Hopelessness need not be the end but the start of a better life!

Recently, over the past six months or so I have spoken to and spent time with a much higher number of people than usual that are suffering at the hands of depression and a feeling of hopelessness.

They describe seeing nothing but misery and despair and whilst I am not a clinical psychologist I do understand what some of the triggers are and therefore some of the simple strategies that can be utilised to help create some light in what has often been described as a very dark place!

What do hopelessness thoughts have in common?

They reflect a point of view where you have no way to succeed, can't cope, can't change, or are incapable of improvement.

These beliefs are contestable.

Without them, would you act differently? ???????????????????

If you believe that you would act differently, here is something to consider. You act to dampen your hopelessness thinking to get relief from this part of depression. You can breakdown hopelessness thinking in many ways. ?????????????????????

For example, Question your hopelessness thoughts. What does it mean when you tell yourself, "It's no use going on"? Does this mean that nothing over the next few months/years could possibly happen to change your thoughts or life situation? A rapid and positive change in perspective, where you accept that your depression is not necessarily permanent, can help liberate your mind from fixed hopelessness beliefs.

Check to see if you are making unfounded predictions.?Hopelessness is generally a prediction where you assert that your future is fixed and cannot be altered, that it is set. If that were the case, you would have no?free will. You'd also have no cause to blame yourself for everything because you'd have no control over anything!.

Make a switch from fixed beliefs to probability thinking. Hopelessness thoughts are not the same as the laws of chance and probability. Because you believe something does not mean you can prove it. The unexpected can happen in fortunate ways, too. You can change your mind to avoid embracing fatalistic beliefs.

Never Give Up

There are so many reasons for hope even when you can't see it immediately. You can even accidentally reduce hopelessness thoughts by flipping a page in a book or a magazine and unexpectedly getting an idea that gives you a different perspective. These unexpected events can happen in other ways too, such as your mood may spontaneously lift through something you weren’t expecting, like a call from a friend.

However, your best bet is to try to deal with hopelessness thinking by learning about this enemy and its aspects of vulnerability. Then work to weaken the vulnerable points until hopelessness thinking fades.

Depression through hopelessness rarely lifts an eye to blink - its stares relentlessly into the abyss. Nevertheless, you can learn and teach yourself to see beyond the veils of such darkness and to accept (not necessarily like) parts of what you see.

The smallest acts of change can make a big difference. If nothing else, you’ve shown yourself that you have not given up. Your whole life situation can’t be hopeless. By acting to remove the weight of hopelessness thinking from your shoulders, you’ve opened the gates of hope for yourself. The next day of hopelessness could be the first day for renewed hope!

And we could all do with a little hope now and again - you're not alone!.

?