When a person comes to therapy with complaints of depression or anxiety, they usually expect the psychologist to help them cope with symptoms: teach relaxation techniques, give exercises to improve mood, explain the nature of anxious thoughts. But over years of practice, I've noticed a pattern: the overwhelming majority of clients with depressive and anxious states have one common feature — loss of agency, loss of the sense of authorship of their own life.
This doesn't mean that agency is the only cause of depression or anxiety. But it turns out to be the foundation without which any techniques and strategies work only temporarily, like a painkiller for a fracture. Symptoms may subside, but the problem remains.
Depression as a State of Total Non-Agency
Depression is not just sadness or apathy. It's a state when a person stops feeling like a subject capable of influencing their life. The classic triad of depressive thinking describes a negative view of oneself, the world, and the future. But if you look deeper, all three components are united by one thing — the absence of agency.
"I can't change anything," "Nothing depends on me," "Whatever I do, nothing will work out" — these are not just pessimistic thoughts. This is a conviction in one's own helplessness, in the absence of influence on what's happening.
Olga, 29, worked as a manager in a large company. Externally everything looked fine: stable work, good salary, rented apartment. But for the last six months she could barely force herself to get out of bed in the mornings. "I'm like a robot," she said. "I get up, go to work, do what I'm told, come back, go to bed. And so in a circle. What for? I don't know. None of this makes sense."
In the process of working together, it became clear that Olga hadn't made a single significant decision in her life for the past few years. She chose the job on a friend's advice. She rented the apartment because it was near the office, although she didn't like the neighborhood. She ended the relationship because the partner left himself. She even spent vacation where colleagues went, although she dreamed of mountains, not the beach.
Depression here is not the cause, but the consequence. A consequence of a life in which the person stopped being the author, turned into a passive performer of others' scripts. A brain deprived of the opportunity to make meaningful choices and see their consequences gradually shuts down. Why spend energy if nothing depends on you anyway?
Anxiety as Fear of One's Own Agency
If depression is capitulation to non-agency, then anxiety is often its opposite: fear of taking responsibility for one's life into one's own hands.
Anxious people think a lot, plan, calculate options. It seems they are maximally active and control the situation. But if you look closely, all this activity is aimed at one thing — avoiding the need to make a real choice and act.
Maxim, 35, had been dreaming of his own business for three years. He read books on entrepreneurship, attended courses, compiled business plans. He had a whole folder with ideas, calculations, schemes. But not one of these ideas was ever implemented. "I'm afraid to make a mistake," he explained. "I need to prepare better, study the market, gather more information."
Anxiety here performed a protective function. While Maxim was worrying and preparing, he bore no responsibility for the result. He was not an agent who acts and influences reality. He was an eternal student who learns but never moves to practice.
Anxiety in such cases is a way to avoid agency while remaining in the illusion of activity. A person is not passive, as in depression, but also doesn't act. They get stuck in endless preparation, in running through options, in searching for guarantees that don't exist.
Learned Helplessness and Cycles of Non-Agency
Martin Seligman described the phenomenon of learned helplessness: when a living being repeatedly encounters an uncontrollable negative situation, it stops trying to change it, even when such an opportunity appears. This is depression at the neurobiological level — the brain learns that actions are useless.
But it's important to understand: learned helplessness is not just about traumatic events. It's about any situation where your agency is systematically suppressed.
Ekaterina grew up in a family where any of her "I want" was ignored. Not in a crude form — the parents were loving and caring. But they always knew better: what she should wear, who to be friends with, where to apply, what to do. By 25, she developed severe depression. "I feel like a ghost," she said. "As if I don't exist. There's some shell that functions, but inside is empty."
Her brain learned the lesson: "Your desires don't matter. Your actions don't change anything. You as a subject don't exist." And it responded with depression — why spend resources on a life that doesn't belong to you?
Perfectionism as a Mask for Lost Agency
Another state closely related to impaired agency is perfectionism. At first glance, a perfectionist looks like a person with high agency: they set standards, strive for goals, control quality.
But the true source of perfectionism often lies in fear of being rejected, not accepted, evaluated negatively. The perfectionist doesn't act from internal motivation, but reacts to imagined or real external evaluation.
Andrey, a successful architect, exhausted himself redoing projects ten times. Not because he saw real flaws, but because he feared criticism. "If I do it perfectly, they won't be able to blame me," he explained. To the question "And what do you want?" he was lost. It turned out that he hadn't done projects for himself, out of interest or creative impulse, for a long time. All his work was a reaction to fear.
Perfectionism in such cases combines depressive helplessness ("I'm not good enough") and anxious control ("If I try even harder, I'll be safe"). And behind this is the same lost agency — living in a mode of constantly proving one's worth to external judges instead of living from one's own values and desires.
Procrastination as Resistance to Others' Agency
Procrastination is another symptom of impaired agency that often leads to anxiety and depression. People usually think they procrastinate because of laziness or lack of discipline. But in reality, procrastination is often passive resistance to what is perceived as externally imposed.
Yulia, a student at a prestigious university, couldn't force herself to prepare for exams. She understood the importance, worried, but sat down to textbooks only on the last night. "I don't understand what's wrong with me," she said. "I want to study well, but I can't start."
In the process of working together, it became clear that the parents chose the specialty, the university too. Procrastination was the only way her psyche tried to regain at least some sense of control. "I won't do what you want when you want" — this was a silent rebellion against lost agency.
Paradoxically, such resistance leads to even greater loss of agency: the person does neither what they want nor what needs to be done. They get stuck in the space between, accumulating guilt, anxiety and eventually sliding into depression.
Emotional Burnout as the Finale Without Agency
Burnout is a state that occurs when a person lives for a long time in a mode of intensive activity without a sense of meaning and authorship. This is typical for helping professions, but occurs wherever there is a gap between actions and internal motivation.
Svetlana, a doctor with 15 years of experience, came with classic symptoms of burnout: cynical attitude toward patients, chronic fatigue, a feeling of meaninglessness of work. "I'm like an automaton. I see patients, make diagnoses, prescribe treatment. But I don't feel that it's me. I feel that the system is doing this through me."
Burnout here is the result of years of working in object mode. Svetlana didn't choose how to structure appointments, didn't influence processes in the clinic, couldn't refuse a patient even if she understood she needed a break. She functioned within the framework set by the system, without space for her own agency.
The Path to Recovery: From Symptom to Agency
Understanding the connection between agency and mental states changes the approach to therapy. It's not enough to simply reduce the level of anxiety or improve mood. It's necessary to help the person regain the sense of authorship of their own life.
This starts small: learning to notice one's own desires and starting to act from them. You don't necessarily have to immediately change jobs or leave a partner. You can start by choosing what to eat for breakfast, which route to take to work, how to spend the weekend.
The next step is to expand the zone of influence. Start expressing your opinion where you previously stayed silent. Offer your ideas instead of waiting for someone else to make a decision. Say "no" to what doesn't align with your values and capabilities.
And finally — learn to live with uncertainty and responsibility. Accept that not all your decisions will be right, not all actions will lead to success. But these will be your decisions, your actions, your experience.
When a person regains agency, depression often recedes on its own — because meaning, energy, and a sense of aliveness appear. Anxiety transforms from paralyzing fear into healthy vigilance that helps make balanced decisions.
This is not a quick process. But it's the only path to sustainable change. Because mental health is not simply the absence of symptoms. It's the ability to be the author of your story, to influence your life, to feel alive. This is agency.
