“…He worked not because he had to do so to eat, but ‘just for the sake of purging his heart, firming his thoughts, preserving in his cell, and conquering and driving out acedia.”

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

Manual labor is also among the remedies prescribed by the Fathers. It helps the individual to avoid the boredom, instability, torpor, and sleepiness that together form one aspect of this passion.

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

And again he advises: ‘When the spirit of acedia arises in you, do not quit the house or evade the struggle.’ St John Cassian similarly advises that one must fight against the spirit of acedia so that one is not ‘driven out from the bulwark of the monastery and depart in flight, even for a seemingly pious reason.’

“…and gets in the habit of finding its consolation in the face of this onslaught by visiting a brother, although it will be all the more painfully vulnerable not long after.”

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

It is important that a person gripped by sadness not become withdrawn, which would favor the advance of this illness, but be open about his condition and disclose his thoughts to those more spiritually advanced and speak to them about it.

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

True, acedia especially affects those who strive to submit themselves to a regular spiritual discipline. For this reason they have limited their exterior activities and movements to what is strictly necessary, and seek the greatest possible silence and solitude.

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

Acedia can also affect their activities and especially their work which no longer gives them any sense of satisfaction. This leads them to seek out other forms of employment which they think will be more interesting and make them happier…

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

When alone, the person cannot remain in any one place; this passion forces him to leave and wander around, seeking another place to live. Sometimes such a person becomes a wanderer and a vagabond.

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

Acedia involves a vague and general lack of satisfaction. The person, from the moment that he is under the rule of this passion has no taste for anything. He finds everything pointless and insipid, and no longer cares about anything.

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet

A profound sadness is more harmful to us than all the attacks of the evil spirit.
—St. John Chrysostom

Apart from the fact that sadness, if allowed to fester…greatly disturbs the relations of the individual with his neighbors.

Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet