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Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

#11

Post by preya2k »

irjustin wrote: post #5
sghiassy wrote: post #2

What is the definition of ‘existential crisis’ in this context?

I imagine it's the overwhelming feeling of "why am i here/why do i exists/what is my purpose in life/what is the meaning of it all?" For me personally, it's usually a passing feeling, but once every few years it grows into a multi-day/week long feeling that borders on depression. Why do I have to work? What am I toiling for? When I die, who cares? Everyone who's died before me - who cares? Those who lived a good, luc…

I‘m having an episode like you describe it right now. I‘m doing okay now, but I was in a very dark state for about two months. Couldn’t get up in the morning, quit my job, started therapy and medication.

Thanks for writing this down. Knowing that other people go through the same stuff, helps a lot.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

#14

Post by preya2k »

raheelkhan wrote: post #10

Always, But for me I settle down with my religious preaching in mind. Such as the sole purpose of life is to worhship God. Do good deeds, provide comfort to needy and wait for my time to die. Every step towards good deeds provide satisfaction and every bad act brings mysery.

My existential crisis helped me to be more accepting of religion. I can see how a believe like yours helps you in these situations and who am I to criticize something that helps people feel better (which is what I liked to do before - I’m an atheist).

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

#15

Post by abdussamit »

Yes. Still hits me from time to time, but it mostly happened between when I was 21-24 y/o.

I don't know why it happens man, it occurred to me whenever I was faced with a deep-rooted issue, an issue that got me exhausted or worried. For example, one of my colleagues, a new hire, died in an accident 4 days into his new job. It got me thinking why do we even exist, why do we die, why were we sent here?

Or when I was bored of life or was so indulged in work that I thought fuck this shit, what am I doing? Why do I even exist? What's the goal? What will happen once we die and get alive again? Even if I do exist, what's the purpose?

How did/do I handle with it? Spirituality helps, you pray to God (I'm a Muslim), then you move on. What helps is that most of us are in that crisis so you tell yourself, "Oh, alright. I'm not alone. Guess I just need to drag myself through life.". You get depressed, you get worried, you get panic attacks sometimes, you cry, you have trouble sleeping. But then... then you just wake up and you get some happiness, and then you move on. You just drag yourself.

To conclude, I find it weird how I've struggled to put my thoughts into words because I usually am able to explain myself properly. So I don't know? Just keep moving I guess... Sorry I don't think I helped.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

#16

Post by colechristensen »

Yes.

They faded away as I approached 30, which was also about the time when my life started to have more of a solid dimension – an end, far away, but not infinitely. Suddenly a dozen different things I wanted to do turned into realizations that each one would take several years and they wouldn't all fit, not a depressing thought but a focusing one.

Why am I here? It doesn't really matter, mu, the question is wrong. The question supposes an answer is there and it isn't. Purpose is all made up, pick one if you want one or don't. Zoom way in or way out and nothing could possibly care about the mundane details about what I have for lunch or the history of my civilization. Unless you're doing it for its own purposes fumbling around for meaning isn't a very high quality activity. You should probably do it for a while from time to time, but hanging it up as a dependency for everything else – well nothing comes of it.

Strong certainty of purpose always comes off to me as a little bit (or a lot) of insanity.

How did I handle it? By spending a lot of really unproductive (or perhaps very productive) time doing nothing interspersed with a bit of active fumbling for meaning often by seeking out sources. The result is more or less "meh" which came with time.

I bet I'm due for a big one in five or ten years, but that me will be a different person.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

#17

Post by omarchowdhury »

colechristensen wrote: post #6
jb1991 wrote: post #4

Only if I haven’t had my coffee yet.

For a while when I was younger I didn't experience hunger very often, I had existential crises instead. It was a bit ridiculous, the world would start crashing down around me, everything about my life would become terrible, unbearable burden... and then I would get to wondering about how long it had been since my last meal. A few bites into the subsequent sandwich and everything was back to normal. Now I just get fog…

That sounds like the symptoms of low blood sugar.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had an existential crisis?

#18

Post by Vinnl »

It's always been a bit slumbering in the background for me. Then someone I knew committed suicide, with an important reason being that she felt that she could no longer believe what her religious environment had told her growing up, and was left with this existential dread, and couldn't face waking up to that for another couple of decades.

Hearing about that rekindled those ideas in me as well. I didn't really deal with it, but I realised that I was still capable of enjoying things in the moment. Hence, my current strategy is: enjoy life while I can, because fear of existential dread is only likely to make it happen sooner.

I wouldn't be surprised if I'd get sucked into a depression sooner or later, but who knows, it might never happen.

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