LH: Chapter Six

A small excerpt from chapter 6,

The Residue Of Trauma

Feeling stuck between hope and hopelessness is the tension of two opposites. Hope, the longing for change or improvement in one’s circumstance. Hopelessness, the belief that efforts to achieve that change will inevitably fail. Two sides of the same coin. Learned helplessness is often thought of as pure despair, but for many, it creates a complex emotional state where hope and hopelessness coexist. These individuals may desperately want change but feel incapable of achieving it. The paradox of hoping for better while believing it’s out of reach, can lead to profound inner conflict. While in the vice of this conflict it stalls growth by trapping a person in a cycle of inaction. No one likes to be in limbo, this contradictory state can’t exhaust the emotions.