Hopelessness I spread around (7)
I believe the answer is:
despair
'hopelessness' is the definition.
(despair is a kind of hopelessness)
'i spread around' is the wordplay.
'around' indicates anagramming the letters.
'i'+'spread'='ispread'
'ispread' anagrammed gives 'DESPAIR'.
(Other definitions for despair that I've seen before include "A spider (anag.)" , "Lose heart" , "Despondency" , "Complete loss of hope" , "State of having lost all hope" .)