How To Use Helplessness In A Sentence

  • I was overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness as I watched her being wheeled into the operating theatre.
  • I wanted, desperately needed for him to reach across the line that he had drawn, and so it was with dumb horror that I watched him retreat, his expression turning lawyerly even as I read the helplessness in his eyes. Dreaming in French
  • The unhappy helplessness of the man in the foxskin coat evidently afforded him great pleasure. The Schoolmistress and other stories
  • The themes of separation and helplessness are probably objectifications of his own grief over the loss of his wife.
  • Individuals can respond to these experiences with intense fear, horror or a sense of helplessness.
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  • Practice periods that end in gloom and despondency must be avoided - they have the opposite effect of reinforcing or "conditioning" helplessness. The Secrets of Musical Confidence
  • They know the frustration, the anxiety, the helplessness and the embarrassment of being on the mound and throwing pitches nowhere near home plate, heaving some to the backstop.
  • What this film does get right is the utter helplessness of man when pitted against a shark in a battle of life or death.
  • To teach them to embrace dependency on the government is to embrace learned helplessness.
  • He drew long, soft, angry breaths, waiting mute and dangerous inside his helplessness like a beast in its lair.
  • The next stage, she says, is an attitude of helplessness about work, the full-blown Sisyphus complex.
  • Experts say some of that helplessness may be erased by commune council elections, held for the first time in 2002, which could give villagers more influence over local planning.
  • According to the Office of Medical Services '(OMS) guidelines, these techniques were designed to "psychologically' dislocate 'the detainee, maximize his feeling of vulnerability and helplessness, and reduce or eliminate his will to resist our efforts to obtain critical intelligence. Human Rights First: The Professionalization of Torture
  • Because we emphasise instrumentality rather than ‘that which God does’, it might well be that the Almighty has already left us alone to discover our helplessness.
  • Many last-borns capitalize on their position as smallest and weakest by elevating helplessness to a high art.
  • Under the premise of the primogeniture, the Queen is usually when no other male heir choice of helplessness.
  • As her mother, the pain and anxiety I feel for her is indescribable and the feeling of helplessness overwhelming. The Sun
  • The incident left me with a sense of helplessness.
  • Optimism turns to pessimism and a growing sense of helplessness, however, as funds are depleted and rejection letters arrive.
  • I can remember well my bewilderment and sense of helplessness when given the task of identifying a topic, posing 'the question', creating hypotheses, and identifying an appropriate research methodology.
  • I distinctly remember the overwhelming feeling of abject helplessness which this incident brought about.
  • Compared with the foreign teachers, the domestic have to confront more work contest, as a result, more mental disorder, professional accidie and sense of helplessness.
  • To imagine that one could have done better may be more tolerable than to face the reality of utter helplessness. Trauma and Recovery
  • All of them plead helplessness due to lack of funds and lack of manpower.
  • But in all this there is no difference between a physicist, a historian, and a philosopher; and again, slowness, want of skill, and even helplessness are something totally different from the peculiar kind of irresolution that Hamlet shows. Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
  • And in her agony, in her utter helplessness, mentioned the unmentionable.
  • Alone in my room after the first wave of attack had finally subsided, helplessness reduced me to hot, angry tears. Times, Sunday Times
  • Women have similar stories to tell - of misuse of power and of their helplessness in situations where the harassment is short of violent assault or rape.
  • The overriding feeling is often a sense of helplessness. Christianity Today
  • This ubiquity of unavoidable helplessness points to the possibility that dependency is not peripheral to the social order, but is somehow central to it.
  • However, being in China for 16 months and basically seeing/reading more injustice, empty/uneducated criticisms, and helplessness than actual Truth and constructiveness mostly in form of each side bashing the other's media outlets - yes, I do have my own opinions: A press should always be free! Archive 2008-11-01
  • It made uncertainty a principle of government and reduced the regime's victims to helplessness.
  • This induces a feeling of helplessness and engenders a belief in hidden explanations and conspiracy theories.
  • Madeline is devastated by guilt and anguished over her helplessness.
  • Fast bowlers bang the ball in but nothing hits the splice of the bat, there are no edges, shoulders drop and there is an air of lethargy and helplessness in the movement of fielders.
  • To not know is bewildering and only contributes to and compounds the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness that the bereaved parents will feel. Times, Sunday Times
  • Sue, Mrs. Milo's petiteness became weakness, her dainty trimness accentuated her helplessness, her delicate coloring looked ill-health; while Sue, by contrast, seemed over-high as to color, almost boisterous of voice, and careless in dress. Apron-Strings
  • Dover and I could but hold our hands in helplessness and watch the antics of our hoary marvel. THE REJUVENATION OF MAJOR RATHBONE
  • Many people have given way to despondency and helplessness, having lost faith in leaders and politicians.
