But you don't have to be predisposed to despair in order to experience episodic despair in your lifetime. [Astrological transits, progressions, and solar arcs can reflect periods of endogenous or exogenous despair.]  Exogenous despair is generally episodic, caused by calamities, or tragic external events, such as the loss of loved ones, loss of job, loss of beloved other-species-companions, the onset of illness within oneself or a loved one, impending poverty, or the fear of it, etc. [In such cases, one must not reproach oneself with guilt; all of these things are fated, or meant to be.  Guilt only obscures clear action in the here and now.]  Endogenous despair is seemingly acausal -- it just happens for no apparent reason.  

Of course, there *is* a reason. It is simply hidden from one's own view. A very likely possibility is the soul's revisiting of past events (in the current incarnation, or even in another) and assessment of present conditions. Perhaps an early goal was never achieved; perhaps one realizes that time was wasted or misused, or perhaps one realizes s/he was betrayed in some way. These are what the soul understands easily, even if one's conscious mind tries to block it out, or justify the choices one has made.

Whatever the reason(s) may be, conversation might become difficult, as our culture encourages us to hide our real feelings.  Small talk can become an agony when all you feel like doing is crying, or screaming, or dying.  So, in social situations, if you must speak, feeling awful inside, say very little, if it is too difficult to be sociable.  Stick to work topics, if you still work, or if you're at a party, or a dinner, comment on the food, and try to smile.  But, if you are with someone with whom you can speak freely, just be honest about how you feel.

And I would highly recommend speaking with a non-drug therapist, if you can find one, unless you are feeling strongly suicidal (or homicidal).

The pharmaceutical companies have brainwashed us via the media to believe that despair, or depression, is a "chemical imbalance" which must be treated by their drugs (so that they can make more money). The drugs, at best, are a band-aid, masking the problem but not healing it. As for "chemical imbalance", it is as viable to say that the despair is causing it, as it is to say that the "imbalance" is causing the despair! Our moods and emotions change our brain chemistry. Don't let the pharmaceutical companies fool you; they are for-profit capitalistic corporations no less than say, AT&T.

I am not saying that you should never avail yourself of any helpful medication that an enlightened and competent physician may recommend, especially if you are feeling suicidal. Short-term use of antidepressants might get you past the point of suicide.  But, quite frankly, nature's "drugs", the ones which lawmakers call illegal, would probably work a lot better while causing far less brain damage, than "legal psychiatric pharmaceuticals".  For example, if you feel like killing yourself, you might benefit more from medical marijuana than from the synthetic poisons a psychiatrist, or even a primary care doctor, tosses you as if it were harmless candy!  And if you suffer from terrible anxiety, you and your body would be far better off if you temporarily used a calming opiate derivative such as Vicodin, instead of intensely dangerous synthetic poisons such as SSRI's, and the "new" anti-psychotic drugs (actually, they've been around at least 15 years now), such as Abilify, Geodon, Seroquel, Risperdal, Zyprexa, etc.  [Those drugs, if EVER used, should be reserved for only the most violent criminals in prisons (and on the ones who've been paroled!)]

The drug "Prozac", along with almost every other psychiatric drug, has been linked to suicides in some cases. Apparently, SSRI's have a motivating effect (or something...) which enables suicidal people to regain the energy to commit suicide. If you are suicidal, it may be a very good idea to avoid Prozac, as well as the other drugs in its class, known as "SSRI"s. You may be better off, if you are suicidal and wish to try medication, to request a non-SSRI antidepressant, or medical marijuana.

[Edit: April 2, 2011, and December 21, 2011:  The more I think about it, the less I feel I can, in good faith, recommend mainstream psychiatry at all.  Psychiatry has become an industry which, with increasing invasion, and intrusiveness, is a tool for social control.  I advise you to read these pages, on "depression" and psychiatric drugs to see the dangers of putting your brain in the hands of someone who has no idea what they're doing.  Mainstream psychiatry is, plainly, barbaric.  There are no organic causes for "mental illness", so to treat it as if it *were* an organic illness is the ultimate con game in allopathic medicine.

