness. It is, as one might expect, the feeling that no matter what you do, the outcome is going to be bad. They discovered this particular trait – is it a trait? – while conducting tests on (who else?) lab rats. The tests involved giving the rats electric shocks through the floors of their cages so that they would feel it in their paws, which are particularly sensitive. Some of the rats were allowed to escape harm's way by climbing a nearby ladder or pressing a button, but some of the rats would have no other option than to just be shocked, and this is where Learned Helplessness appeared – the rats, with nowhere to run, would just roll onto their backs so that their paws would not have to feel the shock.

And it gets worse.

Once the animal has resigned itself to resignation, it will no longer even attempt escape, that is, if an animal that has displayed Learned Helplessness is provided with a ladder, or tiny rubber boots, it will continue to just lie on its back. Because depression is hereditary, some rats are more irrepressible than others, so it takes them longer to get to this point but, after enough time, any rat will roll – scientific evidence that there is a threshold to the spirit.

Apart from the sadness I feel when I think of the rats, staring at the ceilings of their cages, praying it will stop, I worry about the prevalence of this phenomenon in humans. Does this mean that once life has dealt you too many blows that there is just no way to bounce back? I understand depression, and the way we can feel overwhelmed or even powerless against things like the IRS or Barack Obama, but are we all just meandering toward our breaking points? I mean, I know it's a stupid metaphor, but are we so different from the rats, those of us with lousy jobs (or no job at all) and not enough money?

I guess my point is this: if someone you know, or even someone you don't know, is struggling, think of those rats, and how they must have felt once all the hope they had had left their bodies, and try to see that person for what they are – an animal in pain – and be a ladder.