When you say ‘Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures’ you mean that actions that might seem extreme under normal circumstances are appropriate during adversity.
Example of use: “I really don’t want to break up with Tim, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
The expression ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ is believed to have originated with a saying coined by the ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates. In his work Amorphisms, he wrote: “For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable.”