Acedia – A Lesser-Known Affliction

Living circumstances change for people as they, age and very often this, plus the loss of friends and family leads to people withdrawing from others on a social level. When this occurs, it is so easy to become negative and dejected. Often this leads to people visiting the doctor known as Dr Me or Dr Myself for a diagnosis and too often this means a conclusion that I make to the effect that I am simply suffering from depression.

This may or may not be true, because in round about the 4^th century the monks in monasteries were experiencing this type of affliction, and the cause that was identified was that the situation developed from one or more of a possible multi-pronged source:

It was discovered that social distancing as a result of being cooped up in their cells all day led to their losing interest in living. Already in the 5^th century a monk, John Cassian wrote about a phenomenon which came from the ancient Greek word “acedia”.

People in this type of situation are often bored, listless and uncertain. Too often virtually every day goes by with nobody coming to visit, nothing to look forward to and they suffer from a lack of confidence that seems to keep them withdrawn from the rest of their community.

Lockdown such as we experienced in 2020, restrictions on movement between people and the like can lead to the development of this almost “self-inflicted” feeling of a loss of interest, loss of self-worth and a loss of purpose for which people often blame themselves.

In a colloquial sense the saying that, “No man is an Island”, is possibly a way of defining this debilitating negativity which can develop into total withdrawal from being socially interactive which is so very important, because this is one of the sources of “cure”. Living in social isolation seems to act like a growth medium for this affliction.

Of course, the monastic environment could logically pair the lack of spiritual study efforts with this negative experience. The lack of purpose in monasteries was also dealt with for example by getting the monks to grow vegetable gardens, which gave them a purpose of helping the poor survive.

The internet is able to provide a lot of interesting facts about this very old affliction that is still very much alive centuries after being discovered for some of our seniors. Do yourself a favour and look into this topic – it could well be the survival vitamin you need.

Written by Paul Rosenbrock