Hopelessness comes when we feel there is nothing we can do to handle the situation, emotions, or life we are living. The basic anger within destroys our innate sense of personal power, will, commitment, and ability to make a difference in the world. Hopelessness and despair can live inside an individual unrecognized. If they are present for too long, they often give rise to physical, mental, and emotional symptoms of all kinds. In order to heal these symptoms, it is often helpful to get back to the despair a person is feeling, and beneath that to the anger that is fueling this sense of impotence.
— Brenda Shoshanna, The Anger Diet