4 ms·

Ask HN: What is existential crisis and how do you know if you are having one?

9 points by itchyjunk 9y ago

Hi!

tombh 9y ago
It would seem there's a spectrum of them. In a sense all anxiety could be existential in the way it presses on the nerve of one's own particular instance of existence. Though I think we'd all describe Neo's awakening in The Matrix as something somewhat more than anxiety. Of course "existential" is a philosophical term. Heidegger, one of the great existential philosophers, famously used the day to day experience of humans in order to access the very nature of being - of existence - because humans are unique in that existence is a fundamental concern for them. Like when Satre writes in detail about the strangeness of door handles, they're something that we use countless times in our day to day lives, we just never notice them until they become a concern for us, like when they break. So an existential crisis is just that feeling of unearthing something fundamental that's always been there, but now has come to the forefront for whatever reason. Personally I believe there is only ever one existential crisis that we go through and whether we face it head on or just the satellites around it, its centre of mass is always that audacious fact that something exists rather than nothing. BTW one doesn't simply answer this question. The resolution of an existential crisis is a new way of life, not merely understanding some standalone empirical fact about psychology or physics.
- itchyjunk 9y ago
  yes, why does anything exist at all? maybe it's something like a 0 mathematically? you can multiply it with any possibility and you still have nothing?
blacksqr 9y ago
An existential crisis is one that you can't resolve until you've figured out the meaning of life. If you're not contemplating radical changes, you're probably not having an existential crisis.
- itchyjunk 9y ago
  Is that always true? Resolution of existential crisis always involve radical changes?
  - blacksqr 9y ago
    If I thought it was always true, I would have said "definitely" instead of "probably".
ordu 9y ago
If you have been working hard for 20 years to achieve some goals (like proficiency level, career, wealth, or something like that), and now being mostly content with your current achievements you are questioning goals themselves, then you a here. Probably. If the cause of questions is a lack of achievements, than it may be not the existential crisis, but something else. Existential crisis is the good one, it means that you grown above your goals and now you can find new ones. But it feels bad, like any other crisis.
- itchyjunk 9y ago
  Could you elaborate on the "but something else" for lack of achievements? what are those and why are their lack a bad thing?
  - ordu 9y ago
    I meant that psychologists distinguish one more crisis, which caused by a dissonance between great plans for a life of ~20 years old person and his/her real results at ~30. At this crisis people tends to make radical changes in their life and this crisis may look like existential, but it isn't. It has its own name, but I can't find it (I can literally translate from Russian and get "achievement crisis", but I cannot find it in Wikipedia, and too lazy to search other sources). So achievements are any objectives, which are significant for the person. The problem with this crisis is a relativity of the "lack of achievements". Life can be pretty good, but nevertheless worse than expected ten years ago. To be successful in my own eyes I need to accept my real performance in the real world, to rewrite my plans accordingly, and it can be a painful experience.
dbasedweeb 9y ago
I remember when I was young, it suddenly really hit me: I’m going to die. That means that for an eternity I’ll not exist in the same way I didn’t exist before I was born. How could that be?! I was terrified of non-existence, of the sheer length and breadth of it, and what it really meant. I can’t say that I’ve ever really gotten over it, but I live with it. At the time I could hardly sleep, I became anxious and depressed. To me, that’s the ultimate face of an existential crisis; confronting the reality of what our existence is. We’re almost unbelievably brief sparks in an endless darkness that didn’t notice our arrival and won’t notice our departure. What does it mean? Nothing really. For some I guess the solution is believing that they’ll live forever in one way or another. For me it meant not thinking about a grim reality that saps joy from life, and just focusing on the people I love, the time we have together. It might not be ideal, but it’s what we have. What is an existential crisis? IMO it’s what hits when you when reality starts to seep into you in some small way. Maybe it’s mortality, or the absurdity and arbitrary nature of human endeavors, or something else.
- itchyjunk 9y ago
  Edge of where our brain can function maybe.. not really equipped to figure it out yet.
pasbesoin 9y ago
Things were bad, but I had some hope for the future. Then physical changes (health) took away that hope. I went from stress and anxiety to existential crisis. Maybe this is too simple. Maybe it's precisely this simple.
sbinthree 9y ago
I found this very useful when going through my own existential crisis. [1]: http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10554 http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10554

9 points by itchyjunk 9y ago

Hi!