But I do respect, and recommend, the approaches of Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist who has been denouncing psychiatric drugs, and the barbarism of today's psychiatry for several decades.  Try searching www.breggin.org or if that's not the right URL, just do a search on his name (and ignore all the con artists who denounce him - all *they* want is the phenomenal $$$ income of "treating" a "patient" for years, and the power trip).  You might not be able to get an appointment with him, but perhaps his web site, which is quite a database of information, can lead you to something, or someone else who can properly help.

The only therapy I ever found useful for severe situations was a method pioneered by the controversial early 20th Century psychiatrist, Dr. Wilhelm Reich.  The therapy I refer to is not at all controversial - its basis is that emotional pain becomes stored in the body's musculature.  I might have been skeptical if I had not gone to a doctor who practiced this therapy.  Manual pressure is applied to various muscle groups (serially, not all at once), and emotion flows out, and becomes real - something one can finally resolve, or release. 

You could lie on a "regular" psychiatrist's couch for years, incurring irreversible brain damage from the drugs s/he'll prescribe, talking and talking, with the actual emotion within you only a concept you can never really feel or resolve, and *never* get the benefits that even just a few weeks of Dr. Wilhelm Reich's muscle pressure therapy can provide.  I'm not certain, but the term "bio-energetics" might refer to this form of therapy.  *Please* do yourself a huge favor, and go to a true healer, if needed - not to a mainstream psychiatric *quack*.  The damage these quacks can do to your mind, and to your life, knows no bounds.  If only the method I described were the default mainstream therapy, this would be a much healthier world.   End of Edit.]

The reason suicide is not a good idea is that there may be considerable karmic repercussions. You may, for example, find that you'd only have to do the 'hard parts' over again in another lifetime. Certainly there is the chance that you will be cognizant of, and empathically experience, the whole range of emotions experienced by any surviving loved ones, such as rage, guilt, hatred, grief, and misery. Since there is no hard evidence in this field of metaphysics, we can only go on the accounts recorded in Near Death Experience literature. As long as there is the possibility that this is what happens, it is advisable to avoid suicide.

I realize that the pull of suicide can be tremendously powerful. But the Near Death Experience literature suggests that not only will you not escape your despair, but you will be further burdened by the full weight of others' misery in the wake of the act. So, it is best to avoid suicide.

In some cases, however, suicide may seem to you to be your only best option. This can occur when you are burdened by the terrible suffering of mental illness, when there are no good medications or therapies that will work for you. A lot of very fine, sensitive, and tortured people made the choice to take their own lives. This is not a matter upon which any of us can pass judgment. The pain that the suicide of a loved one may cause family and friends (if any) is not comparable to the pain endured by the loved one who chose the option of suicide. Again, there is no hard evidence in the realms of faith and/or metaphysics that can definitively tell us the consequences that may be pursuant to the act of suicide. 

If you feel you can simply not endure anymore, especially if you are not a youngster (well past the age of 45 - and believe me, I don't say this because I think older people are dispensable, I think the opposite, in fact - but because younger people, such as teenagers, act more on impulse and become excessively upset over things they'll eventually get over, and have potentially good lives to look forward to, whereas once a person has suffered incredibly for over half an average lifespan, s/he has slightly more perspective regarding the likely trajectory of the remainder of life, and whether s/he thinks s/he can possibly get through it - and I do recommend that everyone try, no matter how bad it gets), and if you have suffered terribly throughout your incarnation, then no one has the right to judge you if you should choose to take your own life. But I do urge you to meditate upon the possible consequences which to us are so far unknown. And if I could speak with you, I would try to help you find alternatives to suicide, but if you perceive that it is necessary to end your own life due to unbearable lifetime suffering, that is a decision that in my opinion should be respected.  But one that you should think over for a very, very long time.  NEVER commit suicide impulsively (if at all)!

