Do existential questions push us into a hopeless mood, or do we turn to these questions because we have difficulty keeping our mood good?
Existential crises occur when the individual asks "Who am I?" These are times that create intense confusion in the mind while trying to find and solve the answer to the question, and also lead the person to intense anxiety. Experiencing an existential crisis is a part of being alive when considered developmentally; Whether we are in adolescence, adulthood or middle adulthood, we find ourselves searching for answers to different questions at different periods of our lives and sometimes we find ourselves starting to work on an important life task to avoid negative answers or consequences to these questions; "who am I"?.
We can divide this developmentally painful process into three periods: Sophomore Crisis, Adult Existential Crisis, and Later Existential Crisis. The second grade crisis covers the period from late adolescence to the early 20s and concerns the issues with which individuals struggle most: identity issues, choosing a career, establishing successful relationships, and life in general. Adult Existential Crisis is the period in the mid-to-late 20s when individuals consider questions such as: Am I religious or not, in addition to the issues involved in the sophomore crisis? How do I confront my sexual identity? Am I independent? , am I addicted? , or am I interdependent? Later existential crisis occurs in late adulthood and people may be struggling with problems such as illness, physical pain, and fear of impending death, but the later existential crisis is not specifically about solving these problems but rather about wanting to improve one's life. Specifically, it involves thoughts of crisis, morality, legacy, and success.
When a person is experiencing an existential crisis, different emotional, cognitive and behavioral components are important. The person emotionally: intense feelings such as emotional pain, anxiety and loneliness, impaired sense of integrity, hopelessness, helplessness, emotional vulnerability, guilt, fear can survive somehow. In the cognitive context: loss of meaning, loss of purpose, loss of personal values, difficulty in decision-making may be experienced. In the behavioral context, behavioral symptoms such as rituals, loss of relationships, health problems, restrictive actions, addictions, antisocial behavior and the need for therapy can be observed.
Although existential crises are a fact of life, they can occur for different reasons, for example, a loved one. loss of a person, the end of a relationship, birth or death of a family member, sudden changes in our lives, such as work or moving to a different place. It is important to resolve these crises because, unfortunately, the anxiety will not completely disappear until the crisis is acknowledged and addressed or resolved. If you are now wondering “Who am I?” If you are asking yourself questions such as “Why am I here?”, “Why am I doing this job?”, “What will happen next?”, I have a question for you: “Why now?”.
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