Existential crisis
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What is an existential crisis?
An existential crisis involves inner conflict and distress over questions of identity, meaning, and purpose.
It is characterized by anxiety and conflict regarding life's meaning, often related to spirituality, and can include emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. Feelings of despair, helplessness, fear, and loneliness can arise, accompanied by thoughts about a lack of purpose and even death.
Psychologists suggest that finding meaning and purpose is the way out of an existential crisis, which can be achieved through cognitive behavioral therapy or connecting with others. These crises often occur during transitional periods, such as the teenage years, adulthood, midlife, or during life-altering illnesses.
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Why might someone experience an existential crisis?
An existential crisis involves anxiety and conflict about the meaning of life. It can arise during transitional periods, such as the "early teenage crisis" focused on independence, the "sophomore crisis" about identity, the "adult crisis" regarding career and life choices, the "midlife crisis" concerning aging, and the "later crisis" about legacy.
This crisis may stem from a lack of shared traditional values in modern society, creating an "agony of choice" when individuals must define their own meaning. Finding purpose, often through cognitive behavioral therapy or connecting with others, is considered a way out of an existential crisis.
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What kinds of questions do people ask during an existential crisis?
An existential crisis involves inner conflict and anxiety related to purpose, identity, and meaning in life.
During such a crisis, people may grapple with questions such as:
* Who am I, and who do I want to be?
* What is the meaning of my life?
* What is my purpose?
* What are my responsibilities and commitments?
* How do I balance independence and freedom?
* How do I find meaning in the face of death?These questions often arise during transitional periods, such as the early teenage years, sophomore year, adulthood, midlife, or later in life when facing illness or significant life changes.
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How does an existential crisis affect someone’s thoughts and feelings?
An existential crisis involves a period of conflict and anxiety about the meaning of life. Emotionally, it can trigger despair, helplessness, guilt, fear, anxiety, and loneliness. Cognitively, it can bring thoughts about a lack of purpose, death, and indecision. Behaviorally, it may cause inaction, relationship loss, addictive behaviors, and seeking therapy.
An existential crisis can be an opportunity to find purpose and value in life. Failure to resolve it, however, can lead to depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, and some connect it to suicidal thoughts. Psychologists suggest that finding meaning and connecting with others are paths toward resolving an existential crisis, potentially through cognitive behavioral therapy.
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What are some ways people cope with or resolve an existential crisis?
An existential crisis involves anxiety and conflict about the meaning of life. Psychologists suggest that finding purpose is key to resolving it, which can be achieved differently depending on the person.
To cope, cognitive behavioral therapy and connecting with others in a meaningful way are considered effective. For many, spirituality can be helpful. It's worth noting that resolving an existential crisis can greatly enrich a person’s life, guiding them to discover purpose and value. Failure to address it, however, can lead to serious mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety.
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How have famous philosophers or thinkers explained existential crises?
Existential crises involve grappling with the fundamental questions of existence, meaning, and purpose in life. Philosophers have offered various perspectives on understanding and resolving these crises.
Søren Kierkegaard emphasized the importance of individual subjectivity and the acceptance of life's uncertainties. Albert Camus explored the absurdity of human existence, suggesting that individuals must rebel against this absurdity by finding joy in their struggles. Jean-Paul Sartre focused on radical freedom and the responsibility that comes with it, arguing that humans are condemned to be free and must create their own meaning. Friedrich Nietzsche examined the origins of values and the concept of nihilism, advocating for the re-evaluation of traditional values and the embrace of life's inherent meaninglessness.
Psychologists suggest that finding personal meaning and connecting with others can help individuals recover from an existential crisis.
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Existential crisis, a period of inner conflict during which a person is distraught over questions about identity, meaning, and purpose.
Characteristics
Although the defining characteristics of an existential crisis vary among psychologists, most agree that it is at heart a period of anxiety and conflict about purpose and life’s meaning. Some psychologists focus on the existential crisis as a question of identity and whom a person wants to be. Others say it revolves around feelings of responsibility and commitment versus independence and freedom. Many say it is a confrontation with realizations about existential realities such as death. An existential conflict is often considered to be related to spirituality, as many people find meaning in spiritual practice.
Psychologists have outlined distinct emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of an existential crisis. The emotional part may include such feelings as despair, helplessness, guilt, fear, anxiety, and loneliness. The cognitive part may include thoughts about a lack of meaning and purpose, death, and indecision. The behavioral part may include inaction, conduct resulting in the loss of relationships, addictive behaviours, and seeking some kind of therapy.
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Because an existential crisis extends over a prolonged period with distraught feelings, it can be difficult to distinguish from depression, and in fact these two conditions may overlap. Major depression, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), includes similar symptoms, such as anxiety and despair, but they last longer and cause significant disturbance in one’s ability to function in life. The relationship between existential crises and depression may in fact be causal. Psychologists are particularly interested in how certain types of situational depression relate to existential crises, as this relationship can help determine which treatment is most effective.
Triggers and examples
Existential crises occur at periods of transition throughout life. Several critical periods have been identified as likely to trigger an existential crisis. An “early teenage crisis” is concerned with defining oneself as independent from caretakers. A “sophomore crisis,” which can occur in the late teens or early twenties, focuses on establishing an identity through career, relationships, and how one finds meaning. An “adult crisis,” which can occur in the late twenties, centres on questions about career but also on life-building factors, such as religion and independence. A “midlife crisis” relates to aging and a realization of being trapped in restrictive roles. Finally, a “later crisis,” which can be triggered by a life transition or an illness, focuses on questions of legacy and achievement. Health care workers are especially interested in how to resolve existential crises that arise with disease when death is a concern or with a life-altering illness that brings up major questions of identity, such as schizophrenia.
Outcomes
Psychologists note that resolving an existential crisis can bring great meaning to a person’s life, and in fact an existential crisis can be an opportunity that pushes a person to find purpose and value in life. However, failing to resolve an existential crisis can have serious health consequences, such as depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. Several health care professionals have written about the connection between feeling that life is meaningless in an existential crisis and suicide. Resolving existential thoughts and feelings is thought to be an important part of recovery from suicidal ideation.
Solutions
Psychologists think that finding meaning and purpose is the way out of an existential crisis. This can be achieved in a variety of ways for different people and situations. Some note that finding meaning requires a more individual search in modern society than it does in traditional societies, since traditional societal patterns of meaning are not shared as widely in modern society. Generally, cognitive behavioral therapy is considered an effective way to address an existential crisis. Also, connecting meaningfully with other people can lead to recovery from an existential crisis. One study even found that addressing the components of an existential crisis through such methods as narrative discussion of existential topics improved outcomes in depression treatment.
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Existential crisis at a societal level
The existential crisis is thought to be a modern phenomenon that may be related to both the abundance of life choices available and a societal decline in shared traditional systems of value and meaning. Lacking such a system to guide one in choosing among various options can bring on an internal struggle—an “agony of choice.” Psychologists point out that this situation allows people to apply meaning to each facet of their lives, including work and other activities, which is a privilege not available to everyone. The concept of existential crisis is often applied at a societal or institutional level, as the need for meaning and purpose in understanding one’s existence as an individual can be mirrored at that level.