Abulia: Lack of Drive – It Mustn’t Be This Hard!
On Driver or Driven (2023), by lyricist Es and music producer Das Da Beat Junkie, is the song “Driver or Driven”, on which Es states, “Got drive (or given)? Rock live (or given)? Pop five to industry high-fives (this isn’t). Driven, ‘cause my inward remains focused on my mission.”
For context, the American Psychological Association (APA) defines drive as “a generalized state of readiness precipitating or motivating an activity or course of action. Drive is hypothetical in nature, usually created by deprivation of a needed substance (e.g., food), the presence of negative stimuli (e.g., pain, cold), or the occurrence of negative events.”
In common parlance, used as expressed herein, drive is defined as the exertion of inescapable or coercive pressure on something (e.g., a drive to succeed). Often, drive is used synonymously with motivation (the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something).
Now, a lack of drive may be regarded as abulia, which the APA defines as “extreme loss of initiative and willpower, resulting in an inability to make decisions or initiate voluntary actions.” In “Driver or Driven”, Es states, “Driven, ‘cause my inward remains focused on my mission.”
This presumably relates to the lyricist’s admission that his mind remains focused on matters at hand—which he can either control or influence—so he remains driven, rather than experiencing abulia. It’s with this understanding that I now turn to my method of rational living.
As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) was formed by the late psychologist Albert Ellis, who reportedly developed the first cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) psychotherapeutic modality in 1955, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding his book, Ask Albert Ellis?: Straight Answers and Sound Advice from America’s Best-Known Psychologist.
REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.
Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):
REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).
Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.
Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world, wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.
In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.
Momentarily, I’ll provide an example of how GLAD narratives can cause – or at least contribute to – abulia. For now, as I encourage you to pay close attention to the use of GLAD scripts, I invite you to consider that Ellis stated (pages 31 and 32):
Lack of drive may have biological causes, which can be ascertained and either remedied or, if unremedied, can be accepted without self-damning [G]. In most cases, it results when people create lack of motivation by convincing themselves that pushing themselves is “too hard”; that it must not [D] be as hard as it is; and that it’s “awful” [A] for them to have to [D] work so hard to get the results they would like to get easily.
So they have low frustration tolerance [L] – which we commonly call “laziness.” In addition, people with lack of drive very frequently also have […] “fear of success” underlain by “fear of failure.” They tell themselves that they absolutely must [D] succeed at important projects or at winning approval, and that if they fail they are worthless [G] people.
They thereby make it too “risky” to even try to motivate themselves to succeed. So they cop out and sit on their rumps. Then they castigate themselves [G] for being unmotivated!
Did you notice how many GLAD narratives Ellis identified? Perhaps one of the main non-biological components of abulia is demandingness. For instance, one may tell oneself, “It mustn’t [by all means, ought not to] be this hard [difficult to bear or endure]!”
Noteworthy, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.
From an A-C view, physiologically versus psychologically speaking, a person with low dopamine levels (Action) may experience abulia (Consequence). Alternatively, from a B-C perspective, psychologically speaking, a lack of drive may also be caused by one’s outlook.
For example, I encourage you to practice REBT (Action), you Believe, “I’m useless [G], if I can’t live productively without REBT, and I can’t stand [L] my life, as it’s awful [A], so it mustn’t [D] be this hard to live rationally,” and you then experience dread (Consequence).
Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.
Although there may be a biological component to abulia, as suggested by Ellis, there’s also a psychological element that causes a lack of drive for many people. This is especially worth considering when one uses a rigid demand, such as, “It mustn’t be this hard!”
Over the years, I’ve seen clients come and go when clinging to their self-disturbing demands regarding daily practice of REBT. Unfavorably, the overwhelming majority of those who’ve self-disturbingly walked away from services with me caused their own abulia.
Nonetheless, for those who’ve remained in my care, they ostensibly use a helpful self-narrative, such as that endorsed by Es, “Driven, ‘cause my inward remains focused on my mission.” Now, I invite you to consider that you may be causing your own lack of drive with an unhelpful outlook.
If you maintain that rational living “mustn’t be this hard,” then ask yourself from where this unproductive belief originates. Lasting and effective change isn’t necessarily easy to achieve. Contrarily, it can be significantly hard to attain! Do you have the drive to do it the hard way?
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
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