“Languishing”: what is this emotion specific to the Covid-19 pandemic? : Current Woman The MAG

The Covid-19 pandemic is not without consequences for our mental health. Investigation CoviPrev conducted by Public Health France reveals that 20% of French people suffer from a state of depression, a higher level than that observed outside the epidemic. In question ? The fear of the virus, the feeling of loneliness or even confinement due to successive confinements.

The current situation, however, is not always a source of psychological disturbances: many are neither completely depressed nor completely happy. A kind of intermediate emotion difficult to describe, but which is often characterized by a feeling of emptiness and a lack of enthusiasm.

This in-between now has a name, as revealed in the New York Times Adam Grant, professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (United States): “languishing”, in other words “languor”.

Languishing, the dominant emotion of the year 2021?

Languor is defined as a “physical abatement or moral which manifests itself in a lack of activity, energy, dynamism “. As for the term “languishing”, it was coined in the early 2000s by sociologist Corey Keyes, to describe people who weren’t necessarily demoralized, but who weren’t thriving either.

A sensation that Adam Grant himself felt and observed in others in this time of health crisis: “It was not a burnout, we still had energy. It wasn’t a depression – we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt a little joyless and aimless “, he writes in the New York Times to describe this phenomenon.

He also explains that languor is a feeling of stagnation and emptiness. “You have the impression that you are walking with a turtle’s pace, watching your life through a misty windshield. And this may be the dominant emotion of 2021”, adds the psychology professor.

“Languishing”: a risk factor for depression?

Sociologist Corey Keyes describes “languishing” as “emptiness and stagnation, constituting a life of quiet despair … individuals who describe themselves and life as hollow, void, a shell and a void”.

A phenomenon that would not be without consequences, because the people who suffer from it would not notice their condition and would therefore not be taken care of. Their symptoms would not be “clinically significant” and thus go unnoticed. “When you don’t see your own suffering, you aren’t looking for help and doing little to help yourself.”, explains Adam Grant.

Result: “languishing” is considered a risk factor for psychological disorders. In study, Corey Keyes found that the risk of a major depressive episode was thus twice as high in adults suffering from “languishing” than in those “moderately mentally healthy”.

How to fight against “languishing”?

However, there are solutions to get out of this lethargic state. The “flow” (“flow”, in French) would be part of it: this concept describes a mental state during which a person is completely immersed in an activity. A state of concentration and extreme commitment from which a certain satisfaction emerges.

To achieve this, it is for example possible to reconnect with the pleasure of immersing yourself in a new book or finishing a crossword puzzle. The idea? “Set aside time each day to focus on a challenge that matters to you – an interesting project, a worthwhile goal, a meaningful conversation. Sometimes it’s a small step towards rediscovering energy and the enthusiasm that you have missed during all these months “, suggests Adam Grant.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as well as mindfulness may also be effective against “languishing”.

Read also :

⋙ Mental health: advice from a shrink to keep morale high in this particular context

⋙ Anxiety, social phobia… How to fight against the consequences of confinement?

⋙ Stress, fatigue, anxiety: the ideal program to boost morale at home