Hopelessness: Definition, Examples, & Theory

If so, you’re not alone–as Sidney Poitier said, “There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It’s everywhere.” Anyone can experience hopelessness. Hopelessness, along with its siblings helplessness and worthlessness, can prevent us from engaging with the most meaningful parts of our lives. These mental states can reinforce themselves, leaving us trapped in a vicious cycle: If you can’t imagine how your life could change for the better, you’re less likely to try to change it and it’s more likely to stay the same. You might then take this sameness as further evidence that there’s no hope. I’m proof that it is possible to break out of this cycle, however, and I hope that this article leaves you with an understanding of hopelessness that helps you to loosen its hold over your life (or gives you tools to defend against it in the future).
​​
​Before reading on, if you’re a therapist, coach, or wellness entrepreneur, be sure to grab our free Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips and free resources that will help you grow your business exponentially.​​​​​​​​​

The opposite of hopelessness is, of course, hope. The essayist Rebecca Solnit defines hope as a force that drives us to fight for change; hope is also a choice to stay open to uncertainty and possibility instead of retreating to the glum certainties of pessimism (Solnit, 2016). Solnit writes of hope as something we create and do–it’s a willful mindset more than a feeling.

In the video below, Peta Murchinson discusses her experience of finding hope in a seemingly hopeless circumstance: the terminal disease diagnosis of her young daughter, Mia. Although the diagnosis is hopeless in the sense that Mia will die, Murchinson and her husband refocused their hope on providing the best life possible for their daughter in whatever time she has. Along the way, they have received abundant love and support from other people–love that Murchinson says they wouldn’t have experienced if Mia weren’t ill. This story supports Solnit’s contention that hope “is not the belief that everything was, is or will be fine” (Solnit, 15 July 2016). Instead, hope is the ability to imagine a worthwhile future coupled with the conviction that our choices and actions matter.

Hopelessness is not solely an emotion–the construct also encompasses cognitive and motivational elements (Beck et al., 1974). In addition to “negative” emotions like sorrow, despair, and fear, hopelessness includes pessimistic beliefs about the future. Beliefs are thoughts, not emotions.

Hopeless thoughts are often demotivating and include words like “never” and “always.” Here are several common examples. If any of these examples sound familiar, please bear in mind that they all contain logical fallacies that you can question and revise.
​

• “I got a C on this test, even though I studied. I’ll never get an A, no matter how hard I work. The teacher hates me.”
• “I’ll always be single. No one could possibly be attracted to me. There’s just something wrong with me that I can’t hide.”
• “Of course I didn’t get the job. There’s so much competition that someone else will always get picked over me. I just don’t have the natural talent to get into this field.”

Helplessness is a set of negative beliefs about your own abilities and power–if you feel helpless, you believe that you can’t take any action to change or influence your circumstances. Although I believe that everyone (except in the most extreme circumstances) can take some action to improve their lives at least a small amount, feelings of helplessness are often a rational response to being overpowered by others. 

Helplessness often naturally flows into hopelessness–if you (believe that you) can’t take meaningful action, it makes sense to conclude that your life won’t get better. If you believe that someone else might save the day, however, you might still have hope even if you see yourself as helpless. 

People feel hopeless if they don’t think they can make positive changes to their lives AND if they believe that no one else is motivated and able to make changes for them. For example, an abused child may know that they are helpless to escape a violent home; this helplessness may become hopelessness if the child also believes that they are worthless and therefore not likely to be rescued by other adults. Alternatively, the child might believe that other people are all callous and untrustworthy and therefore won’t help; they might also believe that other people are as helpless as they are. In any case, hopelessness requires an extra step beyond helplessness: It encompasses a lack of faith in other beings (people, God, etc.) as well as a lack of faith in yourself. 

Because hopelessness is so difficult to overcome and is often a symptom of clinical depression, your best bet for overcoming hopelessness may be to reach out to a qualified mental health professional. A crisis text line or suicide hotline may also help (although if your hopelessness persists, consider finding regular therapy as well–hotline workers may be able to connect you to resources for long-term therapy). Options include texting HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line or dialing 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). You don’t need to feel suicidal to call or text these lines.

