Apathy

In a state of apathy you lose your reason for being here, you lose your ‘fire for life’. I saw this in my father (who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s) but people misunderstood his apathy back then, they didn’t realise that it is an organ malfunction not a behavior. It is not deliberate and not something you can ‘snap yourself out of’. I wish I’d known back then what I know now. I went on to treat apathy for years when I was specializing in addiction recovery. Drug abuse depletes kidney yang and the user becomes dependent on drugs (or alcohol) to provide the spark of purpose and meaning. Western medicine will often use amphetamines (Ritalin etc) to treat apathy for this very reason but this is not natural and it is not sustainable. Amphetamines hijack your life force (Jing) to give you that kick, and ultimately make the problem worse.

To treat apathy you have to work with natural means of building your ‘kidney fire’ and purpose / spirituality to keep that fire burning bright. The kidney chapter in my book Clock On To Health covers what to do to keep your kidneys healthy and how to make your whole life more meaningful, connected and purposeful every day. You want to keep that light in your eyes shining bright, and your spirit fired up and this only comes from lifestyle. For specific in-depth info on how to defeat post-drug apathy get my book The Rebel’s Guide to Recovery.