Understanding Hope and Why Hopelessness Increases Risk

Clarifying hope beyond optimism and positive thinking, and hopelessness as suicide risk

We all know what hope is. At some point, we have all hoped for better things. We have hoped for a better life, hoped our troubles would ease, hoped for that one gift at Christmas, hoped for good grades or a different outcome. The list goes on. But what exactly is hope? Is it a feeling or an emotion, or is it something else entirely? Is it superstition, or perhaps a form of blind faith we turn to when things feel uncertain?

Hope is universal. It is what keeps people going.

Hope is the capacity to stay engaged with life despite uncertainty. It is the decision to get up, to keep moving, and to continue even when outcomes are unclear. From a psychological standpoint, hope is not about expecting things to turn out well; it is about maintaining forward movement when they might not.

This is why hope can survive even in despair.

When hope is lost, everything else begins to fall apart. Hopelessness supersedes every other negative feeling, becoming the point at which people give up. They give up on things that once mattered. They give up on people who were important. At times, that loss of hope leads to giving up on life itself. Hopelessness is a very dark place to be.

To understand why hope matters, it helps to distinguish it from concepts it is often confused with.

Hope vs. Optimism and Positive Thinking

Hope is often confused with optimism, but they are not the same.

Optimism is the expectation that things will turn out well. It is future-oriented and outcome-based.

Hope, on the other hand, does not require positive expectations or outcomes. It can exist even when outcomes are uncertain or unlikely to improve. Hope reflects an anticipation that certain things may happen or not happen, without certainty about how they will unfold.

Optimism is built on the belief that tomorrow will be better than today. Hope, however, can exist without that belief. While optimism may be a component of hope at times, hope is the belief that you can continue to act and influence your life even when outcomes remain ambiguous. Hope itself is maintained by persistence and continued efforts in the face of unknown outcomes.

Hope is also not the same as positive thinking. Positive thinking is often passive. It focuses on expecting a good or desired outcome without necessarily engaging in measurable goals or action. Hope, on the other hand, is goal-oriented. It involves the belief that one can influence or change aspects of a situation, even when outcomes are uncertain.

Positive thoughts can be helpful when coping with difficult situations. However, it is important to distinguish them from hope. Positive thinking is an attitude or mindset. Hope, by contrast, is realistic and action focused, grounded in the belief that effort can bring about change.

Here's some examples for clarity:

Hope:

Back in June of 2003, while I was working toward full licensure in Kansas, I had to take the Examination for Professional Practice of Psychology (EPPP). It is one of the toughest exams I have ever taken. I was working full time at the time, and the preparation for the exam was exhaustive. A positive result was not guaranteed. I knew several therapists who had to take the exam multiple times to achieve a passing score.

In hopes of passing it on the first attempt, I studied intensely. I studied every day after work, for hours at a time, for three months before the exam. I do not remember ever preparing this hard for any exam before, even though I had previously placed second in the state for psychology and fifth in the state for social work during statewide entrance exams for master’s programs in India. I have also always been a strong test taker, and still, I struggled to prepare for the EPPP.

Those three months felt like days and nights blended together, filled with multiple choice questions and dense research material.

I hoped to pass the exam, but the outcome was not guaranteed. I was not optimistic. Instead, I set a goal and worked toward it. I put in the effort with the hope that I could influence the outcome. I did pass the exam on the first attempt, but that outcome was not what carried me through those months of preparation.

This was not optimism. It was hope, grounded in effort and persistence despite uncertainty.

• Hope was the anticipation of change and the motivation to prepare and persist.

  
  

Optimism:

In November of 2010, I attended a job interview for a position I really wanted at University of Waterloo. It represented a pivot from community mental health to mental health in an educational setting, a change I was looking forward to. The interview went much better than I anticipated. When I walked out, I was optimistic about receiving a job offer.

• Optimism came after the interview, based on how well it went and the expectation of a positive outcome.

  
  

Positive Thinking:

In July of 1999, I moved from India to the U.S. as a student, leaving behind my familiar culture, family, and friends. I entered a completely unknown environment with no social support. What I did have was a mind filled with positive thoughts that I would find my way. I was alone, but I believed I was strong enough to manage on my own. This was not certainty about outcomes, but an attitude of resilience and a positive outlook toward life.

• Positive thinking is a mindset that does not depend on outcomes and helps with coping in uncertain circumstances.

  
  

Hopelessness and Suicide Risk

Hope is one of the most important forces that allows people to survive. When individuals go through prolonged stress, loss, or uncertainty, hope is often what keeps them going. It is the belief that the future does not have to remain the same and that effort, however small, can still matter. Without hope, there is no reason to try. People stop trying to change their circumstances because the future feels fixed and unreachable. With hope, people continue to act, adapt, and endure long enough for circumstances to change.

Hopelessness is not simply the absence of positive thinking or optimism. It is a psychological state in which the future no longer feels accessible. It is the point at which people no longer believe their actions can influence what happens next. When effort feels meaningless, persistence collapses. This is why hopelessness often precedes giving up, disengagement from relationships, and, in its most severe form, withdrawal from life itself.

When I worked as a DBT therapist in Kansas and later, on an Assertive Community Treatment team in Toronto, I did crisis work and carried a crisis pager. In both roles, I worked with clients diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness. While not every call involved suicide risk, many of the crisis calls I received were from clients experiencing suicidal ideation or who were actively suicidal at the time.

When I conduct suicide risk assessments with these clients, one of the most important areas I assess is hope, alongside whether they have immediate support available if needed. I often ask simple, future oriented questions. These are not questions about long-term goals or major plans, but small and concrete ones, such as what they plan to do over the weekend or what they are thinking about having for dinner.

What I am assessing is whether the person can still see themselves existing in the future, even in a limited or short-term way. The absence of this ability often signals hopelessness, which is a strong clinical indicator of increased suicide risk.

In clinical work, hope is not a vague concept. It is observable. It shows up in a person’s ability to imagine themselves in the future, however briefly. When that capacity disappears, risk increases. This is why hope matters. It’s a survival mechanism. It is not about expecting life to improve, but about remaining engaged with it long enough for improvement to remain possible.

In Summary

Hope is often misunderstood because it is confused with optimism or reduced to positive thinking. But hope is neither belief nor reassurance. It is the ability to stay engaged with life when outcomes are uncertain. In both personal experience and clinical work, hope preserves movement, effort, and agency. Without hope, people stop trying. With hope, they continue long enough for change to remain possible.

Hope is not about believing things will work out, but about staying engaged when giving up would be easier.