Languishing is defined not by the presence of mental illness, but by the absence of good mental health.
It is often described as the “neglected middle child” of mental health, sitting between depression and flourishing.
Individuals experiencing this languishing often describe feeling “blah,” “meh,” or “dead inside.”
It is a subjective sense of stagnation, as if one is “muddling through” days without a sense of purpose or direction.
Because it lacks the acute distress of anxiety or the profound heavy darkness of depression, languishing often goes undetected until it has significantly eroded an individual’s quality of life.
Signs
To recognize languishing, one must look for deficits in well-being rather than just active distress.
Dr. Keyes notes that languishing acts as an “existential alarm clock,” warning that the elements making life meaningful have been lost.
1. Emotional “Emptiness” and Indifference
Unlike depression, which is characterised by the presence of negative emotions like intense sadness, languishing is characterised by the absence of positive emotions.
- Indifference: Individuals often describe their state as a low-grade mental weariness, feeling “meh,” or just “muddling through”.
- Numbness: A key sign is feeling “numb,” “dead inside,” or “dying inside.” There is a lack of capacity for joy, excitement, or interest in life.
- Stagnation: People feel a sense of emptiness or stagnation, often described as “running on empty”.
- Invisibility: There is a sense of fading into the background, similar to being a ghost or living in a fog.
2. Lack of Functioning
While a person might not meet the clinical criteria for a mental illness, they lack key markers of functioning well, such as social contribution, personal growth, and warm, trusting relationships.
A languishing individual may technically “get by,” but they lack the markers of a life well-lived.
- Lack of Purpose: A feeling that life lacks direction, meaning, or coherence.
- Diminished Contribution: Feeling that one has nothing of worth or value to contribute to their community or the world.
- Lack of Growth: A sense that one is not being challenged to grow or become a better person; a feeling of remaining static.
- Social Disconnection: The absence of a sense of belonging or warm, trusting relationships. This can manifest as feeling unconnected to a community or team.
3. Behavioural and Cognitive Shifts
Languishing often changes how people interact with the world and perceive themselves:
- Invisibility: There is a subjective sense of being invisible or disappearing. In adolescents, this may manifest as withdrawing to a bedroom, refusing to talk, or wearing a hoodie to hide, effectively trying to fade into the background.
- Presenteeism: In the workplace or daily life, the individual is physically present but mentally “offline.” They may be going through the motions of the “grind” but feel their brain is unplugged from their heart.
- Cognitive Fog: It can feel like a fog where the world does not make sense (a lack of social coherence).
- Loss of Agency: A feeling that life is happening to them rather than being under their control, often accompanied by a dislike for parts of their own personality.
Causes
Languishing often creeps in slowly, making it difficult to notice until one is deep within it.
It can arise when individuals are unable to live as the person they wanted to be, or when they face chronic stress, isolation, or moral injury.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought languishing to the forefront of public consciousness.
For many, the removal of normal coping mechanisms, social connections, and routines stripped away the elements of life that generated well-being, leaving a void that manifested as languishing.
The specific causes and triggers of languishing include:
1. The Loss of Meaning and Purpose
Languishing often sets in when an individual feels their life lacks direction or meaning.
Humans are described as having a biological and psychological need to grow and explore.
When these opportunities are removed, or when a person feels they are no longer contributing anything of worth or value to the world, they begin to feel as though they are “dying inside”.
This state is often precipitated by a sense of stagnation, where one is not being challenged to become a better person or lacks a sense of personal growth,.
2. Moral Injury and Demoralisation
A significant cause of languishing, particularly in the workplace, is moral injury.
This occurs when individuals are forced to witness or carry out actions that violate their own ethical and moral compass.
- Ethical “Dirty Work”: In professions such as healthcare or teaching, systemic pressures may force individuals to prioritise profit or bureaucracy over people, preventing them from practicing the values that brought them to their careers.
- Hollowing Out: This compromise of integrity “hollows” a person out, destroying the baseline for flourishing and leading to a deep sense of emptiness and demoralisation.
3. Social Invisibility and Isolation
Languishing is strongly linked to a lack of warm, trusting relationships and a lost sense of belonging.
Dr Corey Keyes describes languishing as a form of “invisibility,” where individuals feel they are receding into the background or becoming like ghosts.
- Marginalisation: This experience of invisibility is common among marginalised groups who are treated as unimportant by society, but it can affect anyone who feels their contributions are unacknowledged.
- Workplace Disconnection: In professional settings, if an individual cannot find a team or community that acknowledges their work as valuable, they are likely to languish. This often manifests as “presenteeism,” where the worker is physically present but mentally and emotionally “offline”.
4. The “Couch Potato Effect” (Drifting)
Languishing can be caused by simply stopping the behaviours that maintain flourishing.
Even if a person is currently doing well, if they stop engaging in “mental health vitamins”, such as helping others, learning, or spiritual practices, they will naturally drift downward into languishing.
