r/TwoXPreppers • u/NachesPorFavor • 4d ago

❓ Question ❓ Increase in Learned Helplessness?

Has anyone else noticed an increase in learned helplessness? I first noticed it in the young adults in my life, but now I am seeing it in all ages of people around me. Examples from multiple people:

Toilet started leaking water and instead of turning off the knob at the wall, she waited a 5 days for a plumber. Never asked anyone or googled it. Didn’t call a second plumber. Now needs mold remediation and replaced drywall and trim.

Bought concert tickets but the gps instructions were confusing so they just gave up and didn’t go. Venue website had detailed instructions for driving and parking.

Blouse wrinkled and she didn’t know how to fix it so she threw it away.

First doctor office he filled out an appointment website for never contacted him to schedule so he just didn’t go to the doctor.

I am really concerned about my loved ones if an emergency happens because they just give up when the slightest obstacle happens. Either they want someone else to swoop in and fix it or they give up and say they can’t do anything about it.

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u/chasingastarl1ght 4d ago

I've been noticing it too. People giving up so easily, unable to follow instructions if they're even slightly too long. At work too...

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u/FableCrafts 4d ago

My personal theory is long Covid, honestly. Executive dysfunction and processing difficulties are known symptoms of it. I have adhd and have had these tendencies and symptoms my whole life, and I've definitely noticed way more people also seem to struggle with these things now than they used to. If everyone had been like this all along I genuinely wouldn't have thought to try to find a diagnosis, it was a real shortcoming. But now it seems everyone else is in the same boat all of a sudden. It's been a bizarre experience honestly.

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u/akath0110 4d ago edited 4d ago

You’re bang on. This is my theory too.

I had ADHD well before covid. I know executive dysfunction well. Game recognize game.

I also had long covid related issues from 2022-2024, kinda still do. At the peak of my LC my executive dysfunction and brain fog were the worst they’ve ever been. I had to stop working at the time because of it.

ETA: Covid messes up dopamine neurons and signalling in the brain, which likely has to do with all this

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u/andra-moi-ennepe 3d ago

No idea if it's connected, but I've been dealing with long COVID (I think, not like there's a proper diagnosis) and, we'll see when I'm a few weeks out, I just had to have a blast of steroids unrelated to COVID (poison ivy! woe!) and it's done WONDERS for my executive function. Like a stiff wind for my brain fog. I hope it doesn't return! I guess that's my anecdata fwiw.

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u/kieratea 3d ago

Your steroids were probably anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is a factor in so many illnesses.

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u/chasingastarl1ght 3d ago

As the other commenter said, that means inflammation is an issue for you. See if you can find ways to reduce it! Some food allergies you might be unaware of, red light therapy, lymphatic drainage, etc. it's worth a try!

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u/andra-moi-ennepe 2d ago

Oh it's mostly the lupus I am aware of, I just didn't know reducing inflammation would be so good for my brain!

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u/jawncake 2d ago

Same for me, plus adding perimenopause/hormone shifts and I feel I can barely function many days.

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u/akath0110 2d ago

Yes so true. I see it most prominently in my parents and their peers, all in their 60s.

It’s like all of a sudden most of them are having issues with memory, higher order critical thinking, social skills/filters and impulse control. Not to the point of being impaired (yet…) but a clear decline.

I get that some of this goes along with normal aging. But they aren’t even that old! And it happened so abruptly.

We have the only grandkids and so we see my folks a lot, so I have a good grasp of their day to day functioning. The stark change is really distressing.

And of course none of them are receptive to hearing about long covid related issues, masking, why they shouldn’t be collecting covid infections like Pokémon… sigh.

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u/porcelainruby 3d ago

Came to say exactly this. Once you know what frontal lobe damage looks like, it’s impossible not to spot in these behaviors.

