Existential Anxiety: How to Deal with These Worries?

What can we do to face our existential problems? How to deal with existential anguish because of it? Discover some keys to dealing with these thoughts and feelings.

People with existential anxiety They tend to experience different sensations of panic or discomfort due to the limitations of our existence. In these cases, thoughts related to death, the meaning of life or insignificance tend to be very recurrent. When these feelings begin to arise, people who experience them can feel very overwhelmed, hopeless, and even helpless in the face of such thoughts. Although in some cases, these thoughts can end up affecting the way we see our life, making it seem much more challenging, in reality, they can also help us focus on our growth and change.

What is existential anxiety?

Is considered existential anxiety to a type of anxiety that arises when thinking about our existence and ourselves. Faced with these thoughts, people may feel insecure, isolated or even with a certain feeling of loneliness. Furthermore, this anxiety is usually closely linked to a feeling of emptiness and uselessness. This existential fear can develop for different reasons, for example due to missed opportunities or wanting a significant change in life.

In many cases, this type of anxiety It encompasses the struggle to better understand yourself, life in general, and what you want to do with it. Therefore, it tends to be linked to feelings of discontent, anguish and restlessness, something that can make those people who have them uncomfortable. Anxiety, in general, tends to be closely linked to specific events such as social anxiety (related to the fear of judgment or being in contact with other people), specific phobias or when we are facing a specific situation. Compared to other types of anxiety, existential anxiety tends to be more abstract and less linked to more specific events or situations.

What are the symptoms of existential anxiety?

People can experience the existential anguish in very different ways. In fact, in most cases, their symptoms tend not to be very visible to the people around them, since they are usually very internalized thoughts. Taking this into account, when a person has an existential problem, despite showing a completely calm attitude, the following signs can be identified:

1. Difficulty making decisions: People with existential anxiety tend to think about all the consequences or effects that each of their actions may have. Therefore, they can act very indecisively, experiencing many conflicts when making decisions.
2. Experience life as a struggle: This will mean that every moment of their lives can be a real challenge, due to the lack of meaning or emptiness they feel in every aspect of their daily lives.
3. Painful emotions: Existential anxiety tends to cause people to suffer emotions such as despair or regret due to the decisions they must face.
4. Social isolation: By dwelling so much on problems such as personal meaning or value, these people may end up neglecting social relationships, since they believe that perhaps others will not understand their problem.
5. Question your own beliefs: Existential problems tend to cause people to become more introspective, which can lead to questioning personal beliefs or decisions that have been made.
6. Panic attacks: Another symptom that may be due to existential anxiety is suffering from panic attacks. In these cases, people may feel short of breath or even believe they are about to die.

These are some of the signs that could indicate that you are suffering from existential anguish Even so, we must emphasize that this type of anxiety is part of our lives. The problem arises when we suffer in excess and ends up affecting our daily lives.

How to deal with existential anguish?

For cope with existential anxiety, it is important that you keep in mind that when this problem is ignored it can end up affecting us in other ways. In fact, because it is such an inherent part of our human condition, existential angst is not something that is going to go away permanently. With this in mind, some of the strategies you can use to deal with your existential anxiety are the following:

1. Accept uncertainty: A large part of the existential anxiety that we suffer usually comes from the uncertainty that life generally entails. All thoughts related to existential problems or existential fear of life must be something that we have to accept since we will not get a strong answer about it. Faced with these thoughts, loosening the need for control can be a completely liberating experience.
2. Analyze when anxious thoughts arise: To cope with these thoughts, you need to look for patterns in them, so try to understand when anxiety related to them arises. By keeping this in mind, identify those moments when you feel less anxious and much more motivated. This will allow you to understand why this anxiety may arise and what you should change to combat it.
3. Break down big questions into smaller concerns: Instead of avoiding this existential angst because these problems seem daunting, try facing it directly through small reflections and actions. For example, it can help you to make a list of these big questions as well as the problems related to them. So, you can choose the topic that is most bothering you at the moment and write it down as well as break it down into smaller things. By breaking down these problems, you will be able to understand what you can do daily to deal with these feelings.
4. Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is a type of meditation that allows you to be more in touch with yourself, as well as with the present moment. That is, it helps you not pay so much attention to thoughts about the past or the future. When we are more aware of the now, we are more focused on responding to the problems presented to us more effectively rather than reacting emotionally.
5. Find challenges: In some cases, people may experience an existential problem because they find their life unchallenging or have fallen into a routine that makes them grow. So, if you feel empty and suffer from existential anguish, try to concentrate on looking for new challenges for your life and, above all, try to change those aspects in your life that you do not find encouraging.
6. Discover what you can contribute: These feelings related to existential anxiety can be an opportunity to focus on what you really value in your life. Sometimes we don’t feel connected to meaning because we aren’t engaged in something that gives us meaning. Focusing on it, try to understand where to direct your life.
7. Go to therapy: If you feel that this anxiety is affecting you in different aspects of your life or that it is not allowing you to develop in what you want so much, going to a psychologist will help you understand where this anxiety comes from and what you can do to deal with it effectively.

You should keep in mind that there is no specific treatment for deal with existential anxiety since it is a natural problem that can arise in our lives. Instead, the way to decrease these feelings is to examine and explore the thoughts related to it.