{"id":3466,"date":"2026-08-12T11:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/?p=3466"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:29:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T20:29:54","slug":"the-link-between-vicarious-trauma-and-learned-helplessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/2026\/08\/12\/the-link-between-vicarious-trauma-and-learned-helplessness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Link Between Vicarious Trauma and Learned Helplessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Vicarious trauma is the costly experience of witnessing other people\u2019s traumatic events with empathy, thus causing emotional labor and posttrauma symptoms (Moran &amp; Asquith, 2020).\u00a0 Vicarious trauma can lead to depression and anxiety (Patel et al., 2026).\u00a0 Some other symptoms include intrusive thoughts, burnout, numbing, feeling overwhelmed, sleep difficulties, fearful feelings, losing trust in others, hypervigilance, and exhaustion (Rousseau, 2026).<\/p>\n<p>Learned helplessness is a psychological condition when an individual who experienced precarious, uncomfortable, or traumatic events did not have the ability to flee the situations or put a stop to them.\u00a0 The individual may then develop the schema that he is helpless in face of adversity.\u00a0 This condition can cause a lack of motivation, emotional and cognitive harm, unhealthy external attribution, a depressogenic attribution style, extreme passivity, depression, and low self-esteem (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).<\/p>\n<p>Developing vicarious trauma by witnessing others\u2019 suffering can cause neurological triggers including inflammation of prefrontal cortex, hyperactivity of HPA axis, and a breakdown of glutamate signaling.\u00a0 These factors can cause behavioral and physiological decline and passive dispositions that can lead to symptoms resembling depression (Patel et al., 2026).<\/p>\n<p>While dealing with vicarious trauma, self-care becomes of vital importance in order to prevent more psychological duress.\u00a0 Self-care can induce meaningful life experiences and feelings of personal control.\u00a0 In order to lessen the affects of vicarious trauma, some steps that help are avoiding isolation, joining or forming a support group, practice mindfulness, journal, and seek retrospection, and increase self -awareness (Rousseau, 2026).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>References<\/p>\n<p>Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., &amp; Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. <em>Journal of Abnormal Psychology<\/em>, <em>87<\/em>(1), 49\u201374. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/0021-843X.87.1.49<\/p>\n<p>Howard S. (2021). A Causal Model of Children&#8217;s Vicarious Traumatization.\u00a0<em>Journal of child &amp; adolescent trauma<\/em>,\u00a0<em>14<\/em>(4), 443\u2013454. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s40653-020-00331-z<\/p>\n<p>Maier, S. F., &amp; Seligman, M. E. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience.\u00a0<em>Psychological review<\/em>,\u00a0<em>123<\/em>(4), 349\u2013367. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/rev0000033<\/p>\n<p>Moran, R. J., &amp; Asquith, N. L. (2020). Understanding the vicarious trauma and emotional labour of criminological research. <em>Methodological Innovations<\/em>, <em>13<\/em>(2). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/2059799120926085.<\/p>\n<p>Patel S, Kushwaha R, Sinha D, Soren K, Kumar A and Chakravarty S (2026) Vicarious learned helplessness: a translationally relevant novel model of stress contagion elucidating sex-dependent prefrontal cortex pathology. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 20:1788847. doi: 10.3389\/fnbeh.2026.1788847<\/p>\n<p>Rousseau, D. 2026.\u00a0 Module 1.3.\u00a0 <em>Vicarious Trauma<\/em>.\u00a0 Learning Module.\u00a0 Boston University.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Vicarious trauma is the costly experience of witnessing other people\u2019s traumatic events with empathy, thus causing emotional labor and posttrauma symptoms (Moran &amp; Asquith, 2020).\u00a0 Vicarious trauma can lead to depression and anxiety (Patel et al., 2026).\u00a0 Some other symptoms include intrusive thoughts, burnout, numbing, feeling overwhelmed, sleep difficulties, fearful feelings, losing trust in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3467,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions\/3467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}