What is real despair?

Despair, what kind of psychological state is it? What is real despair?

Many people will call temporary helplessness despair, despair because they didn't get into college, despair because they lost their jobs, and despair because they broke up. These are only temporary despair. At least, you have a chance to rally, rekindle hope and move on. The real despair is that even if you see hope, there is nothing you can do.

There is no clear definition of despair in psychology, but the words that can express this psychological state have already made people feel the feeling of despair. When the reality can't be changed, can't be separated from the environment, no one can lend a helping hand, and can't do anything, both the mind and the body will experience a state of numbness, and this state is despair when there is no hope, no goal, and no emotional experience of reality.

Africans can't escape from abroad, change their environment, have no food or water to drink. This sense of powerlessness that they can only pray for help is desperate.

A little girl in rural China, her father died of illness, her mother disappeared and she lived alone. She doesn't know what hope is. Maybe she doesn't feel hope for anything anymore. Whether a person is desperate is easy to feel from his eyes.

This is a famous photo, but the photographer chose to commit suicide because he didn't provide timely help. In addition to the despair felt in this picture, I think the photographer is also desperate for himself.

A disabled couple lost their only son in an accident. For a poor family, children are their only hope and motivation, but when they lose all this, hope no longer exists and despair has been replaced by numbness.

A miner in Inner Mongolia suffered from silicosis at work. For this poor family, nothing is more desperate than losing the main labor force. It is a sin for him to drag down his family. For himself, despair means not only expecting death, but also fearlessness.

Compared with the protagonists in these worrying pictures, most of them are only temporary disappointment. Most people have never really experienced despair and can't even feel it. But at least sometimes, what we can do is to thank ourselves, our families and the world, which rekindles our hope.