It would seem there's a spectrum of them. In a sense all anxiety could be existential in the way it presses on the nerve of one's own particular instance of existence. Though I think we'd all describe Neo's awakening in The Matrix as something somewhat more than anxiety. Of course "existential" is a philosophical term. Heidegger, one of the great existential philosophers, famously used the day to day experience of humans in order to access the very nature of being - of existence - because humans are unique in that existence is a fundamental concern for them. Like when Satre writes in detail about the strangeness of door handles, they're something that we use countless times in our day to day lives, we just never notice them until they become a concern for us, like when they break. So an existential crisis is just that feeling of unearthing something fundamental that's always been there, but now has come to the forefront for whatever reason. Personally I believe there is only ever one existential crisis that we go through and whether we face it head on or just the satellites around it, its centre of mass is always that audacious fact that something exists rather than nothing. BTW one doesn't simply answer this question. The resolution of an existential crisis is a new way of life, not merely understanding some standalone empirical fact about psychology or physics.

itchyjunk 9y ago
yes, why does anything exist at all? maybe it's something like a 0 mathematically? you can multiply it with any possibility and you still have nothing?

blacksqr 9y ago

An existential crisis is one that you can't resolve until you've figured out the meaning of life. If you're not contemplating radical changes, you're probably not having an existential crisis.

itchyjunk 9y ago
Is that always true? Resolution of existential crisis always involve radical changes?
- blacksqr 9y ago
  If I thought it was always true, I would have said "definitely" instead of "probably".

ordu 9y ago

If you have been working hard for 20 years to achieve some goals (like proficiency level, career, wealth, or something like that), and now being mostly content with your current achievements you are questioning goals themselves, then you a here. Probably. If the cause of questions is a lack of achievements, than it may be not the existential crisis, but something else. Existential crisis is the good one, it means that you grown above your goals and now you can find new ones. But it feels bad, like any other crisis.

itchyjunk 9y ago
Could you elaborate on the "but something else" for lack of achievements? what are those and why are their lack a bad thing?
- ordu 9y ago
  I meant that psychologists distinguish one more crisis, which caused by a dissonance between great plans for a life of ~20 years old person and his/her real results at ~30. At this crisis people tends to make radical changes in their life and this crisis may look like existential, but it isn't. It has its own name, but I can't find it (I can literally translate from Russian and get "achievement crisis", but I cannot find it in Wikipedia, and too lazy to search other sources). So achievements are any objectives, which are significant for the person. The problem with this crisis is a relativity of the "lack of achievements". Life can be pretty good, but nevertheless worse than expected ten years ago. To be successful in my own eyes I need to accept my real performance in the real world, to rewrite my plans accordingly, and it can be a painful experience.

dbasedweeb 9y ago

I remember when I was young, it suddenly really hit me: I’m going to die. That means that for an eternity I’ll not exist in the same way I didn’t exist before I was born. How could that be?! I was terrified of non-existence, of the sheer length and breadth of it, and what it really meant. I can’t say that I’ve ever really gotten over it, but I live with it. At the time I could hardly sleep, I became anxious and depressed. To me, that’s the ultimate face of an existential crisis; confronting the reality of what our existence is. We’re almost unbelievably brief sparks in an endless darkness that didn’t notice our arrival and won’t notice our departure. What does it mean? Nothing really. For some I guess the solution is believing that they’ll live forever in one way or another. For me it meant not thinking about a grim reality that saps joy from life, and just focusing on the people I love, the time we have together. It might not be ideal, but it’s what we have. What is an existential crisis? IMO it’s what hits when you when reality starts to seep into you in some small way. Maybe it’s mortality, or the absurdity and arbitrary nature of human endeavors, or something else.

itchyjunk 9y ago
Edge of where our brain can function maybe.. not really equipped to figure it out yet.

pasbesoin 9y ago

Things were bad, but I had some hope for the future. Then physical changes (health) took away that hope. I went from stress and anxiety to existential crisis. Maybe this is too simple. Maybe it's precisely this simple.

sbinthree 9y ago

I found this very useful when going through my own existential crisis. [1]: http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10554 http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10554