The existential crisis is something many people may face at one point or another in their lives, when the world seems to become less meaningful and purposeful. People may question the inner logic of social systems, of their religion, of everything they have once held true, and they do so while becoming much more conscious of the brevity of life. In brief, the sense of mortality, even for those who believe in a religion positing an afterlife, can become more intense, and the person may feel alone while questing for some better understanding of what it means to exist.
For those who encounter an existential crisis, things can begin feel notably bleak and difficult. Strong feelings of meaninglessness may pervade daily living, creating significant depression. Although the idea of the existential crisis is often used as common language or in layman’s terms, it can be a time of psychic suffering that is intense and produces feelings like suicidality. Many people, when they recognize how empty their lives have become, seek therapy at this time. Psychotherapy is one of the best places to get treatment for such a condition, even if it is not theoretically an illness, because it can combat the feelings of loneliness and help people think their way through these crises.
There is an entire school of therapy called existential therapy, and its focus is very much on the existential crisis that most people will eventually undergo. Therapists who identify themselves with this school can sometimes have the best tools to assist clients, such as supportive listening and engagement with clients.
There are many psychotherapists who are excellent at addressing this issue. Most therapists will have treated clients who faced an existential crisis. The world of psychology has also produced a number of approachable books on the issue of what it means to exist in this world, and philosophy and the writing of the existentialists can also be of use, since all quest for the basic answers of what it means to exist.
No specific time in life is “set aside” for a person to have an existential crisis. Teenagers have them as they try to define their lives as different from their parents. They occur after moments of trauma or great transition such as losses. The midlife crisis often bears direct relationship to the existential, as people begin to realize half their lives are gone and they question all the things they may have ever believed.
Sometimes existential crisis is referred to jokingly, but such a point in life is no joke and corresponds to painful and difficult feelings. Those who begin to feel anything like suicidality are urged to get assistance. For most people, these crises pass and people find a way to define their lives anew. They may conclude in the end, as do many of the existentialists, that the move away from belief systems actually becomes freeing and that life renews its purpose with each free choice.
