Not many of us have heard of existential anxiety, but many of us experience it every day. According to Zia Sherrell, MPH, existential anxiety is “a feeling of dread or panic that arises when a person confronts the limitations of their existence”. Existential thoughts are those that focus on the meaning and purpose of life and mortality. Thoughts that trigger existential anxiety include those of death, the meaningless of life, or the insignificance of self. They can be positive or negative, however, people may perceive them as negative because they highlight the vulnerability of life. Let’s take Sofia, Sarah, and Josh, for example.
Sofia wakes up in the morning and begins to worry about all the things that may go wrong throughout the day. “How many customers will reject me?” “What will my colleagues think of me?” “Do my friends really like me?” “Who are my true friends in this world?” Sofia eventually makes it to work after stopping for a cup of coffee. By 11 am, she is ready for another cup of coffee, and she is stressed out about work and anxious about her friends and performance.
Across the hall from Sofia is Sarah, her boss. Of course, Sofia cannot read Sarah’s mind (although she wishes she could), and Sarah is wondering whether her employees like her, how she can increase company sales, and whether she should take a day off, or just keep working to continually increase sales and profits. Outside, Sarah looks confident and happy, inside she feels lonely and stressed.
Josh is not sure whether people like his presentations at work – are they too long? Too boring? Did he speak too quickly? The list of doubts is endless, questions abound. Josh gets home from a long day of work and wants to spend time with his 4-year-old daughter, but he cannot get his mind off work.
One therapeutic intervention that can help combat existential anxiety is group therapy. Groups focused on this issue usually take a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach to challenge anxious thoughts. CBT can also be useful and essential in combating daily anxiety other than those triggered by existential thoughts. Another therapeutic intervention used to mitigate these anxieties, often caused by overwhelming feelings associated with daily life stressors that we cannot change and therefore need to learn to accept, is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
By confronting existential thoughts such as ‘What is the purpose of all of this?’, ‘Why do we work so hard?’, ‘What are my priorities in life?’, and ‘What can I do today so that I do not have regrets in the future?’, we can alleviate anxiety and give our lives more meaning. We need to know our values and ensure that the decisions we are making today and the lives that we are living now are in consonance with our values. While existential anxiety can make life more challenging, it can also be a catalyst for growth and change.
In order to find out more about your experience relative to existential anxiety, or anxiety and stress related to feeling a lack of purpose, joining our group surrounding these needs is a good first step to discovering greater life meaning and therefore satisfaction. Challenge yourself to use these distressful thoughts and emotions to grow into your sense of purpose, and begin confronting the things that otherwise mentally exhaust and paralyze you. By doing so in a group therapy setting, you will deepen your own understanding of self and your connection to others as the group dynamic and interpersonal experience represents a social microcosm of the real world that we face every day.
Our group therapy, “Confronting Stress, Anxiety, and Existential Angst”, is now available weekly on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM at our Fire Mesa office. Learn more and sign up here.