A Christian's Response to Apathy
by Bethany Chastain
Apathy is something many believers in Christ struggle to overcome, as they encounter it in themselves and in others on nearly a daily basis worldwide. There is an old saying, "If you wanted to focus on the bad, it would be easy. There is a lot of it. But just because it is there doesn't mean you have to go looking for it." As soon as I heard this, it made perfect sense to me. I instantly thought about how much the news media focuses on the bad. However it took me awhile to see what a problem this posed for the modern Christian.
What causes apathy is the feeling that the odds are stacked overwhelmingly against you.
Why not be apathetic if no one else cares about your perspective, beliefs, principles, and priorities? What's the purpose of fighting when it is obvious that you will lose? When you look for the bad and know it is bigger than you are, it only makes sense not to fight.
So, apathy is a result of fear. This apathy starts to threaten all the Church stands for. It's like a virus, bleeding into a congregation, removing hope and altering every aspect of their lives. Like sap from a tired tree, the compromises on their Christian beliefs ooze out from the cracked bark barely an ounce at a time without guilt. Apathy may well take out all determination.
A good Christian friend of mine once said, "I drive much too fast to put a Christian symbol on my car." When I suggested to him that he maybe ought to slow down, he said that it wasn't important enough to change something so simple. However, I don't think it is insignificant or simple at all.
I have come to the realization that defense against apathy requires faith, and faith requires hope. Christ did the impossible (go willingly to the cross) for that very hope. Able to see hope firsthand as God and knowing of greater things to come, Christ was willing to walk through derision, laughter, torture, and eventually death. The joy that hope contained was what gave Him strength.
I know that Christians, including myself, forget how to stand out in faith and disregard what our hope is. I know that we would discover that apathy has no place amongst us if we would just remember hope. Apathy is just a poison, which takes down our defenses and corrupts our faith. Don't think so? Notice the people of faith today.
Once I was told that, if everybody who claimed to believe in God believed truly without doubt, they would act differently than they currently do; so differently, in fact, that the rest of the world would notice it. The way they did business, their attitudes, and their lifestyles - essentially every aspect of their lives - would change dramatically. They would behave as Christ did, and the world would acknowledge it. In the face of apathy, faith has been left with little meaning. A large number of Christians have neglected the fact that just uttering the words will not suffice; one is required to take action in order to reveal to others what he actually believes.
And more so than anything else, what is really needed is action. Is there a way for a Christian to fight apathy? Stepping out in REAL faith, a Christian decides upon hope: the hope that what Christ knew was sufficient. Putting on a Christian t-shirt was one of the first things I did when I became a hope-filled Christian. On that day I was advertising my beliefs. In doing so, I paid more attention to my reactions to others and my actions in general. My driving took a dramatic turn for the better, and my tone was more respectful. What is the reason for this? I had decided to align myself with Christ, intentionally alerting others to this allegiance. Best of all, I chose to be without apathy that day.
Try it. Take action and look to the coming hope. Don't be afraid to show others the symbols of your faith by wearing a Christian t-shirt or displaying the Christian fish on your car. Provide assistance to local shelters and volunteer for community projects. And understand that your actions represent Christ when you do so. Take the threat seriously, and become a force that will make the world take notice. Don't forget: "Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
Apathy -- Why should you care?by Tom O’Connor, UNMC public affairs
It's easy to be apathetic. It's something we all experience. some days we just wake up and have no motivation. nothing seems to matter.
However, in some chronic diseases apathy turns into a clinical syndrome characterized by poor initiation, loss of motivation, indifference and lack of persistence. Apathy syndrome impairs self-management behaviors, leads to functional decline, poor compliance with treatment and generally poor outcomes in chronic diseases.
That's why two UNMC physicians -- Prasad Padala, M.D., and Cyrus Desouza, M.D. -- zeroed in on apathy as one of the key culprits in patients with Alzheimer's disease and chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity.
Dr. Padala, assistant professor, psychiatry, and Dr. Desouza, associate professor, endocrinology, also hold appointments at the Omaha Division-VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System. Dr. Padala has two grants to study the connection between apathy and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Desouza's grants focus on the impact of apathy treatment in people who are obese. They also have two federal grants that are under review.
The two researchers are studying a well-known drug -- ritalin -- as a treatment for apathy. Yes, the same ritalin that is used to slow hyperactive children. "It works differently in adults and children," Dr. Padala said. "With adults, it gives them more energy. Simply put, it increases the dopamine in the brain."
Dopamine is like the gas in your car. Low dopamine levels in the front of the brain can lead to apathy. "Apathy is one of the most profound and disabling aspects of Alzheimer's disease," said William Burke, M.D., professor and vice chairman of the UNMC Department of Psychiatry.
One study determined that apathetic persons are nearly three times more likely than those without apathy to be impaired in day-to-day activities such as dressing, bathing, walking, eating and using the toilet. In addition, apathy is linked to cognitive dysfunction in dementia patients. With no interest or motivation, it becomes difficult for these patients to use their remaining cognitive function. Their memory, learning and communication skills deteriorate.
"People are getting excited about apathy now because it may be a behavioral marker for a more rapidly progressing dementia," Dr. Padala said. "Apathy is considered an untapped behavioral problem. If treated well, it can have significant impact on management of dementia and diabetes."
Dr. Padala is conducting a VA-funded placebo-controlled study for apathy treatment in 60 veterans with Alzheimer's dementia. He said that early study results have been promising, as illustrated by the comments from the wife of an Alzheimer's patient who is taking ritalin.
"After one month in the study, she came to me and said, 'Thank you for giving my husband back to me. He's doing things that he hasn't done in the last five years,'" Dr. Padala said.
"Apathy is considered an untapped behavioral problem. If treated well, it can have significant impact on management of dementia and diabetes." Prasad Padala, M.D.
Diabetes is a major public health problem in the United States. It is much more common among veterans than in the general population. Self-management is a critical component to treating diabetes.
"The key to living with diabetes is disease management," Dr. Desouza said. "You have to exercise, watch your diet closely, keep your weight down and continually monitor your blood sugars. It's not easy. You have to be driven.
"Apathy can be devastating for patients with diabetes. Once they lose interest and stop managing the disease, the health ramifications can be dramatic," he said.
Dr. Desouza knows how difficult it is to motivate patients with diabetes. Despite all the innovations in treatment and guidelines, only about 10 percent of patients meet the benchmarks for diabetes control (blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol).
The use of ritalin is encouraging in the group of study participants, he said. "However, the brain is very complicated," Dr. Desouza said. "We don't know if improvement is due to the neuro chemical reaction resulting from taking ritalin. More research needs to be done."
Ritalin is not the optimal drug, Dr. Desouza said. Although it does increase dopamine, it also has several side effects, such as sleep disturbances, decreased appetite and increased blood pressure. Children who are hyperactive receive 80 mg of ritalin as their daily dose. Adults in the studies are given much lower doses with Alzheimer's patients receiving 10 mg and obesity patients receiving 20 mg. The lower dose helps lessen the side effects.
"We need to find a pharmaceutical agent that can impact apathy," Dr. Desouza said. "Ritalin is the best drug we have right now, but we are hopeful that we can find a better agent." Dr. Desouza has funding to study the impact of treating apathy on weight loss initiatives. Through the Omaha VA, 125 veterans were enrolled in the pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for apathy.
As part of the study, Drs. Padala and Desouza also are investigating a group therapy, "Medical crisis counseling," for treatment of apathy. "There seems to be a common thread linking Alzheimer's disease and diabetes, since people with diabetes are three times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than non-diabetic individuals," Dr. Padala said.
Apathy may be that thread. Dr. Padala recently received funding from the Alzheimer's Association to improve functional status, quality of life and glycemic control in patients with co-morbid dementia and diabetes.
"This is ground-breaking work," Dr. Burke said. "They are trying to determine if treating apathy will not only benefit the day-to-day life of people with Alzheimer's but if it might also have additional medical benefits in improving glucose control and increasing activity levels. This is a completely novel and exciting approach to a number of well known, often intractable, problems."
Scientists Find Link Between Dopamine and Obesity
UPTON, NY -- Dopamine, a brain chemical associated with addiction to cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs, may also play an important role in obesity. According to a study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, obese people have fewer receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps produce feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. The findings imply that obese people may eat more to try to stimulate the dopamine "pleasure" circuits in their brains, just as addicts do by taking drugs.
"The results from this study suggest that strategies aimed at improving dopamine function might be beneficial in the treatment of obese individuals," says physician Gene-Jack Wang, the lead scientist on the study.