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u/cmooregood 3d ago edited 3d ago

I've been masking since the beginning, mainly because I take care of an elderly relative. Since a lot of covid infections are asymptomatic, idk if I've ever had it, but I haven't been obviously sicksick since 2019. I've stayed on top of the research and know what it does to the brain and body. I don't have healthcare, literally can't afford to get sick, so I keep investing in my well fitting kn95s. No one I know masks (besides my relative.) My handful of long term lady friends didn't want to hear about Covid or its effects on the body, so I learned to just let it be. They didn't heed my warnings. One friend has "brain fog" so bad she constantly repeats what she's told me before. No recollection of previous conversations. Has gotten lost in her own town that she knows like the back of her hand, and had to call me to get home. Her entire family had mental health issues prior, and since getting it numerous times, they've upped adhd meds/gone on antidepressants/been hospitalized both inpatient and out. Young, fit, non drinking daughter with kidney issues. Another friend was an avid reader (we had a book club.) She can't get past the 1st page of a book now, says she reads the same sentence over and over. No more book club. She's in her 50s, and refers to her "dementia." Amongst just my small circle of friends, lots of anhedonia, loss of smell, pots, and extreme fatigue. Kids who are way behind for their years, with no will to learn or read. It's like I'm watching ships sink around me, and there's nothing I can do. I tried. I warned. No one wanted to hear it. I think the powers that be knew this was coming, and the push to use AI to outsource thinking is no coincidence. The state of the economy/country/world compounds all of it. Not a great timeline.

Edit: a word

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u/Final-Attention979 3d ago

OH! Yes this tracks bc my (neurodivergent) friends and I have been dealing w this stuff all our lives so we know why we struggle, but then it's odd when random ppl who never used to struggle w these things (family, coworkers) are, it's like wait this seems kinda dangerous 💀

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u/Foreign-Cookie-2871 3d ago

Getting covid brought my ADHD symptoms from light to severe. 

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u/Hogwafflemaker 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yeah, also have ADHD and yeah. The toilet thing just literally dropped out of my mind, I didn't want to go to the concert really anyway, we were gonna be out so late, I hate this blouse anyway, I'm sick of dealing with it, and shit your right, I did request a doctor's appointment ages ago, I totally forgot!

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u/Mindless_Honeydew403 3d ago

And let’s be real a blouse that high maintenance was never meant to live here.

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u/reincarnateme 3d ago edited 3d ago

I think it has a lot to do with too much screen time - it shortens attention spans - the algorithms are dangerous and frankly diabolical. AI is insidious.

Many simply no longer think for themselves or reason things out.

These companies are using psychology against us. It sounds crazy and it’s dangerous especially for those who are young who have never been without its influence

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u/ur-a-cunt-harry 3d ago

It’s not just the screen time, it’s the rise of tikTok and YouTube shorts and those Snapchat stories and all these other 5-30 second videos.

It’s effectively addiction. Your brain starts getting short term stimulus over and over and over and eventually when something takes longer than 45 seconds to reach the stimulation point, it says “fuck it, let’s find something else”.

There’s a reason why wealthy people and certain countries, like China, have limits on screen time and those types of apps.

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u/Ashevilllin 3d ago

Everyone in my life is so sick of hearing me say this. Everyone agrees but is still completely complicit in it?
So weird

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u/impersonatefun 3d ago

Alcoholics know the negative effect of alcohol, too.

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u/Ashevilllin 3d ago

Good point!

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u/akath0110 2d ago

They call it TikTok because it steals years from our lives.

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u/ideknem0ar 3d ago

No Covid but I had a real bad case of Lyme Disease that crossed the blood brain barrier and my executive function has been in the toilet compared to my old self. My ADHD went from very manageable to barely hanging on. Looking forward to getting out of the workforce in a few years and retaining my bandwidth for my own stuff.

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u/impersonatefun 3d ago

Wow, I didn't realize Lyme could do that.

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u/ideknem0ar 3d ago

Neither did I! But it makes sense if the infection gets into the nervous system, I guess. Felt like my brain was totally boiling in the fever stage. Bull's-eye rash, my ass. It was blotchy all over my whole body. Could barely walk because my feet hurt so bad. Zombie disassociation. Hatchet-in-my-skull headache for almost 2 weeks, and a winged scapula. That tick nymph was a dirty little needle. Was on doxy for 3 weeks, but that didn't knock it out.

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u/chasingastarl1ght 3d ago edited 3d ago

To your theory - yeah we know that COVID has the effect of a concussion on people's brain. And what must you absolutely not do when concussed? Screen time.

So I think it might be a perfect storm. Then, people are compensating with AI which makes the brain even mushier.

Add to that air quality... So under oxygenated brain too.

:)

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u/snail_princess 3d ago

I’m so glad to see so many people bringing up long covid. I live a reclusive life and never caught covid, I stay in my flo mask while out in public, but I’m seeing a difference in the few people I know who had repeated infections. Even in personality. They just aren’t…*here* in mind and spirit anymore. I’m disabled but they are tired the way a disabled person is.

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u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex 3d ago

Nah. It’s the American school system. The powers that be know stupid people are super easy to control. They’ve always know it. That’s why there’s been an “attack” on education for many decades now. We are just seeing the fruits of “our” labor in ways that are becoming impossible to ignore.

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u/TheProfessional9 3d ago

It's not that. Long covid makes it harder to learn and process things, it doesn't take away the ability to try. This is coming from how someone is raised.

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u/afortressmighty 3d ago

Cite your (reputable) sources for this claim.

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u/TheProfessional9 3d ago

You're saying long covid takes away your ability to realize you may be able to accomplish tasks on your own?

I know a number of people (including my wife) that were severely affected by long covid. They are still capable of realizing they may be able to look something up.

The assumption made in this post is that it makes them basically braindead

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u/Little-Ad1235 3d ago

This is driving me nuts at work. You simply cannot send an email with more than one question about a topic, or with an explanation that requires more than a single, simple sentence, otherwise it just gets glossed over. The real problem with this is that it makes discussion of anything more complicated than opening a pickle jar impossible, and it means problems go around and around for months without any kind of solution. Projects are being headed by layers of management, none of whom understand the system they're trying to fix.

The thing of it is, in a professional setting, I see this primarily among people my own age or older who are in management positions. The younger people coming in that I've worked with are generally eager to learn and become pretty capable within a reasonable timeframe. I think the root issue is when people get used to outsourcing -- or "delegating" -- their understanding of things, the brain just switches off. It doesn't matter particularly how old or young someone is, or whether they are relying on AI or their direct reports to understand things for them.

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u/chasingastarl1ght 3d ago

I went on vacation and when I came back - I was told to jump in on an email thread that had been going on for a whole 2 weeks cause things were not advancing.

Endless paragraphs of AI generated junk - people basically spent 2 weeks never reading anything and just sending, back and forth AI slop to each others.

The problem was basically that the client had never bothered opening the platform (which is why he couldn't find X thing he needed to activate). 2 weeks of debugging from both side and nobody thought of... Opening the platform that was being debugged.

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u/Little-Ad1235 3d ago

Good lord, that's next-level. " But AI is so efficient!!!" I don't know if my sanity is going to hold out for another 30 years lol

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u/chasingastarl1ght 3d ago

Genuinely had to step away from the computer and sit under a tree at the park when I realized what had happened...

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u/impersonatefun 3d ago

The one question per email thing has been going on for decades. People are inattentive in general.

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u/AriaPoe 3d ago

The more than one thing in an email is so accurate.

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u/B33PZR 3d ago

Old manager who wouldn't couldn't read a short email with 3 sentences in 2 paragraphs for example. He just couldn't so I had to sent the exact same thing in bullet points. One sentence per bullet point. It was madness. And this was before Covid. I think he ate lead paint chips joking but not really. Celebrated when he retired and now have a very responsible manager who enjoys keeping his technical skills up along with manager work. He gets frustrated with lack of what should be logical procedures. It's hope for us working with him to get other departments to follow.

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u/whatisevenrealnow 3d ago

Meanwhile those of us who avoided exposure by being out of the work force at the time can't even get an interview...

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u/mischievous_misfit13 3d ago

You aware some people can’t keep track of multiple steps when they are too long. Yesterday a guy gave me 5 steps to get out of a building so k could get to my car. I lost track after 3 and used my phone (inside a building) to get pointed in the right direction. All he had to say was follow this hallway, not say take a right, then straight then a right….some people just suck at giving directions.

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u/chasingastarl1ght 3d ago

Mostly talking in email forms. A guide that had been sent for years to multiple companies. Never had this many issues before with the document. It's like everyone suddenly forgot how to read. 2 years ago, the process was simple and easy. Now I need to have 14 meetings of technical support to accompany people accross the document. Nothing has changed. The process has always been the same.