Existential crisis can cause feelings of meaninglessness and depression, and may lead to suicidal thoughts. Therapy, including existential therapy, can help combat loneliness and provide tools for dealing with crises. These crises can occur at any point in life and should be taken seriously. Eventually, people may find a renewed sense of purpose through free choice.
Existential crisis is something many people may face at one time or another in their lives when the world seems to become less meaningful and less intentional. People can question the internal logic of social systems, of their religion, of everything they once held to be true, and they do so as they become far more aware of the brevity of life. In short, the sense of mortality, even for those who believe in a religion that postulates an afterlife, can become more intense and the person can feel lonely as they seek a better understanding of what it means to exist.
For those experiencing an existential crisis, things can start to look especially bleak and difficult. Strong feelings of meaninglessness can pervade daily life, creating a meaningful depression. Although the idea of existential crisis is often used in common parlance or in layman’s terms, it can be a time of intense psychic suffering and produce feelings such as suicide. Many people, when they recognize how empty their lives have become, seek therapy right now. Psychotherapy is one of the best places to treat such a condition, even if it’s not a disease in theory, because it can combat feelings of loneliness and help people think about how to deal with these crises.
There’s a whole school of therapy called existential therapy, and its focus is very much on the existential crisis that most people will eventually experience. Therapists who identify with this school may sometimes have the best tools for assisting clients, such as supportive listening and client engagement.
There are many psychotherapists who are excellent at dealing with this problem. Most therapists will have treated clients who have faced an existential crisis. The world of psychology has also produced a number of accessible books on the question of what it means to exist in this world, and the philosophy and writings of existentialists can also be helpful, as any search for the basic answers about what it means to exist.
No specific moment in life is “set aside” for a person to have an existential crisis. Teens have them as they try to define their life as different from their parents. They occur after moments of trauma or major transitions such as losses. Midlife crisis often has a direct relationship to the existential, as people begin to realize that half of their life is gone and they question all the things they may have ever believed.
Sometimes we talk about existential crisis in a joking way, but such a point in life is not a joke and corresponds to painful and difficult feelings. Those who begin to experience something akin to suicide are advised to seek assistance. For most people, these crises pass and people find a way to define their lives again. Eventually they may conclude, as many existentialists do, that the departure from belief systems does indeed become liberating, and that life renews its purpose with every free choice.
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