Existential Crisis and Purpose of Life Journey to find the purpose of life has been the greatest and the most fertile existential need of human beings. Call it an existential crisis, existential angst, or feeling of meaninglessness, it has been a fundamental and inseparable aspect of humanity. Most existentialists have considered it to be the quintessential symptom or ailment of the modern age. The realization of the fragility and vulnerability of life can be too devastating to cause anxiety and depression but at the same time, it gives us the opportunity to introspect and seek a meaningful life and authentic wholeness. For existentialists, an existential crisis is a journey, an awareness, a necessary experience, and a complex phenomenon. An existential crisis often provoked by a significant event in the person's life like— 1. Psychological trauma 2. Chronic illness 3. Marriage, separation, major loss, the death of a loved one 4. A life-threatening experience 5. Psychoactive drug use 6. Adult children leaving home 7. Reaching a personally significant age (turning 18, turning 40) In other words, the existential crisis occurs when your worldview — the thing that gives your life meaning and structure — is completely broken. Symptomatically an existential crisis can be similar to depression and anxiety. You might lose interest in your favorite activities, be tired, feel hopeless, or have a persistent feeling of sadness. Viktor Emil Frankl, an Austrian neurologist psychiatrist, an existentialist, and a holocaust survivor, was the founder of logotherapy (literally "healing through meaning"). The theory is founded on the belief that human nature is motivated by the search for a life purpose. He is the author of the best-selling book ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps. Instead of considering the success of his book as ‘personal achievement’, he saw it as a symptom of the "mass neurosis of modern times”. According to Frankl, "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or accomplishing a task (2) by experiencing something fully or loving someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering" and that "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances". Crisis attracts negative emotions - worthlessness, nihilism, meaninglessness, void, and many more on the list. This pool of negative emotions can overburden you and drags you down. It's none but your responsibility to take yourself out of this loop of these negative emotions. Consciously observe and break the patterns in your life that are no longer serving you. Put yourself together, find out what makes your life worth living, and start doing it now. As it is very well said by someone, “The wound is probably not your fault, but your healing is your responsibility”. Source 1. https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2020/09/03/existential-crisis/ admin (2020-09-03). "Existential Crisis - What You Need to Know, Definition, Meaning, Symptom". Addiction Now | Substance Abuse, Drug Addiction and Recovery News Source. 2. Frankl, Viktor (1 June 2006). Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-1427-1.