  • When I see her in these moods there's this very satiable feeling of hopelessness, helplessness and this suffocating feeling of needing to be helped. Indiankurtis Diary Entry
  • As her mother, the pain and anxiety I feel for her is indescribable and the feeling of helplessness overwhelming. The Sun
  • One by one the wolves crept nearer, jaws opened, tongues lolling as if they laughed at her helplessness. THE WOLF AND THE DOVE
  • He spread his hands in what for him is a dramatic gesture of helplessness. MURDER IN E MINOR
  • The peril of servilism and dependence lies not only in that "useless consuming of life," which leads to helplessness, but in the development of individual traits which indicate all too plainly a regrettable perversion and degeneration of the normal man. The Montessori Method
  • And the great lion lay and roared in helplessness, and at each prod exposed his nose more and lifted it higher, until, at the end, his red tongue ran out between his fangs and licked the boot resting none too gently on his neck, and, after that, licked the broomstick that had administered all the punishment. CHAPTER XXVII
  • Optimism turns to pessimism and a growing sense of helplessness as funds are depleted and rejection letters arrive.
  • I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them - there's only us. Oprah Winfrey 
  • In a kind of visual coda that seems to exist outside the novel's spatial and formal boundaries, the hallucinatory episode encapsulates the unconscious primacy of the visual and the belated helplessness of narrative in the face of it.
  • I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them - there's only us. Oprah Winfrey 
  • Should I be angry, should I despair, spread my palms in helplessness? Tsunami
  • Alan's uncommunicativeness extended below the level of speech, and his mother, reduced to the helplessness of dead-reckoning, had not even the solace of adapting her sympathy to his needs. The Quicksand
  • This conversation was pointless and only awakened the hollow feeling in the pit of his gut and the sensation of helplessness.
  • They want us to be afflicted by our helplessness and dejectedness keeping us down and feel like slaves although we just want to feel like and be treated like human beings. Wooster Collective: December 11, 2005 - December 17, 2005 Archives
  • Fast bowlers bang the ball in but nothing hits the splice of the bat, there are no edges, shoulders drop and there is an air of lethargy and helplessness in the movement of fielders.
  • Something in her that had, at first, revolted in anger and frustration at her own helplessness, now shrivelled and atrophied.
  • Their discouragement produced symptoms of the psychological harm called learned helplessness.
  • They may display nighttime fears, anger, irritability, lower tolerance for stress, nervousness, compulsiveness, helplessness, and/or powerlessness.
  • Most rape victims confess a feeling of helplessness.
  • When taking care of children who stimulate their unmet needs and earlier painful childhood interactions to which they have little conscious emotional connection, they may identify with a child’s helplessness and demandingness, which is seen as “bad.” Object Relations Theory and Self Psychology in Social Work Practice
  • Traumatic events have in common the ability to elicit intense and immediate fear, helplessness, horror and distress.
  • Battered women are often depressed, anxiety-ridden, suffering from low self-esteem or displaying a countenance of helplessness.
  • It was an expression vastly different from the tired helplessness she had seen in the faces of men coming home from the war after the surrender. Gone with the Wind
  • Her ability to endure his violence is not seen as helplessness or masochism, but rather as evidence of her moral strength.
  • A feeling of utter helplessness washed over him.
  • He takes great joy in making her smile, and we feel his helplessness at her meltdowns.
  • In fact, I support of this view. Behavior of the elder is helplessness of the state, but his behavior is also violation of law.
  • Amid the laughter, the melodrama and hysteria, this is a play with a terrible, almost frightening undertow of sadness and helplessness.
  • The overriding feeling is often a sense of helplessness. Christianity Today
  • He offers you the spectacle of an ironic, intelligent 47-year-old man gazing at Yelena with the dotty helplessness of a moonstruck adolescent: aware of his own absurdity but powerless to prevent it.
  • He returned to the gut-wrenching night-time helplessness of childhood, the primordial fear of the dark which every human being suffers, must learn to deny, but can never forget.
  • Now he is missing and his relatives back home are frantic with worry and helplessness.
  • To not know is bewildering and only contributes to and compounds the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness that the bereaved parents will feel. Times, Sunday Times
  • Work devoid of opportunities for participation can lead to strain and escapist behaviour as compensation for the sense of helplessness.
  • Lusty young rock bands and just about everyone else shuddered at the prospect of bedridden helplessness and a general loss of independence.
  • It hurt, this feeling of helplessness that gnawed at his insides.
  • I was overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness as I watched her being wheeled into the operating theatre.
  • His words clearly expressed the helplessness of some local businesses investing abroad.