Brookhaven scientists have done extensive research showing that dopamine plays an important role in drug addiction. Among other things, they’ve found that addictive drugs increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and that addicts have fewer dopamine receptors than normal subjects.
To test this hypothesis, the scientists measured the number of dopamine receptors in the brains of ten severely obese individuals and ten normal controls. Obese individuals, the scientists found, had fewer dopamine receptors than normal-weight subjects. And within the obese group, the number of dopamine receptors decreased as the subjects' body mass index, an indicator of obesity, increased. That is, the more obese the individual, the lower the number of receptors.
"It's possible that obese people have fewer dopamine receptors because their brains are trying to compensate for having chronically high dopamine levels, which are triggered by chronic overeating," says Wang. "However, it's also possible that these people have low numbers of dopamine receptors to begin with, making them more vulnerable to addictive behaviors including compulsive food intake."
The researchers note that, based on this study alone, they cannot conclude whether the brain changes they've detected are a consequence or a cause of obesity. They also acknowledge that the regulation of body weight is extremely complex, involving many physiological mechanisms and neurotransmitters. But they do suggest that addressing the dopamine receptor deficiency or finding other ways to regulate dopamine in obese people might help reduce their tendency to overeat.
Unfortunately, many of the drugs that have been shown to alter dopamine levels are highly addictive. But exercise, which has other obvious benefits in weight control, is another way obese subjects might be able to stimulate their dopamine pleasure and satisfaction circuits, the researchers suggest. "In animal studies conducted elsewhere, exercise has been found to increase dopamine release and to raise the number of dopamine receptors," Volkow says. This suggests that obese people might be able to boost their dopamine response through exercise instead of eating - just one more reason to exercise if you're trying to lose weight.
This study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Apathy: The Enemy of Fitness*
For many in today’s culture, apathy is the biggest enemy of fitness. Sure everyone wants to “get in shape” but it seems that few actually work up the will to make any significant change in their lives. We as a generation, are overweight, unhealthy, and are dying young. As you may have guessed, the problem is only getting worse. Recent obesity statistics have shown that 1/3 of the adult population in the United States is currently obese. That’s just insane.
Why are we this way? What has made us become so lethargic that we don’t even care that we are slowly killing ourselves? Maybe people are too busy and don’t have time to exercise. Perhaps people can’t afford the “healthy food”. Maybe, it’s genetic or the result of greedy fast food companies trying to get us all addicted to their high calorie meals. Sure, maybe it is all of the above to some degree. But the bottom line is that we, as individuals, are just too apathetic to make the change we really need to see in our own lives. In general, I believe the root of our apathy boils down to this: we are ignorant about proper health and nutrition, we are dishonest with ourselves about the effects our lifestyles are having on us, and we are far too easily distracted from the real problems at hand.
Ignorant: At some point I’m sure we’ve all thought about losing a few pounds, putting on some muscle or just trying to get in better general shape. However, if you have tried at fitness and failed, what happened? Was it too hard to stick with? Was it too difficult to eat right? Chances are you just didn’t know what to do. I know that this was my problem. I dreamed about getting in shape for years but until I actually began doing research into what steps were necessary to lose weight, it was always a pipe dream. I’d eat a salad or two and get frustrated that I hadn’t dropped any weight on the scale. I was ignorant of the realities of calorie restriction and exercise in bringing about real and sustainable change.
Dishonest: I think it is important to admit that to some degree, we have all been a little dishonest with ourselves. We know that the fast food that we casually pickup on the way home isn’t the best choice for us. We know that if we don’t make exercise a priority it isn’t going to happen on its own. We also know that we don’t want to remain out of shape forever. Simply put, this isn’t how we were made to live. It’s OK to let yourself hear some harsh truths every now and then.
Distracted: With family, work, school, church and personal time, our responsibilities can stretch us all a little thin. However, when you also add TV, internet, Xbox, blogging, twitter, facebook, etc it can quickly become ridiculously overwhelming. It is OK to unplug every once in awhile. With a continuous flood of information vying for your attention it’s difficult not to become distracted from the things in life that really matter.
The next time you feel the need to make a change in your life, act on it. Don’t wait until the next commercial break.
*http://www.fithacks.com/index.php/2010/05/05/apathy-the-enemy-of-fitness/
PHOTO: timesofindia.eu
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