Almost everyone has gone and is going through phrases of existential crisis. The human being appears to be in search of significance.
Living without a sense of purpose, goals, values, or ideals appears to cause significant distress. Life is full of ups and downs, and most individuals go through periods of anxiety or sadness.
However, in the case of an existential crisis, these negative emotions can lead to considerable sadness or existential melancholy, prompting them to wrestle with serious concerns about their meaning and purpose in life.
Research has it that adult crisis usually starts in the late mid-20s. But I choose not to believe that because I am in my early 20s and I have had numerous episodes of existential crisis.
Likewise a lot of celebrities like John Krasinski, Bradley Cooper, and Lady Gaga.
About 19.4% of people said their existential crisis lasted between 3– 6 months. While 34.7% said they are still going through one. Some haven’t overcome it yet and continuously live with it.
Existential crisis vs depression
People often intertwine existential crisis with depression but they have their differences.
An existential crisis happens when you find no meaning in the affairs of life, in other words, you find life meaningless.
You find the journey of life having no purpose or direction. You find yourself asking this question
“why all this struggle when the world is still the same”
“why all this struggle when we all still going to leave earth”.
As a result of this phase, you tend to become inactive exploring why the world is not changing at all.
Depression, on the other hand, is a clinical condition in which you withdraw from people and exhibit a variety of symptoms that is as a result of a mood disorder.
It can be caused by a breakup in a relationship, a loss of fortune or business, the death of a loved one, a career setback and so on.
Here are 7 reasons you have an existential crisis but may not know it
1. You live in a bad country
To be honest, half of the population of Nigeria is suffering from an existential crisis. With how the society and the government are, it is enough to.
When we ask ourselves, “God why was I born in this country” or “God when will I leave in this country,” an existential crisis is taking place.
That makes up my first point, a bad country is one of the reasons you could be finding life extremely meaningless and it is not your fault.
2. You are just lazy
Why you are feeling like life is meaningless or without purpose is maybe because you are just lazy.
Lazy to work, lazy to leave the bed, lazy to think. Just wallowing in your mind on why life is so hard, why you have to do something to get a result.
Don’t feel sad because it happens to everyone, it happens to me also, you just find the whole struggle meaningless.
Some people in this category live routine lives. That is those working an 8-5 or 9-5. They don’t feel a purpose or motivated to do anything by their selves, so they let other people motivate them. That gives us our next point.
3. Other people are your sole reason for moving
Your job, your family and your friends are the only reason you do anything. You don’t do anything for yourself.
If not for your job you won’t ever leave the house, if not for your job you won’t feel worthy of life or feel like it has a meaning, if not for your friends your social and interactive life will be at zero.
You make your life on the foundation and premise of all these external things while the internal is decaying. Nobody can help you work on the inside of yourself, you have to do it.
External things can also encompass money, that is putting money as the height of your happiness in life. When you don’t have it, you are filled with despair and have no meaning for life.
4. You are an over-thinker
You over-think all the time, even when is not necessary. You always thinking about both the positive and the negative, why won’t your mind want to explode and make you feel like life is not worth living.
5. Always negative and complaining
People that spill so much negativity are coming from a place of deep existential crisis.
They complain too about everything, they are always caught saying
“why is life like this”
“I wish I wasn’t born”
“life is so hard” or
“I am suffering”.
When you see people like this you should hug them and assure them everything is okay.
PROVEN WAYS TO OVERCOME EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
1. Speak positive things to yourself
Always say positive things to yourself no matter the situation on the ground
Try having fun times alone to take control of your thoughts. Too many distractions outside can make you not have time for your own self.
That’s why you need solitude.
2. Don’t expect to find all the answers
This doesn’t mean that you can’t seek answers to life’s big questions. At the same time, understand that some questions won’t have answers.
To get through an existential crisis, you can break down questions into smaller answers, and then work to become satisfied with learning the answers to the smaller questions that make up the bigger picture.
3. Pray
People naturally overlook the power of prayer and some people have taken prayer into an affirmation context.
Speaking into your reality can also be taken as prayer.
There is something people usually say “a closed mouth is a closed destiny”. You are having phases of existential crisis. Why not rewrite the toxic thoughts and negative mindset with positive words.
Tell yourself “I am strong” “life will never be hard for me”
“I am the star of my own show”.
Affirm it every day to yourself or anytime you feel at the edge of existential crisis.
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