signs of giving up on life

Signs Of Giving Up On Life: How To Read Them & Help People Find Hope

How To Read The Signs of Giving Up On Life: An Introduction

People are mortal, and they eventually die. But the sad thing is that some people give up on life while they are still alive. People believe that it is the elderly who exhibit the signs of giving up on life. But this is not the whole truth. You can easily find many young and middle-aged people who have already given up on life. The reason why they surrender can range from personal failures to professional non-performance to the death of a loved one. But relinquishing life while one is still young & alive makes their lives worse than death. These people become too negative and develop a nonchalant attitude towards everything in life. They make it extremely difficult for themselves to come out of this situation. Someone has to read their signs of giving up on life and help them find hope again in life.

This blog will equip you with the ability to read the signs of giving up on life. It will help you help your friends, family, and even strangers to live a life filled with positivity & hope once again. Doing this will charge you with the fulfillment and inner joy that comes from helping others. 

So, let’s start this exciting and significant journey of mending lives with the most relevant question.

Why Do People Give-Up On Their Lives?

signs of giving up on life

Before we start exploring the signs of someone giving up on their life, we need to see why people quit on life in the first place. Knowing these reasons would help you detect people’s signs of giving up on life, even before they begin to develop or exhibit them. Once you know that one of these incidents has happened with a person, you know that they might go or have already gone into a state of depression. You know that they might start becoming weak and show signs of giving up on life shortly. So, you can keep an eye on them and help them if the need arises. 

So, what are the reasons due to which people might begin to give up on their lives?

I)Personal Failures

signs of giving up on life

Personal failures are the biggest reason why people lose hope and start showing signs of giving up on life. We are born as an individual, and we live as one entity. We experience life through the lenses of our unique existence and our strange ways of looking at things. When we are doing well in life as an individual, everything seems right, bright and accurate. But when we come across personal failures in life, we start doubting ourselves. The situation begins to get increasingly grimmer if there are more of these failures. And when it gets too hard, and there seems no way out of our tumults, troubles, & tragedies, we knowingly or unknowingly start abandoning our life.

What kinds of personal failures force you to shun life?


1)Performance Failures

Every one of us has individual targets, goals, and objectives. We aspire to achieve these set landmarks & milestones at different junctures in our lives to keep moving forward in life. Accomplishing them brings the joy of success and recognition in society and also enhances our self-confidence & adds to our inner fulfillment. But when we falter, our short-term goals fail, which also shakes our plans, time frame & achievement of our long-term goals & vision about our future. We try to make things work, but when things don’t come on track or get off-track further, we start losing hope in life. After trying too hard for too long, people start showing signs of giving up on life.

2) Relationship Failures

signs of giving up on life

We all have loved ones in our lives. They may be family, friends, or partners. People value emotions, personal bonds, and camaraderie among themselves. They cherish memories, enjoy the present, and want to build bright futures with the people they love, adore, and admire. But when they have to part ways with these loved ones due to any misunderstanding, argument, or fight, life starts to feel colorless and beyond repair. That is when people lose their inner stability and begin showing signs of giving up on life. 

3) Financial Failures

Money is one of the most valuable resources in a person’s life. It gives you comforts, luxuries, & a lavish lifestyle, protects you from difficult economic times, and gives you a sense of financial security in life. If & when people lose all their money or job and are left stranded with no reliable source of income, they also lose their mind, and in various ways, start showing signs of giving up on life.

The people who surrender in life due to personal failures are too concerned about their safety, security & survival. And when their survival is in danger with little or no hope left for them, they quit dreaming for a better tomorrow. 

Then some people are less concerned about surviving and more concerned about thriving at work and in life in general. This type of people brings us to the second reason biggest reason why people start to show signs of giving up on life.

II)Professional Non-Performance

signs of giving up on life

Some people are less concerned about survival and more focused on excellence. To clarify, they want to produce consistently high performance & outputs at work. They derive their meaning in life from their high-quality work. If they are working well and producing great results, they are fine. But if they slip even a little below their set threshold, they get stressed, negative, and worried. This worried demeanor drives their performance further south, which ultimately makes them exhibit signs of giving up on life. 