  • Anxiety magnifies issues and induces a sense of helplessness. Times, Sunday Times
  • Practice periods that end in gloom and despondency must be avoided - they have the opposite effect of reinforcing or "conditioning" helplessness. The Secrets of Musical Confidence
  • And in that instant her heart seemed to burst with love inside her and simultaneously shrivel with grief and helplessness.
  • I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them - there's only us. Oprah Winfrey 
  • There was a rending, tearing sound as of some silken fabric being parted biaswise of its fibres, and Mr. Leary's droll after sections vanished inside; and practically coincidentally therewith, Mr. Leary descended upon the rugged floor with a thump which any other time would have stunned him into temporary helplessness, but which now had the effect merely of stimulating him onward to fresh exertion. The Life of the Party
  • If the plot of The Killer Inside Me seems flimsy -- even arbitrary and contrived -- well, that's an element of Thompson's stories: a fervid, almost feverish quality, a helplessness to deal with bad impulses and a quick canniness for covering one's tracks. Marshall Fine: HuffPost Review: The Killer Inside Me
  • This feeling of desperation and helplessness was common to most of the refugees.
  • U.S. Open will be an exercise in helplessness and hope. USATODAY.com - Woods still in Buick driver's seat — for now
  • Conversely, deprivation produces feelings of inferiority, weakness and helplessness.
  • One by one the wolves crept nearer, jaws opened, tongues lolling as if they laughed at her helplessness. THE WOLF AND THE DOVE
  • He noted the horror of Mr. Harley at the term forger; he observed Mr. Harley's growing sense of helplessness as he, Storri, set forth how Mr. Harley lay in the toils. The President A novel
  • What happens to your body then is that feelings of helplessness and hopelessness soon translate into depressed immune function.
  • No other colony showed such supine, selfish helplessness in allowing her own border citizens to be mercilessly harried
  • Deerslayer was withed in bark sufficiently to create a lively sense of helplessness, he was literally carried to a young tree, and bound against it in a way that effectually prevented him from moving, as well as from falling. The Deerslayer
  • What happens to your body then is that feelings of helplessness and hopelessness soon translate into depressed immune function.
  • The feeling of helplessness, of bodilessness -- the feeling the Public has every day in the White House and in the Senate, of being treated, and treated to its own face as if it was not there, is a feeling that works as badly one way as it does the other. The Ghost in the White House Some suggestions as to how a hundred million people (who are supposed in a vague, helpless way to haunt the white house) can mak
  • This lessens their feelings of isolation and helplessness.
  • This is clearly not a pleasant film to watch on many levels, especially in view of the thousands of black-and-white mug shots of the murdered who stare out in mute helplessness from the various walls, prison files and hospital journals that remained at S21. Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat
  • The people of the village touched their hearts with both hands as the first families clasped the petals to their bosoms, feeling the pain of losing paradise, the helplessness with which they clung to their gifts.
  • The child's detachment exacerbates the parents' feeling of helplessness.
  • The proprietor spreads his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
  • Some of our favorite pieces help us remember that peril and despair breed hope, not helplessness.
  • Amotivation represents the lowest possible level of self-determination, as it implies a loss of personal control and alienation akin to learned helplessness.
  • And in that instant her heart seemed to burst with love inside her and simultaneously shrivel with grief and helplessness.
  • Aristotle; listening in a kind of cataleptic helplessness to a confession of faith that scattered their doctrines to the winds. The Valley of Decision
  • The civic authorities plead helplessness in feeding the vagrant population and point out that a proposal to rehabilitate them in the suburbs is hanging fire.
  • To imagine that one could have done better may be more tolerable than to face the reality of utter helplessness. Trauma and Recovery
  • Alone in my room after the first wave of attack had finally subsided, helplessness reduced me to hot, angry tears. Times, Sunday Times
  • The incident left me with a sense of helplessness.
  • Danton was impelled, though, because as Linda, the young bride, stood before him, her fine eyes were on his, in helplessness and in appeal. The Damned by John D. MacDonald
  • But Mr Brown and his peers cannot find comfortable haven in pleading helplessness in the face of a fractured infrastructure.
  • The images in the nightmare had been vivid, but what had been more vivid had been the sensation of suffocation and sheer helplessness.
  • Her sense of helplessness contributed to her desire to solicit help in dealing with her suicidality.
  • She screamed loudly, but it was a bellow of rage not helplessness.
  • Hundreds of young survivors of the blaze, sweaty and black with soot, raised their arms to the sky as if imploring mercy or hugged each other - sharing pain, fear, anguish and a feeling of helplessness.
  • According to the Office of Medical Services' OMS guidelines, these techniques were designed to "psychologically 'dislocate' the detainee, maximize his feeling of vulnerability and helplessness, and reduce or eliminate his will to resist our efforts to obtain critical intelligence. Human Rights First: The Professionalization of Torture
  • To imagine that one could have done better may be more tolerable than to face the reality of utter helplessness. Trauma and Recovery
  • His face expresses bewildered helplessness, reminding us that the photographer must either choose to lend a helpful hand or snap the photo.
  • Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness are the essence of depression.
  • The mention of Gedge's name cowed Reginald in an instant, and in the sudden revulsion of feeling which ensued he was glad enough to escape from the room before fairly breaking down under a crushing sense of injury, mortification, and helplessness. Reginald Cruden A Tale of City Life
  • She has a certain fondness for Xavier, born of his apparent helplessness in the face of getting by.
  • The bluefin does not give one the feeling of overwhelming, and utter helplessness that the big giant trevally impose, but these fish were still reducing my stock of poppers and cast material with some ease.
  • I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them - there's only us. Oprah Winfrey 
  • Though lacking beauty in any strict sense of the word, her energy and heedlessness - a sort of helplessness born of irresponsibility - drew people to her.
  • The incident left me with a sense of helplessness.
  • She plays him for a fool, often feigning helplessness just to see what lengths he will go to in order to prove his love for her.
  • What worries me is that there will be enfeeblement, helplessness, that I will go on for years unable to sense my decline, my lunacy, and oblivious to all my indignities.
  • They forge a relationship based on their common sense of helplessness in the face of the overwhelming power of fate.
  • Jim shook his head again, gesturing his helplessness with both hands.
  • Maybe the relatively superficial thinking behind the French poster designs stems from a sense of helplessness and an inability to really grasp the whole of the monumental injustices occurring.
  • She opened her hands in an expression of helplessness. Crave
  • Sordello, lured incessantly towards abstract ideals, lost in their contemplation, is smitten, like Aprile, into helplessness by the multitudinousness of the images he sees, refuses to descend into real life and submit to its limitations, is driven into the slothfulness of that dreaming imagination which is powerless to embody its images in the actual song. The Poetry Of Robert Browning
  • The captain told of the anguish and helplessness experienced when injured crew are taken into the care of people outside of the navy's control.
  • Trapped in a car, I watched in absolute helplessness, (the sort I hope which only exists in nightmares) as this beast of the netherworld repeatedly launched itself at the windshield with great force.
  • These theaters of anxiety illustrate collective helplessness in the face of unmanageable man-made, natural or supernatural forces.
  • Most rape victims confess a feeling of helplessness.
  • Lonely Indus Shen Yuan, lock Spring and Autumn, this is a lonely helplessness.
  • Conversely, deprivation produces feelings of inferiority, weakness and helplessness.
  • But (he threw up his hands to indicate his helplessness) who could stop the sacred juramentado? The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy A Book for Young and Old
  • Bewilderment and helplessness and dismay mingled strangely, played out in a clashing kaleidoscope, vivid against the colourlessness of everything else.
  • He watched her with a mingled feeling of helplessness, admiration, and hate.
  • To Pamela's astonishment, there was helplessness in those eyes she had come to think of as dauntless.
  • Practice periods that end in gloom and despondency must be avoided - they have the opposite effect of reinforcing or "conditioning" helplessness. The Secrets of Musical Confidence
  • Most rape victims confess a feeling of helplessness.
  • Now, as the label prepares to release its biggest album in years - Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues - the label's vice president Megan Jasper talks with the NPR Topics: News
  • It is so illogical, ugly and foul-mouthed that it almost suggests a deliberate subversive subtext aimed at exposing the nurtured helplessness of today's cinema-going public.
  • But also, I don't rightly know how you stop mindless filicide; and there's a strong stench of inevitability and an anti-political helplessness hanging over the books.
  • Beatrice, and the calmly devoted wisdom of the "unlessoned girl," who appears among the helplessness, the blindness, and the vindictive passions of men, as a gentle angel, bringing courage and safety by her presence, and defeating the worst malignities of crime by what women are fancied most to fail in, -- precision and accuracy of thought. Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American
  • The mother's profile suggested cognitive and behavioral disorganization and attitudes of helplessness and hopelessness.
  • These faces tell a story of loss, of despair, and of complete helplessness.
  • Early elegies alternate an almost marmoreal calm with twig-in-the-wind helplessness. The Times Literary Supplement
  • There is a certain helplessness that accompanies the experience of those whose lives are touched by the death of someone known. Unimaginable
  • This feeling of desperation and helplessness was common to most of the refugees.
  • And they're better than real children, who soon outgrow their adorable helplessness.
  • And in that instant her heart seemed to burst with love inside her and simultaneously shrivel with grief and helplessness.
  • Losing oneself in the movie is not figured as pleasurable, but sets up, rather, a mode of helplessness in the face of an opaque and fragmented story line.
  • I remember my feelings of helplessness.
  • The result has been ideological confusion, civilian helplessness, and an environment eminently hospitable to putsches.

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