the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success

When you feel there is no way out of your predicament.

1. Despair. 2. The belief that nothing good or worthwhile exists . . . within reach. 3. A common symptom of the disease of alcoholism.

a crucial end product of all neurosis, caused by failures to live up to one's "shoulds" and the partially or wholly unconscious knowledge of being thoroughly entangled in psychic conflict. At bottom, the mood that accompanies our failure to be who we are. (See sadistic trends.)