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Existential Angst
Almost everyone everyone experiences existential angst in some form at sometime in there life. I find it much easier to deal with when I can talk to others about it rather than bottling it all up, sadly most people don't want to be reminded. If you need somewhere to vent your thoughts please post them here. How do you deal with your existential angst? What opinions do you have on life and death? What advice do you have for others experiencing existential angst?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tom Thompson on -
I find that beer helps.
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Permalink Reply by Rob van Senten on -
I try not to fear death, I can't escape it anyway. Also I am under the impression that thinking about death a lot makes me forget the present. The present is the only time that I'm having fun, so I try to live for the moment by creating as much happiness as I can in the now.
People that fear death do so for many different reasons so any good advice would take the cause of the angst into consideration. In general though, I would argue that it's almost always a good advice to realize that it doesn't matter whether you come to terms with death or not, it's going to happen anyway. The sooner that you realize that, the sooner you can accept it as another fact of life and move on to more important matters (the present).
Most people that I know of who are afraid of death worry a lot about the future, they worry about their job, their income, their house, their family etc. This seems to me to be a matter of control, I agree that for maximum happiness, you would need maximum freedom but you can't escape from the laws of physics.
Death is something we all have to deal with, I'll deal with it right after I'm done living.
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on -
"Death is something we all have to deal with, I'll deal with it right after I'm done living."
Well said.
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on
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Although I think it is sometimes worthwhile to consider your mortality to help you appreciate life. It is easy to become obsessed though and it seems pointless to spend your short life worrying about its end.
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Permalink Reply by Roy The Infidel on -
I'm a big fan of Alain Robert and Tyler Kirk. No fear. :)
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on
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Lets just hope he doesn't get anyone else, who actually cares if they die, killed. ;)
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on
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Sometimes I feel good, everything seems how it should. We live, we love, we cry, we die. I focus on the positives, when I die anything could happen, I could go on to be part of other conscious beings, I could join something greater, or I could just cease to exist. But hey why not remind myself of the positives, I wont know if I cease to exist so there's no point worrying. Other times I just feel like shit, whats the point in living anyway? Sure it can be fun but you just lose all of it in the end. It's like if someone pushed you into a department store and told you you could have anything you wanted. You go through the shop and pick up a shit load of stuff on the way then you get to the door and they say "Sorry mate you can't actually leave the shop with any of that." Right now I'm feeling like shit. Writing this down helped, I just couldn't organise my thoughts before, my brain wasn't working at all I just felt completely overwhelmed by a sudden wave of existential angst.
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Permalink Reply by Rob van Senten on
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I wont know if I cease to exist so there's no point worrying.
I do not agree, your consciousness is an emergent property of the complex system of your brain, it is not a separate entity. When your body dies and your brain activity stops, your consciousness will cease to exist. Consciousness is completely dependent on the underlying structure of your brain.
The atoms that you are composed off might become part of a system (of complex molecules) from which consciousness is an emergent property this does not mean that your consciousness will somehow survive and be "implanted" into another consciousness.
When I die, I know that my consciousness will cease to exist, that my body will decompose and everything that I ever was will be gone. The whole of the experiences that people have of me will eventually fade away with time, maybe my great grandchildren will have some memories of who I was, but these will be at best mere shadows or reflections of the person (consciousness) that I am now.
There was a time in the past where I told myself beautiful lies to prevent myself from facing the reality of life. I told myself that energy cannot be destroyed, so that the energy that is "me" would somehow be incorporated in another flow of energy. I told myself that the core of my being would somehow remain in some state or another, and so on and so forth.
The truth is that these lies that I told myself did not help me cope with Death at all, in stead it had an averse effect because it created an internal conflict between my rationality and my emotions. Rationally i knew (but did not admit) that I would cease to exist, emotionally my fears would not allow me to admit that what I believed was merely what I wanted to belief.
I just felt completely overwhelmed by a sudden wave of existential angst.
Coping with your existential angst doesn't mean that you will ever be completely free from these feelings. Realizing that Death is just another fact of life, doesn't make it any more emotionally satisfying. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Tom Thompson on
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"I do not agree, your consciousness is an emergent property of the complex system of your brain, it is not a separate entity"
That's just semantics. The only part of oneself that matters to oneself for existence is consciousness. That is why we generally end life support for brain-dead people.
The story of your journey through rationalization is interesting though. Perhaps we all make a similar journey. I don't really recall mine in detail. When I was young and religious I often felt suicidal so when I finally shed my fear (after shedding my faith) I didn't really waste any time worrying about annihilation I think. I'd spent years before that worrying about hell and, for me, nothingness probably seemed like an improvement.
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on
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I'm not painting myself any pretty pictures about death to try to make myself feel better. I like to think my consciousness is the only thing keeping me separate from everything. I'm not really sure what this means but some how it helps me feel calmer about my own death. It just seems strange to me that there should be nothing after death if everything is still there. I do not believe at all that I will go to some magical realm where everything is perfect or that there will be any of my consciousness or memories left after I die but I know that something will always be around and somehow thats almost enough.
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Permalink Reply by carl on -
for my experience existential crisis is fatal situation. you need to see an expert, a doc. problem is that it comes as and effect of too many things working on background.
in simple you are infected of some nasty psychological issues. it will come as you start enjoying your problem and embrace it more in to you. its danger, you need a break. go and see and psychiatrist (not a psychologist!). you may show severe symptoms of several combinations of bipolar disorders. its much more complicated than actually it seems. the first and major difficulty you face is to convince yourself that you have some problems and you need some treatment. make your decision as fast as you can cos next level of the disorder may not the that sweet! find a good doc around you and tell him the facts in its right degree cos if he got misunderstand you may get in to more troubles. new psychiatric treatment are using Atypical anti-psychotic drugs.
stop booze and smoke for some time. strictly no grass or other drugs. you may experience slight sexual dysfunction problems. don't worry everything will return back to normal as you get queried. do some exercise, its not for your body its for the mind. make routine for food, sleep and work. eat and drink. you will surely get queried. :)
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