What are the reasons for unsatisfactory professional performance, that breaks the self-confidence of people and forces them to exhibit signs of giving up on life?

1) Unreasonable Individual Expectations

People expect a lot from themselves at work. They try to give their best performance, earn a high, respectable & appreciable salary, keep getting regular promotions and reach a high, reputable, and top position in their office. When these expectations don’t come true at the right time and in the right amounts, people get fed up and start developing signs of giving up on life. 

2) Intense Competition & Pressure

If you somehow manage to keep your expectations under check, competition at work with your colleagues is the next challenge. People compare and compete with their co-workers and try to outperform them. If you don’t do it yourself, your colleagues, seniors, and the human-resource manager will feed it into your mind. You start feeling the pressure of reaching or staying on top, which keeps pulling you down continuously. And when your colleagues perform better than you and get compliments from others, you start feeling sad & depressed. Everything at work starts feeling dragged, heavy and burdensome. If you don’t rise to the challenge soon, you experience a psychological setback, which makes you exhibit signs of giving up on life.  

3) The Boss Summons

Nobody likes summons from their bosses. Every employee wants to be in their good books. A boss’ appreciation of his employee can be a great source of a morale booster for him. But if the boss is not happy with your work or worse, he dislikes you, that can be a big morale buster. Your boss, not knowing you at all, is far better than him taking you to task every single day at work. It is demotivating, frustrating, and demeaning. And if such regular summons keeps coming for a considerable amount of time, people lose all their confidence and self-respect. It makes people feel bad about themselves, and they start showing signs of giving up on life.

Your personal and professional life, up to a great extent, is within your control. But there is a reason beyond human control that contributes to making someone exhibit the signs of giving up on life. 

III) Death Of A Loved One

signs of giving up on life

When a person who is very close to your heart dies, you are completely shocked. It feels that within seconds your whole life turned upside down. You don’t know what to do without him or where to go and bury the grief. The memories keep coming back and make you even more restless and wanting to be with them. You try every possible way to forget what has happened, but there seems no way out. The person is gone forever, and you have to live with it. People do manage to stay alive after the death of a loved one but not without exhibiting the signs of giving up on life.

What does a person go through when a loved one of his passes away? What thoughts force him to give up on life?

1) Failure To Prevent The Accident

When a loved one departs suddenly due to an accident, you blame yourself for not preventing it. Numerous ways in which you could have averted the tragedy start popping in your head. You keep thinking about these ways and keep wishing you had prevented the accident. But when reality strikes you, you fall numb and are left heartbroken. You want to relinquish life but ultimately decide to live, but not without developing the signs of giving up on life.

2) Failure To Cure The Disease

Having to see a loved one die of chronic disease is even more painful. Accidents happen quickly and take away someone in a matter of a few seconds. But when we have to see a loved one sick for a long time who finally dies of the illness, it’s one of the worst feelings someone can go through. We try every medicine, every doctor, and every hospital we can afford, but to no avail. It’s a depressing and hopeless situation one finds himself in. And when the day comes to say good-bye, we feel like a failure. We start blaming ourselves for not trying harder to cure the disease. As a result, we gradually start showing signs of giving up on life.

3) Failure To Detach From The Tragedy

It is the worst feeling of all when a loved one of ours passes away. We constantly keep thinking about the tragedy trying to figure out why it happened. We bring up every possible reason that might have led to the situation. And ultimately, we arrive at the self-defeating thought. We take the whole burden off the tragedy on our shoulders. To clarify, we think that we are responsible for the death of our loved one. We feel guilty for not being there for them, and to punish ourselves, we start exhibiting the signs of giving up on life.

The above-given reasons for people showing signs of giving up on life are only indicative. It means that they indicate the situations in which there is a possibility of people starting to pull out of their lives. But to detect whether someone has given up on their life, you have to read their signs of giving up on life.

Read The Signs Of Giving Up On Life By People

I want to give up

People may have given up on their lives, but they still may appear to be quite normal. There can be two possible reasons for this. Firstly, these people may be good hiders. They don’t want to reveal that they have given up on their lives. They want to remain monotonous, undisturbed, and silent in their sufferings. Secondly, you may not notice these hints due to the modern-day fast lifestyle. Life in today’s times demands so much out of you that you miss acknowledging small but significant things in life. It’s not your fault.

