What is existential emptiness?

Existential emptiness can be defined as a state that afflicts people at a certain time in their lives. In general, it arises during a period marked by changes in one's life, such as a process of readjustment in which the person needs to move house or go through a new routine.

In addition, existential emptiness is also marked by constant dilemmas, which make the individual think constantly and also feel a lot of insecurity and anxiety. This is a feeling that tends to interfere in the daily lives of people, because they feel aimless and completely dominated by their own emotions. Want to know more about what is existential emptiness? Check out this article!

Causes of existential emptiness

As previously introduced, existential emptiness is a state that reaches people at some point in their lives and is marked by symptoms such as insecurity, anxiety, among others. It has some causes that you will know below!

Significant Events

The occurrence of significant events in the life of an individual can be one of the causative factors of existential emptiness. The context is something that influences considerably in the emergence of this emptiness, because it has a huge weight at the time when this feeling manifests itself.

Many people even experience negative impacts on their emotions on a daily basis. They are more prone to develop existential emptiness, because the events that negatively mark the individual's life tend to make them feel that nothing makes sense.

Depression

Depression is also a condition that can cause existential emptiness in people. It can be defined as a psychological disorder that is widespread in today's society and is characterized by a lasting sadness and loss of interest in activities that were once considered pleasurable by the individual.

Although it is normal to feel sad from time to time, in cases of depression this negative feeling is more intense and lasts longer. This ends up affecting the person's life in all areas, making everyday tasks such as eating and sleeping, for example, much more difficult.

Self-disposal

One of the causes of existential emptiness is self-alienation, that is, the person feels strange with himself. This happens due to the individual's effort to suppress certain emotions. It is even possible to hide certain feelings, but they will never disappear from his life, because they are part of the essence of the human being.

The more you try to suppress your own feelings, the more they will become tied up in your mind, and they will slowly take over you. As a consequence, a feeling of inner emptiness arises, which is something quite common in people who have not lived in contexts where they have had the freedom to express their emotions.

Not having self-knowledge

Self-knowledge is a fundamental tool for the life of every person, as it provides a clearer vision of oneself. This is important for life as a whole, as it enables the individual to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, and also their limits.

Freedom of choice and conscious planning of the future are also benefits that self-knowledge brings. From the moment an individual starts to question himself about who he really is and tries hard to find out what makes him feel incomplete, things can change.

Search for external solutions

Many people don't know this, but happiness or the reason for your existence should not be sought externally, in the universe. What makes you happy is within you, so knowing yourself is an important tool to discover what your purpose is and not keep searching in vain for what can make you feel whole.

What people need is to understand that they are unique, in all aspects, they have a singular story, in which they are the protagonists. Therefore, it is of fundamental importance that they do not seek something external, because happiness and the reason for their existence are within themselves.

Lack of connection

One of the first things that the individual with existential emptiness should do is to try to improve the vision he has of himself and give more meaning to his own life. Finding a purpose for existence is something that helps to fill this feeling of emptiness. From this, he should go on to the next steps.

There are other ways to understand and also get rid of this feeling of existential emptiness. Therapy is something that will help you a lot in this process, because it provides self-knowledge. Therefore, it is essential that you seek the help of a qualified professional as soon as possible.

Symptoms of existential emptiness

Existential emptiness is a state of the human mind that also has some symptoms. Among them, we can mention the isolation of the social context, pessimistic and negative thoughts, lack of will, among others. Check in more detail below!

Insulation

Isolation from social life is one of the characteristic symptoms of existential crisis. Due to the fact that the mind is confused, the individual tries to isolate himself, seeking a way to balance his own thoughts. This causes him to lose the will to participate in social activities with friends and family.

People with existential emptiness tend to want to stay in bed, listening to a song or watching something, instead of doing some activity that requires contact with other people. This social isolation inhibits any possibility of getting out of this existential crisis, which makes the individual stay stuck in it.

Negativity

Negativity is also one of the factors that arise from a feeling of existential emptiness. Existential crises usually cause a sense of discouragement in the individual, causing him to feed negative thoughts. Since the person cannot identify what is actually causing the crisis, doubt causes him to feed pessimistic ideas.

With this, the individual begins to have a series of thoughts about his own life, questioning himself about various things and about his own values. However, many times, concrete answers to these questions are lacking, which causes anguish.

Lack of will and energy

People who are going through an existential crisis go through moments when they have no desire to do almost anything, except remain isolated. Activities that once provided smiles and pleasure, now no longer make sense and these people prefer to be alone.

Besides the will, people who are in an existential crisis also lack the necessary energy to get out of this situation. Therefore, it is fundamental that whoever identifies these characteristics in someone, tries to help this person, through dialogue and even leading him/her to specialized medical treatment.

Constant questioning

In general, existential emptiness is caused by situations of strong emotional impact on the individual such as, for example, the loss of a job desired for years, the death of a very dear person, the end of a long-lasting love relationship, among other factors.

These facts make the individual start asking himself a series of questions, trying to understand what went wrong in the process so that everything was destroyed in the blink of an eye. He starts asking himself from the simplest questions to the most complex ones.

Anxiety

Anxiety is also among the main symptoms of existential crisis. The individual becomes full of doubts about what to do before events that impacted his emotions and cause a sense of fear and uncertainty about the future.

The person who feels existential emptiness is often stricken by a feeling of loneliness and becomes bewildered, not knowing what to do. The main reason for this is the anxiety about what will be from now on and the uncertainty of what comes next. This generates intense emotional suffering.

