What is learned helplessness? It is, in our view, a major obstacle to success in work, school and community efforts on the reservation, for both people with and without disabilities.
Learned helplessness is the belief that there is no use trying to avoid harm, pain or other unpleasant situations. Animals who are put in a cage and shocked with no possibility of escape will eventually not try to escape even when they are in a situation where it is possible to escape from the electric shock. Many other experiments have been conducted on other animals and learned helplessness seems to be common in certain groups of people (although we haven't gone to doing electric shocks on humans).
People who have been abused as children, who have grown up with an alcoholic, drug-addicted or mentally ill parent and who come from very low-income families are all more likely to experience learned helplesssness. Many, many studies have shown learned helplessness to be high among people with disabilities.
Please click here to go to a section of the Spirit Lake Forum where community members discuss learned helplessness. Feel free to post your own opinions and comments.
Have you ever said:
- 'No one will listen to me.'
- 'Things will never change on this reservation.'
- 'It doesn't matter what I do.'
- 'I can't get a job because I don't have the skills.'
- 'I can't go to college because I can't read well enough.'
All of those and a lot more are expressions that demonstrate learned helplessness, especially if you aren't doing anything about them. Maybe you can't take regular college classes because you can't read well enough. Is there a giant monster at the front door stopping you from leaving the house to go to an Adult Education class? Did the giant monster eat the last person who came to tutor you?
If not, then the fact that you can't read very well doesn't mean you can't go to college. It just means there are some steps you need to take to get there.
Going to college