This is described as the “couch potato effect,” where neglecting the active pursuit of purpose and connection leads to a gradual erosion of well-being.
5. Chronic Stress and The Pandemic Effect
While stress is often associated with anxiety and burnout, chronic adversity that strips away autonomy and joy is a primary driver of languishing.
- The COVID-19 Pandemic: The pandemic was a “well-being experiment that nobody wanted,” effectively creating mass languishing by stripping away the structural elements of a good life, including social contact, routines, and autonomy, without people’s permission.
- Unrelenting Adversity: Languishing is a normal reaction to prolonged adversity, grief, or isolation. It becomes pathological when an individual gets “stuck” in this state for too long.
6. Biological and Genetic Factors
Research indicates a biological component to languishing.
Twin studies suggest that the genetic factors influencing flourishing and languishing operate somewhat independently from the genes that predispose individuals to mental illnesses like depression.
An individual may not have the genetic risk for depression but may still lack the high genetic potential for flourishing, making them susceptible to languishing if their environment does not nurture them.
Furthermore, languishing correlates with distinct biological markers and can be a predictor of premature mortality.
The Two-Continuum Model
For decades, the medical world viewed mental health as a single line.
On one end was “Depression,” and on the other was “Health.”
Dr. Corey Keyes flipped this script.
His research shows that mental health and mental illness operate on two independent axes rather than a single spectrum.
- Mental Illness Continuum: Measures the presence or absence of psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, schizophrenia).
- Mental Health Continuum: Measures the presence or absence of positive psychological and social functioning. This ranges from Languishing (low mental health) to Flourishing (high mental health).
Crucially, the absence of mental illness does not imply the presence of mental health.
It is possible to be free of a diagnosable disorder like depression but still be languishing, functioning poorly and feeling empty.
Conversely, it is possible to have a diagnosed mental illness but still possess aspects of flourishing, such as a sense of community or purpose.
The Four Quadrants of Well-Being
Because these two continua operate independently, individuals can exist in unique states of well-being:
- Flourishing: The ideal state characterized by low mental illness and high mental well-being.
- Languishing: A state where an individual has no diagnosable illness but suffers from low well-being and a sense of emptiness.
- Languishing with Mental Illness: A high-risk state where a clinical disorder is exacerbated by a lack of positive functioning and connection.
- Flourishing with Mental Illness: A counter-intuitive state where a person manages a chronic diagnosis (e.g., bipolar disorder) while maintaining high levels of purpose, social belonging, and personal growth.
Implications
The Two-Continuum Model suggests that “getting rid of the negative” (treating illness) is insufficient for health.
A person treated for depression who returns to a state of languishing (rather than flourishing) remains at high risk for relapse because they have not built the “positive” protective factors of mental health.
Therefore, interventions must actively promote flourishing behaviors, such as social contribution and warm relationships, rather than solely focusing on symptom reduction
Recovery: Moving from Languishing to Flourishing
Dr. Keyes argues that from languishing is not about “thinking positive.” It is about changing what you do.
He identifies five specific “Mental Health Vitamins” that act as essential nutrients for the mind and soul.
These are behavioral activities that research shows can pull a person from the “Gray Zone” back into a state of flourishing.
You do not need to do all five every day. Even choosing one activity and increasing the “dosage” can significantly improve your day.
These vitamins include:
1. Helping Others
This vitamin involves engaging in acts of service or contributing to a community.
Dr Keyes notes that people who are flourishing engage in significantly more helping behaviour than those who are depressed or languishing.
This connects to the broader concept of social contribution, a key marker of mental health where an individual feels their daily activities matter to the world and that they have something of value to give to society.
2. Learning
This is defined as pursuing personal growth and following one’s curiosity to learn something new.
It is not necessarily about formal education or productivity, but rather the act of “creating stories of self-growth”.
For younger people specifically, this vitamin manifests as being challenged to grow and developing skills that allow them to contribute to their communities.
3. Transcendence (Spirituality and Religion)
Dr Keyes identifies engagement in spiritual or religious activity as a crucial vitamin for flourishing.
He describes this as “Transcendence,” which involves stepping outside of the self and connecting to something larger.
He notes that this practice is vital for helping people move out of depression or languishing and is a common habit among those who maintain a state of flourishing.
4. Play
Play is defined as participating in activities simply because they are fun, removing the “commodity of time” and the pressure of productivity.
Dr Keyes argues that the worst mindset for this vitamin is believing that play is a “waste of time,” as this dampens the benefits.
Play is essential because it allows adults to flex their imagination, which is a prerequisite for dreaming of a better future or a different life trajectory.
5. Socialising (Warm, Trusting Relationships)
While general social contact is important, this vitamin specifically prioritises warm, trusting relationships over quantity of connections.
