Despair is the echo that emerges from emptiness, it is the wrath of losing hope, it is the sadness transformed into the lament of those who believe they have lost everything and no longer see the light on the horizon, nor the meaning in their present. .
Few psychological conditions can be as dangerous as this peak that the person no longer knows which way to go or which deviations are correct.
- We know that despair is a common human experience.
- Philosophers like Seren Kierkegaard have spoken of him throughout the century.
- Defining it as a lack of wit.
- Sense and defiance.
Jean-Paul Sartre, for his part, went so far as to say that there is a frustrating inability to move forward in this dimension, just as there is an almost cowardly negativism that is often pushed by society.
However, from a psychological point of view, no one has deepened and broken human despair as well as Viktor Frankl.
The father of logotherapy and survivor of several Nazi concentration camps defined this concept through two very basic ideas: suffering and loss of meaning.
These experiences are undoubtedly the most heartbreaking for a person, but it is always possible (to live them), we can all go through them and face life with new and better resources.
“What we often call despair is simply our painful thirst for hope. “George Eliot
If every person on this planet were turned away from their goals, their vision of themselves, and the meaning they give to their lives, we would lead them to the absolute despair.
Thus, while we often define this dimension as a mixture of sadness and despair, it should be emphasized that there is something deeper.
It’s empty and it’s also a mood where you keep asking yourself unanswered questions, in fact it’s common to be asked: what’s the point of life, what am I doing in this world?What can I do now, in this situation, when nothing makes sense?
These kinds of questions only feed the cycle of despair, creating a psychological black hole in which the person gets trapped.
Research such as those carried out by Dr. Martin Bogrgy of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, points out that despair was until recently a psychopathologically carefree phenomenon on the part of scientists.
One way or another, we have left despair in the hands of the philosophical universe when, in fact, it relates better to existential problems.
However, cognitive psychology is aware that this concept has great clinical significance, despair can occasionally appear in our lives.
We can feel it when, at some point, everything seems to go wrong in our life and we feel stagnant and even temporarily lost; however, in other cases, the situation becomes a bit more complicated.
This occurs when we fall into cycles of ruminant and obsessive thoughts in which we feed negativity and helplessness, to these negative thoughts is added a complex tangle of emotions such as sadness, anguish, anger, frustration, etc.
Thus, it is very common for despair to present itself at first as a result of one’s anxiety, however, if this situation continues over time, the person will inevitably develop a depressive disorder.
The despair taken to the extreme ends up generating extreme ideas in the mind of the person, suicidal idealization is the result of this total loss of meaning and hope, possibly the most dangerous part of despair, so it is essential to have psychological help.
Thus, it is common for despair to be an element almost always present in major depression and even in bipolar disorder, very delicate situations that require pharmacological treatment combined with psychological therapy.
However, as we pointed out at the beginning, these realities can be overcome with the help of experts and with commitment.
To do this, it is recommended to think about certain issues
Anger remains an unknown emotion. It is energetic, powerful, demanding and transformative if we channel it well.
There are those who say that despair is the prison of our worst “I”. It’s our darkest side, which wants us weak and lost. Carl Jung said that the goal of psychological therapy is to transform and, above all, achieve an individuality in which the person finds his own meaning of life.
Therefore, it is our obligation to accept this ‘Shadow’ that Jung was talking about in order to transcend it later, so that we can reach the brightest and strongest side to regain hope and security.
We must be aware that this is a path full of difficulties, but that it is certainly a path worth starting to leave suffering behind.