So, don’t blame yourself if you fail to spot the signs of giving up on life by someone close to you. Just focus on how you can start spotting them with ease so that you can start helping them. What you need to do, is to look closely at these people and read the signs of giving up on life. And once you spot these proofs, you can help them find inner peace, hope & positivity once again in life.

To read people’s signs of giving up on life, we have to study the various facets of their lives. The first among them need us to observe the person and examine his opinion about his past, present, and future. What he thinks about these time-frames determines whether he exhibits the signs of giving up on life. Let’s explore it in some detail.


I) Signs Of Giving Up On Life: Observe The Person’s Attitude

signs of giving up on life

Observing a person’s attitude is the easiest and the best approach to detect signs of giving up on life. His thought process, philosophy, and behavior concerning his past, present, and future tell whether or not he has given up on his life.

So, what does a person, who has given up on his life, think about his past, present, and future?

1) Sad/Grieving About The Past

A person who has developed the signs of giving up on life will always be negative about his past. The reason why he has given up on his life is his painful past. He keeps lamenting about his past and unknowingly keeps the horror alive for himself. He has woven a web of his terrible past incidents around himself, which he is unable and unwilling to cut through. The pain from his hurtful past is so profound for him that it doesn’t let him acknowledge any of the good memories from his past. A few unfavorable incidents have turned his past wrong for him and have made him adopt an escapist attitude in life. 

So, any person being constantly unhappy and very vocal about his regretful past is a possible indication that he has given up on his life ahead.

2) Uninterested/Unenthusiastic About The Present

If a person can keep his present unaffected by his terrible past, he can still live happily. But this doesn’t happen with a person who has given up on his life. His horrific past affects his innocent present immensely and ruins it completely. His imagination powers regarding his bad yesterday bring it alive in the present and overshadow it. So, the best he can do in the present is to be uninterested and unenthusiastic about it. He doesn’t have any energy left to enjoy his presence, and he doesn’t try too hard to do so either. 

A person wasting precious moments from his presence is one of his most prominent signs of giving up on life.

3) Indifferent/Gloomy About The Future

When a person’s past and present are a mess, his future is bound to be gloomy in his mind. Neither does he know what his future beholds for him, nor is he interested in it. He doesn’t care about his future. He is alive just for the sake of it and has no hope, dreams, or expectations of a bright future. His dark fate in his mind creates a dark reality for him in the future. 

A person’s unclear future in his mind is another of his several possible signs of giving up on his life.

The next facet of a person’s life that tells whether he has given up on life is the quality of relationships he holds with people in his life.

II) Signs Of Giving Up On Life: Observe The Person’s Relationships

signs of giving up on life

The second most important thing in a person’s life after himself is the quality of relationships he holds with other people. It tells you if the person is excited about his life or whether he has given up on it. A large number of deep and meaningful relationships is evidence of living one’s life to the fullest. On the contrary, a small number of weak bonds display the signs of giving up on life by a person.

What does a person, who has given up on his life, do to his relationships?

1) Scared To Create New Relationships

New relationships can be started only by someone who is mentally strong and loves his life. He is ready to build, maintain and nurture relationships. Temperamentally, he is very stable and always remains prepared to take the responsibility of his relationships on his shoulders. He values people and is ready to do anything to gain their trust and company. But someone who has given up on life can never do this. He will always be scared of starting new relationships. New relationships mean a burden to him. When a person is unfit in doing justice to his existing ties, how can he pledge to make new bonds? 

So, people with the signs of giving up on life stay away from creating new relationships and commitments of any kind.

2) Breaks Away From Formal Relationships

Formal relationships are your professional, social, and transactional relationships. A person who has given up on life doesn’t want to socialize. He drops out of the social system and is never seen in groups or hanging out with a band of vibrant people. At the professional level also, he will stay away from his colleagues and will choose to be a loner at work. He will talk to his colleagues, seniors, or boss only when necessary. He may also get involved in fights and arguments very easily and quickly decide to quit the job. One of the signs of giving up on life by a person is that he changes jobs very frequently as formal relationships are too burdensome for him.