When I feel hopeless, connecting with loved ones also helps. A good long FaceTime chat with my best friend may not solve all my problems, but the connection we share at least reminds me that someone is in my corner. Reminiscing about good times my friend and I have shared also helps me imagine how life could be better in the future. Below, I describe several additional strategies that I’ve used to break out of the cycle of hopelessness.

• Experiment. In my science education, I learned about null hypotheses. A null hypothesis predicts that your intervention won’t change the outcomes you care about. For example, “The tomato plants that I give the new fertilizer to will produce the same number of tomatoes as the plants that get the usual fertilizer.” Usually, we scientists hope to discredit the null hypothesis. After learning this concept in an introductory psychology course, I began thinking of my pessimistic thoughts as null hypotheses that I could test. So, whenever I thought something like, “I won’t get a good grade on this exam no matter what I do,” I’d test the thought by doing everything I could think of to perform well on the exam. Unsurprisingly, I tended to score well–over time, repeated success shifted my thoughts toward optimism and confidence.
• Don’t buy into it. Alternatively, you can treat pessimistic or hopeless thoughts like annoying acquaintances. Instead of engaging with, internally debating, and analyzing every negative thought, I often just brush them off. For example, I might think, “I shouldn’t go on this trip. Something is definitely going to go wrong,” to which I can respond, “Thanks for your input, pessimism, but I’ve already decided to go.” Or, after thinking, “Why am I bothering to go on this date? This relationship isn’t going to go anywhere,” I can think, “Yeah, probably not, but that means I have nothing to lose–I can relax, be myself, and enjoy a nice omelet.” (That guy is now my partner–and I did enjoy the omelet.)
• Write a new story. Narrative therapists believe that we can empower ourselves and live more satisfying lives by challenging and rewriting the stories we tell ourselves (White & Epston, 1990). Externalizing problems is a critical part of this process–in separating our identities from the problem, it’s easier to see past it to what we want for ourselves. In the case of hopelessness, you can try asking what the hopelessness “wants” you to do–e.g., “The hopelessness wants me to give up and never apply to grad school. It doesn’t want me to have a career I find interesting and more financial stability.” This framing might inspire you to take steps toward your goal in spite of the hopelessness. This strategy might work particularly well if you tend to react to criticism by trying to prove the naysayer wrong.

Hopelessness can strike anyone. The quotes below (from a self-help author, an actress, an activist, and a politician) may help you better understand the concept: 

• “Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don’t. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life.” – Martha Beck
• “Nothing prompts creativity like poverty, a feeling of hopelessness, and a bit of panic.” – Catherine Tate
• “The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.” – Malala Yousafzai
• “Hopelessness is a really toxic and dangerous state.” – Cory Booker

These quotes illustrate our power over hopelessness, the creative risk-taking that emotional low points may enable, the danger of hopelessness, and the growth and resilience that people can experience after traumas which might ordinarily cause hopelessness.

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:​​​​

• ​Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: the hopelessness scale. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 42(6), 861.
• Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M., & Weissman, A. (1975). Hopelessness and suicidal behavior: An overview. Jama, 234(11), 1146-1149.
• Kierkegaard, S. (2004). The sickness unto death: A Christian psychological exposition of edification and awakening by Anti-Climacus (A. Hannay, Trans.). Penguin Books Limited. (Original work published 1849)
• Liu, R. T., Kleiman, E. M., Nestor, B. A., & Cheek, S. M. (2015). The hopelessness theory of depression: A quarter‐century in review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 22(4), 345.
• Nesse, R. M. (1999). The evolution of hope and despair. Social Research, 429-469.
• Solnit, R. (2016). Hope in the dark: Untold histories, wild possibilities. Haymarket Books.
• Solnit, R. (15 July 2016). ‘Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times. The guardian.
• Qiu, T., Klonsky, E. D., & Klein, D. N. (2017). Hopelessness predicts suicide ideation but not attempts: A 10‐year longitudinal study. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior, 47(6), 718-722.
• White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. WW Norton & Company.