Losing the ability to be hopeful can be part of a survival strategy in ongoing stressful life or childhood conditions. Giving up on things improving is actually a less painful way to go than hoping, only to experience repeated disappointment. Sometimes this begins very young and it is not a loss but rather something that never even was allowed to be developed.
This can become problematic for many reasons, especially in adulthood. When living with the belief that positive change is not possible for you.....it becomes a new pain unto itself. The ongoing belief that natural relief is not possible.....lives in the foundation of all unhealthy and self-destructive compulsions and behaviors.
Most trauma survivors may not be aware that they have a lack of hope….It just becomes a belief, a given, reality. It's always been the way it is and help never arrived when it was most needed. Understandable that an internal sense trust doesn't just show up randomly one day. Lack of hopefulness is a result of valid experiences and lack of exposure to another way.
Knowing more about the symptom of lack of hope is crucial becasue it interferes with the desire to keep moving forward out of old patterns. It easily makes change not seem worth it when the old survival strategy of hopelessness is on guard to quickly prevent hope. This limits motivation to take the steps to change the old coping strategies. Simply understanding that this may be a symptom of post traumatic stress is helpful.
This can become problematic for many reasons, especially in adulthood. When living with the belief that positive change is not possible for you.....it becomes a new pain unto itself. The ongoing belief that natural relief is not possible.....lives in the foundation of all unhealthy and self-destructive compulsions and behaviors.
Most trauma survivors may not be aware that they have a lack of hope….It just becomes a belief, a given, reality. It's always been the way it is and help never arrived when it was most needed. Understandable that an internal sense trust doesn't just show up randomly one day. Lack of hopefulness is a result of valid experiences and lack of exposure to another way.
Knowing more about the symptom of lack of hope is crucial becasue it interferes with the desire to keep moving forward out of old patterns. It easily makes change not seem worth it when the old survival strategy of hopelessness is on guard to quickly prevent hope. This limits motivation to take the steps to change the old coping strategies. Simply understanding that this may be a symptom of post traumatic stress is helpful.