It focuses on building a sense of belonging and establishing bonds where there is mutual giving and getting.
Dr Keyes emphasizes that social well-being is often the hardest thing for people to achieve daily, yet it is critical because we are biologically wired for connection.
The Dosage and Application
Dr Keyes stresses that these vitamins are about changing what you do, rather than just trying to “think” your way into mental health.
However, the application is designed to be accessible:
- Small Dosage: You do not need to take all five vitamins every day. Research indicates that if a person chooses just one of these activities and does more of it on a given day, they experience a significantly better day, regardless of whether they are currently depressed, languishing, or flourishing.
- Virtuous Cycle: Engaging in these activities creates a feedback loop. As individuals have better days through these activities, they become less emotionally reactive and more motivated to continue the behaviours, slowly moving up the continuum toward flourishing.
- Synergy: These vitamins often “bleed into each other.” For example, attending a yoga class (which Dr Keyes practices) can simultaneously provide the vitamins of play, transcendence, and socialising within a community.
Moving Beyond the Medical Model
By validating that well-being is a distinct outcome, the model challenges the “profit motive” and efficiency focus of mainstream psychiatry, which often prioritizes cheap, quick symptom reduction over holistic healing.
It aligns with a broader view of health (derived from “wholeness”) that integrates physical, mental, and social aspects rather than treating symptoms in isolation.
This perspective suggests that effective recovery requires helping clients find meaning, purpose, and connection, essentially “feeding the wolf” of flourishing rather than just starving the wolf of illness.
Recovery approaches should not wait for the illness to be “cured” before addressing well-being.
Clinicians are encouraged to focus on both reducing misery (the illness continuum) and building strengths/assets (the health continuum) simultaneously.
Diagnostic Criteria for Languishing
Dr. Corey Keyes developed a specific diagnostic protocol for languishing that functions as the inverse of the diagnostic criteria used for major depressive disorder.
While depression is diagnosed by the presence of negative symptoms (malfunctioning), languishing is diagnosed by the absence of positive symptoms (well-being).
To determine if an individual is languishing, Dr. Keyes uses the Mental Health Continuum, which assesses 14 specific signs of well-being.
A diagnosis of languishing is made when a person fails to meet the threshold for “flourishing”.
The 14 Signs of Mental Health
The diagnostic criteria are divided into two categories: feeling good (emotional well-being) and functioning well (psychological and social well-being).
1. Emotional Well-Being (3 symptoms) These relate to hedonic well-being or “feeling good.”
- Feeling happy.
- Feeling satisfied with life.
- Feeling interested in life.
2. Positive Functioning (11 symptoms) These relate to eudaimonic well-being, or functioning well in personal and social life.
- Purpose: Feeling that life has direction and meaning.
- Contribution: Feeling that one has something of value to give to society.
- Integration/Belonging: Having a sense of belonging to a community.
- Personal Growth: Feeling challenged to grow or become a better person.
- Self-Acceptance: Liking most parts of one’s own personality.
- Social Coherence: Feeling that the world makes sense.
- Autonomy/Mastery: Feeling able to manage one’s own life.
- Confidence: Feeling confident to think and express ideas and opinions.
The Diagnostic Thresholds
Dr. Keyes’s diagnosis relies on the frequency with which an individual experiences these 14 symptoms over the past month (or two weeks).
- To be diagnosed as Flourishing (Mental Health): An individual must experience at least one of the three emotional well-being symptoms every day or almost every day, AND they must experience at least six of the 11 positive functioning symptoms every day or almost every day.
- To be diagnosed with Languishing: An individual is diagnosed as languishing if they do not meet the criteria for flourishing.
Specifically, severe languishing is characterized by:
- Rarely or never feeling any of the three emotional well-being symptoms (happy, satisfied, or interested in life).
- Rarely or never experiencing at least six of the signs of functioning well (such as purpose, belonging, or contribution).
Degrees of Languishing
Languishing is not a binary state but exists on a spectrum:
- Mild to Moderate Languishing: An individual might feel some good qualities or emotions a couple of times a week, but not “almost every day”. They fall short of flourishing but are not completely devoid of positive feelings.
- Severe Languishing: This is the complete absence of the things that make life meaningful. Individuals in this state often describe feeling “numb,” “dead,” or “dying inside” rather than feeling sad.
Sources
Faulk, K. E., Gloria, C. T., & Steinhardt, M. A. (2013). Coping profiles characterize individual flourishing, languishing, and depression. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 26(4), 378-390.
Keyes, C. L. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of health and social behavior, 207-222.
Keyes, C. (2025). Languishing: How to feel alive again in a world that wears us down. Random House.
Wissing, M. P., Schutte, L., Liversage, C., Entwisle, B., Gericke, M., & Keyes, C. (2021). Important goals, meanings, and relationships in flourishing and languishing states: Towards patterns of well-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 16(2), 573-609.
