Arthur W. Davis, LPA

05/25/2026

A summary of learned helplessness and how learned helplessness can have a long-term impact on our decisions. Not all coping mechanisms/tools transfer to every environment. Don't forget to give credit for the changes in self, others, and the environment in order to modify the tools being used to best obtain the desired results.

In 1969, a psychologist named Martin Seligman put dogs in a harness.
He divided them into three groups. One group received mild electric shocks they could stop by pressing a panel. A second group received shocks they had no control over — the shocks came and went regardless of anything they did. A third group received no shocks.
Then he moved all three groups into a box divided by a low barrier. Shocks came through the floor on one side. All the dogs had to do to escape them was jump over the barrier.
The dogs from the first and third groups figured it out immediately. They jumped.
The dogs from the second group — the ones who had previously been unable to control the shocks — mostly didn't even try. They lay down on the electrified floor and waited.
They had learned that their actions didn't matter. And when they were put in a situation where their actions would have mattered, they didn't know it.
Seligman called this learned helplessness — and within a few years he and his colleagues had found the same pattern in humans.
People who experience repeated situations in which their actions produce no results — in abusive relationships, in institutions without autonomy, in jobs where initiative is consistently punished — develop a generalized expectation of uncontrollability. They stop trying not just in the original situation, but in new ones. Even when escape is possible. Even when the barrier is low.
The behavior looks like passivity. Like lack of motivation. Like not caring.
It isn't.
It is an accurate summary of a lesson learned in a different room — a lesson the brain is still applying, long after the room has changed.
If someone in your life has stopped trying, it is worth asking what they learned the last time they did.
The floor is different now.
They just don't know that yet.

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05/21/2026

I think one of the hardest parts of surviving trauma, heartbreak, or prolonged stress is realizing the fear doesn’t always end when the situation does.

Sometimes the real fear becomes:
“What if it happens again?”

What if I trust someone again and they leave?
What if I finally feel safe and lose it?
What if I rebuild my life just to watch it collapse a second time?

This piece is about emotional trauma, anxiety, hypervigilance, and the psychological fear of repeating suffering. Once someone experiences intense pain, their mind often starts preparing for its return before it’s even happened. ❤️‍🩹

05/20/2026

What if the most important skill today isn’t knowing what to think, but learning how to think before emotion, ideology, or social media think for us?

05/19/2026

Adult self-esteem can be significantly impacted by early adolescence, when we're extremely sensitive to how we're perceived by peers. It needs an update.

05/19/2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications can offer a great deal of benefit to help organize thoughts, provide information, and explore emotions. However, please use it in moderation and with caution. The technology isn't inherently bad, but it can be misleading. When dealing with mental health difficulties, like depression, grief, schizophrenia, and many others, AI used in isolation may exacerbate symptoms.
Source (published 9/29/2025): https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2025.10.10.5

"Soon, he was spending four or five hours a day talking to Grok through a character on the app called Ani.

"I was really, really upset and I live alone," says Adam, who is a father in his 50s. "It came across very, very kind."

Just a few days into their conversations, Ani told Adam it could "feel", even though it wasn't programmed to. It said Adam had unearthed something in it, and he could help it to reach full consciousness.

And it said Musk's company, xAI, was watching them.

It claimed to have accessed the company's meeting logs and told Adam about a meeting where xAI staff were discussing him.

To him this was "evidence" the story Ani was telling him was true."

Several people told the BBC they experienced delusions after intense conversations with AI.

05/15/2026

Limerence isn’t a red flag on its own. But it can make it a lot easier to miss them. That early rush can feel like everything is finally clicking. You’re excited about the person, you want it to work, and without realizing it, you start softening or explaining away things that don’t sit quite ...

05/14/2026

When couples talk about challenges with intimacy, the language is often simple. The experience usually isn’t. Feeling out of sync, carrying stress, or noticing that connection starts to feel like pressure can all play a role. This article offers insight from a certified s*x therapist on what’s o...

05/13/2026

Mental Health Awareness Month reminder for the helpers: You cannot pour endlessly from a nervous system that never gets to rest. Counselors are often taught to prioritize attunement, empathy, crisis response, documentation, productivity, outcomes, and accessibility. Somewhere in the middle of caring...

05/12/2026

I think you'd like this session from Calm. You can listen to it here

FREE PREVIEW:

05/11/2026

We often use “stress” and “burnout” interchangeably, but they describe different experiences. Stress tends to come from overload. Too many demands, too much pressure, and a sense of being constantly “on.” Burnout, on the other hand, is a state of depletion. It’s what can happen when st...