So, a constantly changing & low number of formal relationships also symbolizes the presence of the signs of giving up on life by a person.

3) Keeps Weakening Personal Relationships

A person who has given up on life has a weak informal/personal relationships profile. He either avoids his family, friends, and partners, talks less with them, or may even get into heated arguments and consequential fights with them, which weakens the bonds between them over time. His weakened relationships with himself and his life force him to loosen his relationships with the people close to him. Everyone needs family and friends, at least in difficult times. But when someone abandons them, it means they have already given up on their lives.

So, weak personal relationships are another major among the many signs of giving up on life by a person.

After relationships, the next thing closest to a person in his life is his belongings. His relationship with his belongings is another good indication of whether the person has given up on his life.

III) Signs Of Giving Up On Life: Observe The Person’s Belongings

signs of giving up on life

It’s a material world, after all. Every one of us has our physical possessions. And due to our memories, feelings, and human emotions, we are attached to them. We develop & share unique and strange relationships with our belongings. But for a person who has developed the signs of giving up on life, this relationship is a lot more twisted and different from usual.

What does a person, who has given up on his life, do with his belongings?


1)Doesn’t Ever Buy Anything New

Buying new things and belongings symbolizes excitement and the zeal to move forward in life. It shows that we are willing to improve ourselves and our lives by replacing older items and adding new items to our life. And most importantly, it signals that we do not fear uncertainty and are ready for a change in our lives. But a person who has given up on his life doesn’t want excitement, improvement, or reform. He wants to stay dormant, stagnant, and constantly dipped in his sufferings. 

So, a person with the signs of giving up on life doesn’t buy anything new, which is another confirmation of him having given up on his life.

2) Doesn’t Use Current Belongings

Everything we have with us in the current moment is helpful to us. All of that contributes to the making of who we are in this moment. Some things help us do certain activities while others are beautiful and are responsible for keeping our mood peaceful & happy. Some of them also remind us of many beautiful memories in the past. But a person who has given up on life remembers none of the good memories. Certain belongings of his remind him of his horrific past. So, he stays away from these belongings and never uses them. Since he doesn’t know happiness or inner peace anymore, beautiful things around him don’t get his attention. And he uses his valuable belongings but to the bare minimum, merely to stay afloat in life

So, choosing not to use fully, what one has, is one of the signs of giving up on life.

3) Doesn’t Replace Or Throw Away Older Belongings

Older belongings are many times close to our hearts. Even if they are of little or no use, we don’t replace or throw them away. They may be attached to a loved one’s memory or a beautiful memory of the past. And it is understandable. A person who has given up on life also keeps older belongings but not for the same reasons. He keeps them, first of all, maybe because he doesn’t even know about their presence in his house. The object may be spreading negative energy at home. But since a person with the signs of giving up on life is already very negative, he doesn’t even acknowledge this new source of negative energy in the house. But even if he comes to know about it, he doesn’t throw away the object due to the inherent laziness or lack of energy that comes with backing down on life. 

So, accepting older belongings with little use and high negativity is also one of the signs of giving up on life by a person.

The next thing that helps detect the signs of giving up on life by a person is how he reacts to different situations in his life. 

IV) Signs Of Giving Up On Life: Observe The Person’s Reactions

signs of someone giving up on life

Different people react to different situations differently. They differ in their planning, approach, and intensity while dealing with a particular circumstance. But one common thing among all of them is the will to fight and the never-give-up attitude. This determination to win is absent in a person who exhibits the signs of giving up on life.

How does a person, who has given up on life, react to new situations?

1) Avoids New Situations

New situations in life are no doubt tricky to deal with initially. Uncertainty is too high, and you have no idea what to do and how to move ahead in these new situations. But if you persist with them, ways start creating themselves for you and lead you to something magnificent. That’s the beauty of an unknown path that comes with new situations. But a person who has given up on life doesn’t want to be in unusual circumstances. Since he has become weak mentally, the volume of uncertainty in new situations is too much for him to bear. He chooses a stable life filled with fear over an uncertain life with possible happiness. And since he has already given up on life, happiness doesn’t attract or impress him in any way. 

