Existential Anxiety
Have you ever felt a strange kind of unreal anxiety that just made you think how weird life was? Have you ever felt that you were part of some gigantic board game? Have you ever gone dizzy wondering what was there before the universe was created in the big bang or made by god?
To question the above is quite normal, but to worry about it, or have it bring on negative physical reactions, is not. Symptoms of this existential anxiety can include (but are not limited to) dizziness, spacyness, nausea, panic, hyperventilation, vertigo and depression.
What can be done about existential anxiety?
The best therapy seems to be to accept it, and and keep saying to yourself “This is only existential anxiety and it can’t do anything to me.” Also I have found Mindfulness Meditation to be particularly good when it comes to simply letting anxious thoughts be there.
Also, read this.
Thank god for this post i thought i was the only one suffering from this type of anxiety.
Me too. I can’t find much on existential anxiety on the internet but it’s reassuring to know someone else feels the same way.
Hi, I’ve had existential anxiety since I was 15, I’m now nearly 30. It got to a point where I had to speak to a psycologist about it. I couldn’t operate because these thoughts were at the forefront of everything I did. I still have panic attacks every so often, to be honest I know I’ve just got to live with it. My worst thoughts when I’m in the throws of panic are ‘no one can help a problem like this because every one is in the same boat as me, they don’t have the answers about the origins of life etc’ and ‘if space wasn’t here, what would be?’ and ‘i truly believe life is a catalogue of coincidences’. Ways I deal with the panic: 1 distract myself which is really hard because everything else seems so trivial and unimportant, you must try though. 2 Think about family especially my two kids, they are the only thing I should worry about. 3. Every other human being is in the same boat, they just don’t think as deep as me.
Lee
approx 12 years ago i suffered from depression and anxiety due to the death of my father. When i found out my dad had cancer i started questioning how i would react at the actual minute he died it and it was at this point i started withdrawing from life and living in my own head. i started realising that everything was so artificial and my friend who i met at uni was studying philosophy mentioned this theory of existentialism. this was wot was causing me so much pain. people who realise this are ‘special people’ and even though i felt dread i know i have reached a state that not many people can. a good websire is practical-philosophy.org with good explanations on existential anxiety
i am having psychology to try and deal with my existential anxiety. seems to be going well
lee
im seeing a psychologist over existential anxiety
you are not alone with this anxiety….I thought I was the only one too
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Oh, how I’ve longed to be able to find others who understand what I’m going through! This means so much to me. I too started this train of thought at about 15 which seems to be the optimum age for mental problems to start. I am now 42 but it’s fair to say that I have had long periods without these thoughts taking over my life. In fact I had a period of about 7 years without them! I only very recently found out that there is a term for these feelings. Before I knew this term existed I used to put “fear of living” as a search term but it didn’t really come up with anything that hit the mark. I had never found anyone out there with these thoughts and feelings and felt so isolated. What I do know is that none of us are “bonkers” although I used to believe I was for many years or that I would go mental from the sheer weight of all the anxiety and panic. Sometimes I so wish I had never considered these things and feel so envious of people who only have “rational” worries and fears. Please lets keep the dialogue going…
Thank God I’m not alone. Mine started up about a year back, while I was on a mood-stabilizing medication. It scared me. It still scares me, but it feels a lot better to know that I’m not the only one out there. I kept thinking that I’m just out of it. Rationalizing, trying to find something – anything – to help explain it. I think I just need some time now.
Does this seem like what you are getting? This is what my description is of it:
I am seeing the situation I am in (existing, being in this world, being a human)
as it is, without looking at it in the same way as before. Qualities and
assosiations that I have with the real world are all gone and meaningless.
Suddenly I have a huge realisation; the world seems strange and scary. I am in a
situation that I can never understand. Real life problems like homework and
getting fit can all be clumped together in a different league to this one. This
problem is beyond all real life problems. Worrying about a real-life problem
would be a wonderful thing at the moment because at least those problems can be
understood. I have felt it many times before but it always feels new and worth
thinking about because the thoughts that trigger the realisation involve
removing all previous preconceptions and memories of the world. Properties of
the real world which have previously been accepted and forgotten about (like the
flow of time, my own consiousness, spacial dimentions, my vision/senses, my
emotions and thoughts) seem completely pecualiar and absurd. I want to escape
from them, but I don’t know what I would escape to, they are all that I know and
I can’t even imagine anything else. I get a feeling of intense dread and anxiety
because there is nothing I can do about it and I will be in the same situation
for the rest of my life.
I think the only way to get over this is to accept you are in this wierd world, and you can make your aim in life to be “enjoy yourself”. Because that is the only meaning you can ever give to your life.
The Sacred Depths of Nature by ________ Goodenough really addresses existential anxiety from a nature point of view. It teaches you to understand the enormity of the universe as simply the “mysterious.” As humans we like to understand, but unless you believe in God, there really is no understanding existence. You can come to terms with it, but never truly understand it. Everyone here has enormous spiritual potential, see it as a blessing perhaps. Youtube search Alan Watts.
Oh thank you for this post! I thought I was going insane when these thoughts occurred. For months I have obsessed over how life came to exist on Earth and if there is life elsewhere in the Universe. The thought caused such tremendous anxiety that I felt sick to my stomach and it caused Derealization.
It’s been 3 months now since the thought occurred and my anxiety is a whole lot better. I still have slight derealization and the thought is still there in the background, but it’s not as intense as it was. I didn’t do any thing for the anxiety or the thought, it just kinda passed on its own.
I believe that the way to overcome existential anxiety is to center you attention on the here and now – the meaning of the closer things in life; your friends, family, car, fishing trips, good food and wine, nice sunsets, good books and great music.
When I have attacks of existential anxiety it overshadows everything, and all these things become meeningless to me, filling me with an inexplicable fear and emptiness that is too much to bear, and apparently is never going away – there is no running away from this fear.
In order to overcome the angst I try to think of the angst as only a “bad feeling”. If that feeling goes away there is no angst. If I’m feeling good about the joys of life, existance can be as meaningless as it may. At least to me it has meaning here and now – and I can always look forward to the birthday party on friday, a glass of wine in the sofa with my wife as we watch a good movie, or the coming holidays, when we’ll get to see new and interesting places…
Also, I eat dark chocolate. It makes me feel better:-)
Im 20 years old. I find myself depressed due to the perspective which I and seemingly many of you have adopted, although I got of to a pretty rough start in life im doing well and about to start my third year in medicine. I may occasionally have a strong physical reaction in the night when I cant get out of my head which i often imagine is very similar to how i will feel on my death bed but generally it is the depression that is an issue. I can relate to many of the descriptions above although I was surprised to see that wasn’t mentioned much though I am certain that this generates the much of the anxiety (in fact I believe that all fear is directly or indirectly due to notions of death). I don’t feel that therapy would be an option because my problem stems from truths which I cannot ignore, and I don’t believe I can go back if anything I believe I would convert the therapist
We are not ill we can simply not ignore questions that we can not answer. I sometimes feel like I am losing my humanity. Religion answers these questions (in a sense) but ironically i feel the same aspects of my character which cause my troubles are the same parts that will not allow me to accept religion. For me distract yourself does seem to be the only way to help but it is not always possible. It is most certainly a strange world.