I would recommend to anyone who is seriously considering suicide the books: Suicide and the Soul by James Hillman; and Death is of Vital Importance by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. These two books will give you very different opinions to mull over regarding life, death, and suicide. I will add the ISBNs for these books if I can track them down, although you should be able to find them in a public library (if your local library does not have them, you can ask them to borrow them for you from another library).

It's important that the loved ones of an individual who chose to end his or her life hear this message: You could not have prevented this from happening. Your loved one was in terrible pain for a very long time and had been considering suicide for a very long time. Please try to forgive your loved one if you possibly can.  It is ironic that we human beings feel it is only right to euthanize our gravely ill other-species companions -- because it is not necessarily our choice to make, and because we consider it taboo to euthanize our gravely suffering human loved ones. Something seems a little asymmetrical about that type of thinking.

Maybe all living beings deserve to make such choices for themselves? Or, if there is a Supreme Being, then possibly the choice is up to It, first, and the individual, second? I think my point here is that essentially, as far as we know, we are each alone in our own skins. I'm alone; you're alone; your cat is alone. And in our aloneness, only the individual (human being, cat, dog, etc.) has the right, barring intervention from a Supreme Being, to make a choice for herself, or himself.

                            A Way Towards Recovery:

So, what *do* you do, when you are in a very bad despair? Well, if it is recommended by an enlightened, sensitive, and competent physician, short-term use of mild antidepressant drugs, such as medical marijuana, may be indicated. But, as I've said, they are only a band-aid. What is really necessary, although seemingly impossible, at times of severe despair, is to access the love you have within you.

If you are an astrologer, or student of astrology, you will have to examine your natal Sun position, no matter if you've done this a zillion times before -- because when you are in despair, the first person you cease to love is yourself. So you will need to examine your natal Sun, by sign, house, rulership, and aspects, and see what it tells you to do *at this time, in your life*.

For example, if your Sun is in the 9th house, in Cancer, square Pluto, your Sun is telling you that one way to access your inner love could be to nurture the refugees of a cultural background different from your own. There will be numerous indications for you, described by your natal Sun. Just grasp whichever one your intuition leads you to at the time.

[Edit: December 31, 2011: If you have no interest in astrology, or even if you think it's pure bunk, try this: Close your eyes, relax, and think of the kind of work you wish you could be doing, even if it's impossible due to lack of qualifications, or college degrees.  The first (and second... maybe even 3rd) thing that pops into your mind is the cure for your despair.  Even if you can't do *exactly* the thing which is your heart's desire, chances are excellent you can work 'near' it, or within its circle of meaning.  YES, I know it seems/feels impossible, but it IS possible.  You may need a big push from a good friend or loved one, though.] 

That is a very simplistic example, but my point is that your natal Sun will tell you the ways in which you can access love and this will help you out of your despair. Of course it will be difficult at first because you have no sense of confidence, or motivation. You really have to *force* yourself, perhaps with the boost of a short-term prescription of a less harmful drug, or with the 'coaching' of friends or family members. For example, you may need someone to physically pull you out of bed and start whatever activity your natal Sun has suggested to you *with* you, either once, or many times, until you feel the motivation and self-confidence to 'do your Sun' on your own.

As I write this article, there is an applying opposition of transiting Saturn and Pluto. Anyone with planets at 12 to 17 degrees of the Mutable signs will be affected. This is a transit of despair and it will affect many, many people. It will also affect nations, companies, businesses, relationships, etc., which have planets or angles at 12 to 17 degrees of the Mutable signs.

So, if you will be affected, or if you struggle with despair otherwise, remember to look to your natal Sun for guidance on bringing you back to yourself. If you can do that, you will be able to move on with your life and you will no longer feel as if you are buried alive, or utterly without hope, or without anything that makes life worthwhile. 

To those in despair, may you be blessed and protected. If you do not know the position of your natal Sun, and are not a student of astrology, I recommend that you consult a professional, reputable astrologer (or better yet, study it yourself) for insights as to how to access your inner love via your natal Sun's condition, and thereby conquer despair.