Living a life without positive experiences, passion and joy is quite the challenge. It may cause you to feel a lot of emotional pain, discomfort and hopelessness. The good news is that feeling hopeless doesn’t have to be permanent.
The first step to overcoming hopelessness is to find out why you are feeling this way. It could be a response to trauma, depression, guilt, other mental health symptoms, physical health challenges or a number of other things in life.
If you are ready to fight feeling hopeless, reach out to our Blue Hills Recovery Center for assistance today.
Hope and Fulfilling Vital Needs
Before diving into the different types of hopeless and what you can do about it, let’s focus a bit more on the positive side first.
Hope is about recognizing and fulfilling vital needs. Researchers have shown and proven that hope is a virtue that helps people to cope with depression, pain and other roadblocks in life. According to their research hope can help to meet the following needs in life:
- Attachment – hope for intimacy, emotional bonding, spiritual unity, and physical closeness
- Mastery – hope for accomplishments, meeting goals, and productivity
- Survival – hope for overcoming loss, fear, anxiety and other challenges along with building resilience when dealing with these challenges
When these needs get fulfilled, people tend to hold onto hope, telling themselves that everything is going to be alright. They may believe in themselves and their ability to get through anything life throws their way.
It should also quickly be noted that meditating and positive affirmations do help people to hold onto hope. So, if you are struggling with any of the different types of hopelessness below, saying kind, positive things to yourself can help you to stop feeling so hopeless.
Types of Hopelessness
As just noted, there are different types of hopelessness. Feeling hopeless isn’t the same for everyone either. For instance, some people may feel alienated, lack inspiration, feel a sense of doom or have other negative feelings.
Start learning how you can overcome the top 9 different types of hopelessness beginning today.
Alienation
Do you fear that everyone is going to leave you? Have you stopped spending so much time with people lately? Do you specifically avoid people because you don’t want to develop a strong bond with them, in case they leave? If so, yiou may be feeling hopeless due to alienation.
If you have alienation hopelessness, some of the things you may want to do include:
- Talk to your loved ones about this
- Go to individual therapy
- Journal about why you have this type of hopelessness
- Say positive affirmations to yourself about what you deserve in relationships and what you have to offer
If you are still struggling with alienation hopelessness, don’t hesitate to contact our Blue Hills mental health treatment team for help today.
Forsakeness
Do you feel that others abandon you whenever you really need them? Are you feeling rejected by the people who you care about the most? Do you feel stigmatized due to your mental and/or physical health conditions? If so, do you distrust others in your life due to feeling these ways?
Forsakeness hopelessness is more common than you might think. However, you don’t have to keep feeling like this. You can get into therapy, go to support groups, attend family therapy and get other treatments that can help you to deal with feeling hopeless in these ways.
Lacking Inspiration
Do you feel a lack of inspiration? Are you lacking creativity in your life? Do you feel mentally unstimulated? If so, this could cause you to feel hopeless, as well. If this is happening, there may be some creative blocks that you need to work through. Some of the ways you can do this include:
- Coloring with crayons
- Writing a short story or poem about your feelings or life in the moment (even if you don’t share that with anyone)
- Journal about your feelings or obstacles in life
- Find solutions to an obstacle you are dealing with right now
- Talk to a loved one or friend
- Take time out of your days to do something you enjoy
These are some of the best ways you can regain inspiration and hope in your life. Begin doing one of these things today.
Powerlessness
Do you feel that you have no impact on others and no influence in their life? If so, you might feel hopeless, like nothing you ever do will matter. Unfortunately, there are millions of people who feel this way.
If you feel that you don’t have any strength, impact or authority in your life, there are many changes that you can make to feel better. Some of the things you can do include:
- Set a small goal and achieve it
- Help someone else achieve their goals (even if it is a small one)
- Let others vent to you when they are having a difficult time
- Show someone you care about their success by listening when they talk about how great their life is going
- Schedule an event with community members, family members, and/or friends (run it on your own or work with people you trust who can help you)
These are some of the best ways to overcome feeling powerless and hopeless.
Oppression
Do you feel that people are treating you unequally or unfairly? This could be due to racism, sexism or another type of opression. If so, there are usually organizations that can help you to feel better. Individual and group therapy are other great treatments which can help you to overcome these issues.
Limitedness
Do you feel that you don’t have enough or good enough skills? What about the things you have that you can offer to others or to help yourself achieve goals? If you are facing financial, emotional or physical restraints, this could cause you to feel hopeless. The primary thing you can do to overcome feeling like this is to set goals and get an accountability buddy to help you fulfill those goals.
Doom
Do you feel that your life will turn out bad no matter what you do? Are you unsure of making decisions because you always feel that you will make the wrong one no matter what? If this is happening, it is usually due to some adverse childhood experiences that caused a sense of doom.
Here at Blue Hills Recovery Center, we have mental health treatments where we work with people to overcome this sense of doom.
Captivity
Were you a prisoner to something or someone at some time during your life? Maybe, you were in jail or in an abusive or controlling relationship. Someone in your family may have manipulated you into doing whatever they wanted you to do.
Being held captive in any sense usually doesn’t feel good. It can cause someone to feel very hopeless. Even when the situation is over, it can be difficult to stop feeling like a captive. However, you can work with our team to overcome this feeling of being captive and of hopelessness.
Helplessness
The final type of hopelessness that you might be feeling is helplessness. Do you feel that you can’t stand up for what you believe in or what you think? Do you stay hush-hush when someone is having a conversation with you due to being embarrassed or afraid of what they might think of you?
If so, this feeling of helplessness may be preventing you from having healthy relationships and could kill your self-esteem. Here at Blue Hills Recovery Center, we want to help you live the best life possible and we can do that by helping you to overcome feeling hopeless and helpless.
Stop Feeling Hopeless with Help from Our Team
If you are feeling any hopelessness, don’t let it keep tearing you down. There are so many different types of hopelessness and many treatments to help you overcome it.
Contact us today, here at Blue Hills Recovery Center, to learn how to stop feeling hopeless.