- Hey everybody, today I'm gonna answer the question,
what is an existential crisis
and how can it feel to those, who are going through it
and most importantly, what are some tips
we can use to better overcome it?
(light upbeat music)
And like I said, I wanna get into the habit
of defining things, before I talk about them any further,
so let's define what an existential crisis is
and Wikipedia defines it as
a moment at which an individual questions
the very foundations of their life,
whether this life has any meaning, purpose or value.
So you can see why an existential crisis
could be completely debilitating, it would be hard
to go about your normal day and daily activities in general,
if the whole time you're just thinking,
"Does this even have any meaning or any purpose?
"why am I here, am I even really here, who am I?"
You can see that could make that pretty hard.
An existential crisis is often triggered
by a significant life event, like losing a loved one
and this event will cause us to either look into the purpose
of our overall life or even consider our own mortality
and because of that, it's often found in conjunction
or comorbid, meaning happening together
with depression or thoughts of suicide,
because if we wonder what our purpose is
and we're feeling like we don't even know
the meaning of life anymore,
you can see how that can kind of go
hand-in-hand with depression,
feeling like we don't really have any interest
in the things we used to have interest in
or we're just kind of feeling hopeless
and terrible about life in general.
Jim Carrey was recently interviewed on a red carpet,
I believe at the New York Fashion Week
and you can hear from him his experience
of what sounds like an existential crisis,
a lot of people talked about this like he was very odd
or something was wrong with him and he was sick
and because he has a history of depression,
a lot of people were concerned that he's not doing well,
but if you read reports after,
he said that he feels the best he's ever felt,
although he also said
he wasn't on anti-depressant medication anymore
and he wasn't seeing his therapist,
so we aren't really sure,
but I wanna show you a little clip of this,
because I think it helps paint a better picture
of what this can look and feel like
to someone going through it.
- Wait, tell me, is it true you're wandering the streets,
you need a date to the party, what's up?
- No, no, no, I'm doing just fine,
I just, you know, there's no meaning to any of this,
so I wanted to find the most meaningless thing,
that I could come to and join
and here I am.
- There's some-- - I mean, you've gotta admit,
it's completely meaningless.
- Well, they say they're celebrating icons inside,
do you believe them? - Celebrating icons,
boy, that is just the absolute, lowest aiming,
you know, possibility, that we could come up with,
it's like icons, what do you, do you believe in icons?
- I-- - I believe in personalities,
I don't believe that you exist,
but there is a wonderful fragrance in the air.
- You don't believe certain icons
have the power to make change, to think differently,
to be bold, to inspire others' artistry, you're one of them.
- On the good foot, hah!
Yeah, he shut her down now.
Yeah, no, I, I don't believe in icons,
I don't believe in personalities,
I believe that peace lies beyond personality,
beyond invention of the skies,
beyond the red S that you wear on your chest,
that makes bullets bounce off,
I believe that it's deeper than that,
I believe we're a field of energy dancing for itself
and...
I don't care.
- But Jim, you got really dressed up for the occasion,
you look good.
- No, I didn't get dressed up. - Is that an accident?
- I didn't get dressed up-- - Who did?
- There is no me.
- There's no you? - No.
- We're not here, this is a dream?
- There's just things happening
and there are clusters of tetrahedrons
moving around together.
- Okay, - Yeah.
- So what's happening in our world right now,
'cause there is a lot of news that actually is relevant,
that's not that uplifting. - Yeah,
here's the thing, it's not our world,
that's the key. - None of this is real?
- Nope, nope, we don't matter.
- So we're just passing through?
- We don't matter. - Oh, wow.
- There's the good news. - Okay.
- And overall, there isn't like a quick fix
to make an existential crisis go away,
but what I would encourage you to do,
if you feel that you're struggling with this now
is to instead of consider,
"What's the meaning of all this and what's the purpose?"
I would focus in on, what has been your purpose,
what fills you up, what are things that make you feel
good about who you are, even if that's changing,
because maybe our, you know, focus has shifted
due to this crisis, whatever it is,
if that's painting, if that's you know, going for a run,
meeting a new friend, petting a dog,
taking a trip, whatever it is,
I want you to consider what fills you up
and makes you feel better
and use this crisis, this significant life event,
that triggered it to motivate you to do that more.
This video has been brought to you
by Patreon, if you would like to support
the creation of these mental health videos,
click the link in the description and check it out
and I challenge you, share in the Comments,
what's one thing that you get really, really excited about
and then I want you to do it,
sometime during this week, I want you to do it
and then I want you to let us know
how it made you feel,
because together we can feel better,
we can overcome an existential crisis
and work towards a healthy mind and a healthy body
and I will see you next time, bye.