Lethargic is one or that which experiences a lethargy. This concept (lethargy), on the other hand, refers to rest, lack of activity, numbness, drowsiness or numbness.
For example: “The German team looked sluggish, slow and unexploded”, “The new film by the famous filmmaker was bored by its sluggish rhythm”, “Economic activity has been sluggish: the government is concerned about the possible increase in layoffs”.
The notion of lethargy is usually linked to the state that is produced by the cessation of an activity. Suppose a rock band released four albums between 1980 and 1985. Then, between that year and 1995, he did not present any albums, until he released a new production in 1996. It can therefore be said that the group in question was dormant for a decade.
The lack of growth or expansion is also linked to lethargy. If a country’s economy stops growing or grows at a very low level, it can be said to be sluggish. In this case, lethargy is in a position to provoke various types of social problems, since it can raise the unemployment rate and generate a drop in wages, to name two potential consequences.
A lethargic rhythm, on the other hand, is associated with slowness, parsimony or heaviness. A television critic can claim that a series has a sluggish rhythm when all the sequences run slowly, without anything important happening in several minutes. The fact that the rhythm of the series is classified as sluggish implies a negative assessment of quality.
All these negative associations that are made of the dormant term lead us once again to the noun whose meaning represents, that is, lethargy. We must not forget that one of its meanings is a state of fatigue, of deep and extensive drowsiness, which generally appears as a consequence of illness.
For example, it is known that due to the deficiency of thyroid hormones, which are those that are based on the tyrosine produced by the thyroid gland, the individual goes through stages of lethargy and that the rate of their metabolism decreases. In other words, since the hormones triiodothyronine and thyroxine are related to the balance of certain changes that the cells of our body undergo at the biological and chemical level, an abnormality in their quantity can negatively affect our body.
Therefore, there are clear examples in the biology of disorders that lead humans to a state in which their organs do not function properly, do not perform adequately to preserve health, and the fact that they are represented with the word lethargy explains that the notion of lethargy usually appears to describe situations or times in which some type of deficiency is seen.
The concept of lethargy is also used to define the state of inactivity and numbness in which certain animals enter at certain times of the year, when weather conditions do not provide them with the necessary means for their development. In this case, unlike all those mentioned above, we can say that being lethargic brings benefits to the individual, since it protects them from inclement weather and lack of food, among other factors that could put their subsistence at risk.
Taking this meaning of lethargy as a reference, we could say that if someone is lethargic for a time but does so to reflect on the priorities of their life and make decisions that allow them to improve, then it is a productive and beneficial state, although from the outside it may seem like a mere and deliberate lack of activity.
