An existential crisis is the unease people experience about meaning, choice, and freedom in life.
This existential anxiety might make you feel that life is inherently pointless and that existence has no meaning.
An existential crisis can also lead to confusion about your sense of identity.
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This can lead to questioning the meaning of their existence.
It arises from an awareness of your own freedoms and how life will end for you one day.
It can be a time of self-doubt, but it also represents an opportunity for growth.
How often have you struggled with a decision and feared it was the wrong one?
That fear of making the wrong choice reflects angst about freedom related to existential concerns.
In essence, each of us must make meaning in our own lives.
Why go through the motions?
This sounds not surprisingly like the foundation ofmindfulness meditationin the medical model of anxiety.
Authenticity
An existential crisis might move you toward authenticity, which may also bring anxiety.
You might have thoughts about the fleetingness of your existence and how you are living it.
At the end of your life, will any of this matter?
Will it matter what career you chose, how much money you had, or what car you drove?
There are both helpful and unhelpful ways of responding to an existential crisis.
One is the choice not to live at all or to give up on life.
A second is to become so absorbed in daily distractions that you don’t live an authentic life.
This is said to leave no room for existential anxiety, but also no room for an authentic life.
It’s amaladaptive coping or avoidance strategy, in essence.
Existentialists view anxiety in a different way than psychiatrists and psychologists.
They view the ultimate concerns of life as death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness.
“This expresses the idea that existential anxiety goes beyond fear about day-to-day troubles.
If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineat988for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.
Talking to a professionalcan be very helpful in reducing existential anxiety.
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