If you're reading this post, you may consider the title to be a strange question to ask. Surely if a person is lazy then it can be nothing but a weakness? However I ask you to consider for a moment the way that the labels we give people have changed over the years. No-one is called unintelligent any longer, instead they are referred to as being dyslexic or having learning difficulties (the range is vast). Rarely, unless the law is broken, are people classed as badly behaved, they have Attention Deficit Hyper-activity Disorder or emotional, social and behavioural difficulties. Even the label for being plain old clumsy has changed, if you are particularly bad then you are likely to be suffering from dyspraxia.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that these disabilities and difficulties are not genuine, they are. I work with enough individuals every year to know this first hand yet we are very quick to label people with a more socially acceptable explanation. Laziness however, doesn't seem to be something that we are willing to label or even explore further. It may not be an illness, at least not a physical one but like many of these labels could it not be an illness or a disability of the mind for some individuals?
The reason I ask is that to other people I often come across as being lazy. My house is always untidy and the dishes are rarely done. While I realise that this in itself is not unusual, especially for people who are happy-go-lucky and are merely grabbing as much enjoyment as possible to cram into their lives, for me it goes deeper. To start, I rarely go out of the house when I'm not working. It's not that I'm an unsociable person or don't have any friends; it's just so damned hard for me to find the motivation. I seriously lack energy, so much so that I can even struggle to attend my weekly, two hour band practise. That's not all; I find it impossible to work a normal full-time, forty-eight weeks a year job. Not because I slack when it comes to my duties, if anything I am a very dedicated, hard worker. It is because the more hours I work, the more tired I get and the more tired I get, the more ill and stressed I become. This generates a vicious circle and I end up with a terrible sick record which stops me being able to get another job or more hours in my existing one. The doctors can find nothing physically wrong with me.
So could laziness, at least for some people be a form of mental illness? I have discovered articles on the internet and in magazines about others who feel the way I do. They have found that their lack of energy is caused by their stress levels. Not by the normal variety of stress we all suffer from but irrational-react-to-absolutely-everything stress that causes adrenaline to be pumped constantly around the body, leaving it exhausted. The use of Neural Linguistic Programming or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy have been successfully used to help re-train the brain back into normal responses. So why can't I do that too? Because, as yet it is not recognised as a medical condition, my doctor looked baffled when I brought this up at my last appointment asking for a referral. The individuals who have undergone these successful therapies have had to pay for the treatment themselves and find their own, mostly alternative, therapists. How can I and others on a low income do this when we earn less per month than the cost of one session?
Lets hope that laziness is looked at by the medical profession more broadly in the future. Maybe it will even get it's own label.
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