So, choosing to avoid new situations is another among the many signs of giving up on life by a person.

2) Uninterested In Overcoming Challenges

Challenges bring out the best in us. They inspire us to fight with all we have got and to come out victorious. Only when we surmount the hurdles we are thrown at do we reach a higher dimension and level in life. In short, challenges make our lives meaningful and raise the quality of our lives. But a person exhibiting the signs of giving up on life doesn’t like challenges. He is not even concerned enough about staying alive, let alone facing challenges and moving ahead in life. Challenges are not recognised by him, and if he does, he is least interested in overcoming them. He doesn’t think overcoming challenges can give him what is missing from his life. Hope has deteriorated to a level in his life from where it’s impossible to recover it, at least, this is what he thinks. 

So, showing zero interest in facing or overcoming challenges is another among the many signs of giving up on life by a person.

3) Shows No Intent Of Grabbing Opportunities

We wait for opportunities in life. They give us a chance to rise to the occasion and be better than what we were before. They allow us to learn, develop, improve, progress, and grow in every area of life. It adds more energy, enthusiasm, excitement & entertainment to our lives. To sum it all, we live to pounce on the opportunities life presents to us. But a person who has given up on life sees no possibility in any situation. All he sees is negativity, trouble, and misfortune. Even if he senses an opportunity in a circumstance, he doesn’t feel them worthy of his efforts. He believes in staying dormant and chooses to remain in his deep slumber

This indifferent response to opportunities is another among the many signs of giving up on life by a person.

The last but probably the most significant facet of someone’s life that helps us read his signs of giving up on life is a person’s behavior around Mother Nature.

(V) Signs Of Giving Up On Life: Observe The Person Around Nature

signs of a person giving up on life

Nature is where we come from, we are a part of it, we are its children! So, whenever we have a problem in life, a general stroll in Nature changes everything for the better for us. It heals us as nothing else does. We are filled with more energy. Nature brings us alive again. It turns our confusion into clarity, our sorrow into happiness, and our failures into our success! But a person who has given up on life has a different behavior when around the creation.

How does a person, who has given up on life, behaves around Nature?

1) Stays Away From Nature

A person who has given up on his life is scared of absorbing more life into himself. He doesn’t know what he will do with this newfound energy. On the contrary, this extra energy may make him do something silly as he isn’t in the habit of holding or using such a high amount of energy. So, he stays away from Nature and doesn’t like to connect with it or let it heal him. He wants to linger in his current condition of low-life energy that doesn’t demand anything new or extravagant from him. 

So, staying away from Nature is also one of the signs of giving up on life by a person.

2) Cannot Be In Nature For Too Long

If a person who has given up on his life visits Nature even by mistake, he cannot stay over there for too long. Unlike regular people who enjoy life and Nature, he gets restless and stressed when close to Nature. He has made a habit of avoiding life from all sources, and when he is around life’s most important source, it’s natural for him to feel uncomfortable. So, when he is around Nature, he will find an excuse or a way to run out of it. 

So, running away from Nature is another of the many signs of giving up on life by a person.

3) Finds Negativity In Nature

If a person who has given up on life, is made to sit in Nature, he will find a way to do that, but only in his peculiar way. He will see all the negativity which his mind holds in Nature. It will make him criticise Nature and find loopholes in its laws & functioning. He would tell you why it’s better to stay away from it. He will explain his enmity with life and Nature and wait for your approval so that he doesn’t have to attend to Nature again. In short, he is totally against life as he has already given up on it. 

So, complaining against Nature by someone is the last among the many signs of giving up on life by a person.

How To Read Someone’s Signs of Giving Up On Life: The Conclusion

If and when you notice any of the above-listed signs of a person giving up on life, you should help him out. Tell him that the attitude signifying – I want to give up, is not an option for human beings. Help him come out of the negativity, encourage him to find hope once again, and inspire him to start living his precious life to its fullest once more. That is because, by pulling someone else out of their holes of disarray, despondence, and devastation, you reach the top of your pleasure, power, and potential!

never give up
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