What would be a cause of apathy?

They either don’t have enough empathy or they have reached the “been there, done that” stage when everything isn’t too shocking to them.

We are social, we do care but it varies from person to person. may be the person is apathy because of his/her behavior….

Things I can’t be: Arsed.

Who cares?

^ Deep.

Joke aside; I care.

@Sneki95 From my standpoint, the crux of your even calling someone apathetic lies in the phrase ”..., but should,

No one is able to respond to every need for compassion. We learn of things that could use our help but we may not be able to help. Sometimes the evaluations of such instances occur in the moment, sometimes after a long thought process.

Most compassionate, caring people still need to limit the amount of care they express in order to keep from being overwhelmed. Different people have different abilities to do this.

And then there are people commonly known as sociopaths who are emotionally unable to care about anyone except themselves.

My ex started taking antidepressants. She had not taken them before,and we were very close. She slowly stopped caring about anything, including me, even after 3 years. Eventually, we broke up…

That’s one cause….

I would say, maybe misdirected anger might be another cause.

Self loathing.

Lots of reasons.

Depression will do that too.

I agree with @zenvelo What one person might call apathy another, like me, would call it healthy detatchment. You can’t save the world, fix all the pain and suffering in it, or change or control anyone, so why waste your emotional energy on such futile pursuits.
There is a saying “don’t should on yourself, or others.”
Also, different personality types have different cognitive functions and thinking types are just not going to be a emotional or empathetic as feeling types.

Thinkers solve problems and make evaluations based on logic and rational thought and feeling types make decisions and evaluations based on emotion. It can also be a “been there, done that” scenario as well. I am going through that right now with a friend who is going through a breakup with a man she has dated for some years. I am trying to show care and lend support but the truth is, I could care less about peoples relationship dramas these days as a mature woman.

Seriously, it takes everything I have to listen to romantic relational drama. Gah…so-hard-for-me. haha

Depression, feeling overwhelmed (the feeling that there’s too much wrong for me to be able to fix it all so I’ll just give up), believing that the problem won’t harm your life and therefore isn’t your problem (i.e. a lack of empathy for the others who are harmed).

I would guess that the most frequent cause for apathy is our ability to grow accustomed to “things as they are”. For example, I was greatly alarmed at the sudden appearance of armies of homeless people on the streets early on in the Reagan administration. Today I walk past blocks of tents and shopping carts on the sidewalks without a glance or second thought.

Depression, exhaustion, chronic pain, illness, anything of a deeply personal nature that makes it difficult to look outward.
I think lacking empathy or being jaded are much less common reasons for apathy than malaise.

@canidmajor But don’t you think maturity also lends itself to not being overwrought over everything? I have plenty of compassion but I am not neurotic about anything. I agree depression and other emotional/mental/physical health issues could lend itself to a measure of apathy but I also think that learning the art of detatchment is a healthy behavior for many.

Sometimes, people get so ground down by the shit around them that they have nothing left to give a damn with. Thoughts of rocks in pockets and a little swim can start going though people’s minds more and more often, for sure.

@Coloma: not the same conversation at all. The question was about the possible causes of apathy, not whether or not someone’s distress is unjustifiable due to age.

@canidmajor That’s what I thought I was doing, offering up other possible causes such as personality type/ temperament, maturity, etc. All of which are valid possibilities aside from distress.
My point is that apathy doesn’t always have to involve distress and that what one person might consider apathetic behavior might be another persons healthy detatchment.
Since this Q. is posted in “social” it seems there is room for alternate but pertinent discussion.

Trying and failing too many times. Apathy is reformed idealism.

We may be looking at it backwards. A lot of people think that apathy is a sort of breakdown of what should be, a lack of qualities that one should have, including interest, ambition and energy.

I’m starting to think that it’s a more positive thing than that: It’s sustained lethargy, impotence and ignorance. In these days of people giving up on things at the drop of a hat – including apathy – this is a hard thing to maintain, so it should be celebrated when found.

Let’s hear it for apathy! Three cheers… no, two cheers… oh, just wave at it as it goes by. Nod, maybe.

You have no idea, CWOTUS…. make fun of what you like, but people who really have no resources or places to turn… yeah… we don’t end up giving a fuck…. so , guess who we go attack first? We fuck over the assholes who are over confident. You don’t get what people are willing to do with they have nothing to lose. I’ve got nothing to fucking lose.

@Sneki95 IMHO this person is depressed.

Familiarity…it breeds contempt y’know?

Lack of interests, benefits, or motivation toward certain thing that provokes their apathy.