An existential crisis can be a great opportunity to connect with your inner self and transform. This process will then allow you to find your true path in life.
There are times in life when you go through an existential crisis. Usually you feel exhausted and start asking yourself “serious” questions. For example, “why am I here?” Or “what is my purpose in life?” Or “Am I doing the right thing?” or “What will happen to me when I die?” All of us have experienced such an existential crisis at one point or another in our lives. However, the specific questions we asked ourselves at the time can be very different from each other.
An existential crisis can happen at any time in your life. Similar situations happen to both rich and poor people. They have nothing to do with the material standard of living or the quality of professional work.
An existential crisis usually happens when you feel like something is out of control. It is as if everything solid and certain for you has suddenly become unstable. Like all other problems of this type, an existential crisis is associated with a lot of suffering and heartache. But even in this situation, you can still catch a deeper meaning. Then it will allow you to go beyond pain and suffering itself. Let’s try to understand this important issue for most of us in more detail.
“When we can no longer change the situation, we face a new challenge. It’s time to change yourself.” – Viktor E. Frankl.
What is an existential crisis
An existential crisis usually brings up a lot of different thoughts and feelings in the mind. In other words, it greatly affects your entire cognitive and emotional plane. Dealing with so many new sensations and perceptions can be really exhausting, which is why many people consider them a negative experience.
Moreover, an existential crisis is often associated with an identity crisis. When you start to doubt who you are, you will start to doubt everything and everyone in your life.
How to detect
The main feature of an existential crisis is an all-consuming feeling of emptiness. This phenomenon may not be the only feature of this particular experience, but is a common component of it. But also some other symptoms can help you know if you are suffering from an existential crisis or not.
The most important of them are:
- Feeling out of place in life. You just feel like your life has no direction. Neither your personal life nor the world around you matter.
- Feeling insecure. You feel insecure and constantly think about issues such as life and death, good and evil, and the like.
- Emotional instability. Anxious thoughts and feelings come to you all the time. You can’t deal with your tormenting emotions. You don’t know what to do next in life. And you are also not sure who you are and why you have achieved all that you have achieved. Therefore, it is difficult for you to accept your responsibilities and make any important decisions regarding the future.
- General feeling of dissatisfaction with daily life.
- Insomnia.
Of course, the presence of specific symptoms varies from person to person. After all, each person is different and has their own unique life experience. Moreover, it should also be noted that an existential crisis can be associated with other psychiatric disorders such as depression.
However, this does not mean that an existential crisis necessarily leads to the development of depression. Fortunately, such a relationship does not occur.
Use an existential crisis to your advantage
While an existential crisis can certainly be exhausting, you can use it to your advantage. The idea is to look at things from a completely different perspective. You just need to assess your potential and use it to improve your life situation.
On this basis, Viktor Frankl created a new field of science – logotherapy. This is a kind of psychotherapy that proves that the search for meaning is the driving force of every person. He also believed that each person is unique and incomparable. And this, according to the Austrian scientist, means that the process of personal development of each person will also be unique.
Victor Frankl’s Logotherapy
This type of therapy helps to set a goal in everyone’s life. Thus, it also helps to find meaning in life. The key is to move beyond suffering and see your existential crisis as an opportunity to discover who you are. And then you can take a big step forward with it.
Logotherapy has been around for a long time and is still effective. One example of logotherapy in contemporary psychology and psychotherapy is the study of depression among Iranian students.
Logotherapy can also help you stop seeing yourself as a victim of this emotional attack.
Instead, you can take advantage of this opportunity to boost your immunity. In other words, your ability to overcome weaknesses will prove to be a key factor in your success here.
If you completely change your point of view, you will immediately see new concepts, ideas and resources that you may have missed before. Moreover, if you accept that existential crisis is inherent in everyone’s life, your suffering can be replaced by peace of mind.
Surviving an existential crisis without a mental scar is almost impossible. So instead of wasting energy on suffering, try to accept it, analyze and find out why it happened and where it will lead you.
However, the most important thing is to overcome your suffering and doubts and move on. Thanks to this, you will be able to come out of the crisis stronger than ever.
