no choice

Catch-22 Hobson's choice between Scylla and Charybdis between a rock and a hard place between the hammer and the anvil between two fires cornered in a dilemma in a pickle in a predicament in the middle sitting on a powder keg

lack of choice no alternative only choice zero option

essential fundamental obligation precondition prerequisite requirement urgency

call cause claim compulsion demand desideratum duress essence exaction exigency godsend imperative indispensability inevitability inexorableness must must-have necessary pinch privation requisite stress vitals want

life or death needfulness no alternative sine qua non undeniability vital part

auxiliary extra trivia

desire