In the second session of the Rebuilding Purposeful Lives Series, Dr. Ellenhorn discusses “Fear of Hope”. The result of hoping and then experiencing deep disappointment can be a profound poisoning of hope. You recoil from hope, because hoping risks another disappointment. In this situation, hope appears tainted, so you stop hoping altogether. Individuals who have experienced extensive histories in behavioral health treatment are vulnerable to the profound impact of fear of hope. And yet, this hidden “chief complaint” is often unseen by clinicians, left as a kind of undisclosed pain and even trauma within therapeutic settings. Dr. Ross Ellenhorn calls this “Fear of Hope”. He joined a team at Rutgers University to study it, developing a Fear of Hope Scale, showing that fear of hope is a valid variable in people’s lives. In his talk he discusses this research, the theories behind it, and how they apply to the lives of individuals diagnosed and treated for psychiatric and addiction issues.