I know there is a thread here somewhere but the search bar just keeps spinning so I am asking again.
Can anyone tell the difference and explain it to me?
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well, a mentally healthy person may not want to do something because he is lazy
a person with a severe mental illness is unable to do something because he has avolition. could be caused by his illness or the meds
there’s a world of difference
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if you’re asking because you think you’re lazy but have a severe mental illness - then chances are you’re not lazy but are being hard on yourself
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Good question. I would like to know too.
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@Wave you have issues with this in the past - did you ever figure it out?
@Prospero Are you doing okay? Your posts are pretty unnecessarily belligerent today.
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I think the difference is the severity and extent of it, and context matters too. I don’t think it makes sense to say someone has had avolition just one day in his/her life, especially not if that would be, idk, after staying up late the night before etc.
I also think it is plainly wrong to deny MI patients with some level of recovery the possibility to be lazy, i.e., not everything that looks like it is avolition. Not every single aspect of our behaviour is at all times to be considered through the lens of symptomology. That is not false, it is wrong.
@prospero - I thought I had responded to you before I asked wave to join the topic. I don’t remember exactly what I said to you-
but it was - Since off meds it has gotten worse for me. I take gingko biloba for my td once a day and I notice I have more motivation/giddiness until it wears off and then I slowly have this curtain that falls over me where all nothing matters and nothing is important and all I can do is just sit or lye down.
Hi @mjgh06
Since coming off of the Risperdal and not being on an Antipsychotic, my Avolition has gotten better, I feel a bit more motivated.
But the problem is that I am still going through Risperdal withdrawals and feel tired and zapped of my energy lately.
I get tired easily and spend a lot of time on the couch.
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I thought you had left for the night. Thanks for coming back.
So mine could be also from coming off risperidone in June maybe?
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Yes it’s possible.
At first I was real agitated without Risperdal in my system, now I’m always real tired.
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I am going to try to get back to sleep.
I will talk to you tomorrow @mjgh06.
Good night
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Good night @Wave
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For me it feels like Im a ton of bricks. Can just stare at the wall and do nothing. I’d like to do something but just feel weighed down and immovable when I have avolition.
I don’t take any meds. So it’s not meds. Mind you I’m going to see the pdoc to get re evaluated soon to figure out what I should do.
It’s mainly negative symptoms that are troubling these days. Positive symptoms improved thankfully. But experience more negative symptoms now
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I can see that - wanting to do something and just the will to do so is gone.
Someone posted about a goal for this month - and I thought I would like to cook something. But doing it, even thinking about the process of doing it is draining. Then I think about why I am not just doing it, and I get depressed over not doing it and then I can’t even think anymore, like my body , my mind all shut down and I am done.
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That’s actually a good way to explain it.
It’s not like depression. It’s the avolition that makes me feel frustrated and eventually depressed about it.
I think with avolition you want to do things but can’t. Laziness you don’t want to do things and don’t.
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I don’t know what the difference is, but I’ve put off doing things that it would have been easier and less work just to do - things like homework assignments at school, and what not. But I guess the normies do that too. It could just be a matter of degree.
Personally I think cognition has a lot to do with it. I will often find myself demotivated to do things that seem overwhelming. Organising myself to keep my flat clean is a primary one. I am ok if I am doing a small part of the task with others helping me with the rest. Usually when faced with a task that’s mentally overwhelming I go into avoidance mode, and yet if faced with a task that doesn’t overwhelm me I am more likely to do it.
Sometimes it can be a technical reason why I don’t do a task. For example hoovering. I have only hoovered about once in the last year. The physical act of hoovering in itself is not difficult.
However when the cylinder became full it took me hours to remove it,empty it and put it back into place. That put me off hoovering as eventually the cylinder would get full again and I would get stressed emptying it and putting it back into place.
Hence I have gone into avoidant mode over hoovering.