Mental exhaustion

Mental exhaustion is one of the main signs of existential crisis. It occurs due to the large amount of negative thoughts that are fed during this mental state. Just as muscles feel exhausted after intense physical activity, the mind also feels tired after situations of strong emotional impact.

Therefore, what needs to be done is a pause in the mind, so that it can recompose the energies. If this does not happen, some consequences will arise, such as the increase of stress, which can trigger a series of diseases, both physical and mental.

Sleep problems

Some problems related to the quality of sleep can arise due to existential crises. This happens because the individual who is suffering from an existential emptiness also suffers from mood swings, anxiety and also nervousness, which are evils that directly interfere with the quality of sleep.

The pictures vary from person to person, but in general, the individual with existential crisis tends to suffer from both insomnia and excessive sleep. Besides, as an indirect consequence of the lack of sleep, the person may suffer from other problems.

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are mainly caused by psychological factors, so people who suffer from an existential emptiness tend to present these problems. Eating disorders such as anorexia, vigorexia and bulimia can arise in the life of individuals who are going through an existential crisis.

The problem of existential emptiness resembles the eating disorder in a fundamental aspect: both are directly related to the way the individual sees himself. Therefore, it is important that from the moment the person sees himself in this state, he should seek a health professional.

Low self-esteem

Self-esteem is an extremely important factor for the life of human beings, because it concerns the way they see themselves, and this interferes in several areas of people's lives. If she sees herself in a negative way, soon she will not have confidence in the academic environment, nor in the professional, and will see their goals become more distant.

Moreover, low self-esteem interferes with the way people relate to each other. Therefore, it is important to deal with existential crisis before you lose valuable things because of low self-esteem in your life.

Solitude

The feeling of loneliness is also a remarkable characteristic of existential crises. The individual feels alone, but this is only a consequence of another symptom of existential emptiness, which is isolation on the part of the individual. However, it is still possible to highlight that even when accompanied, the person feels alone.

This is due to the fact that the emotional impact on her due to some event has been so strong that she feels that nothing can fill the emptiness she is feeling. Loneliness is seen by people in existential crisis as a way of trying to assimilate everything that is happening.

Dependency

Emotional dependency is one of the symptoms of existential crisis and is characterized by a strong affective bond that occurs from interpersonal relationships, whether they are love, family or friendship. Emotionally dependent people cannot live well without the target of their dependency by their side.

The emotionally dependent individual places all of his expectations in another person in order for that person to fill a void in him, because he is in an unbridled search for completeness. What should be done is to seek a health professional so that the mind's attentions can be turned to another focus.

Panic crisis

Panic attacks are anxiety-related disorders characterized by the occurrence of unexpected crises. Fear, insecurity and despair at the moment of a panic attack are among the main symptoms of this problem. Besides psychological symptoms, these anxiety attacks also cause physical symptoms.

The person who suffers from a panic crisis also has difficulty in performing day-to-day tasks, besides being constantly worried about the occurrence of a new crisis, which can happen even during sleep.

How to deal with existential emptiness

Existential voids cause a number of consequences for the individual, not only for the mind but also for the body. So if you are suffering or know someone who is going through this, be very aware of the measures for combating existential crises below!

Knowing that you know nothing

From the moment the individual recognizes that he does not know anything, he becomes able to seek knowledge stripped of his preconceived notions. This also makes him see that he has no control over many of the circumstances that surround him, this helps to reduce the weight of guilt that is on him.

Having this view brings a certain comfort to the life of those who suffer from an existential emptiness. Therefore, keeping in mind that everything you have now can go away helps you not to suffer with the feeling of existential emptiness when something happens. After all, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow.

It's part of the human condition

Existential emptiness is a feeling that makes people feel they are completely alone in a crowd, however, it is necessary to recognize that this is one of the intrinsic traits in human beings. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that the feeling that something is missing is something that is part of human nature.

From the moment the individual recognizes this, he should start trying to understand the reason for this emptiness and not simply ignore that it exists. The feeling of not belonging to something is one of the factors that cause existential emptiness, however, incompleteness is something that connects people, because they feel that they are not the only ones to feel it.

Welcoming the existential emptiness

The fear of emptiness is something natural for human beings, not least due to the fact that one of mankind's greatest fears is loneliness. However, instead of running away from it, what should be done is to meet this emotion. As some experts believe, acquiring self-knowledge helps to fill the feeling of emptiness within the human heart.

After getting to know oneself a little more and meeting the fear in order to face it, the individual starts to deal better with the emptiness he feels and tends to have more balance in his own conceptions.

Accepting emotions

Accepting emotions is an important step in dealing with existential emptiness. This is done from the moment you come into contact with the meaninglessness of life, when it manifests itself. It is essential to set aside all fears and doubts that come to the surface.

What you need to do the moment the doubts come is to look at them without making any kind of prior judgment or devising ways to deal with them. If you do this, you will end up bringing thoughts that are hidden in the subconscious into the conscious sphere.

Forgiving emotions

Emotions are not tangible, so the question arises, "how do you forgive your own emotions since they have no consciousness?" Although it is not the ideal measure because it involves judging the emotions, forgiving them is necessary. This is done from the moment you understand that you are a human being and that you have the right to feel emotions such as anger and distress.

They are part of your nature, so however much you feel them because of existential emptiness, don't judge yourself, feeling them is something that is part of human beings, you are not alone and you should not feel guilty for feeling them.

Writing feelings

If you feel at ease, a good method to give vent to the feelings that are overflowing in you is to write them down. Many people consider this as something of little importance because they don't know that this is an exercise of self-knowledge, since its purpose is to show what is inside of you.

This can also help you to draw up an action plan if you wish to make a transformation in your life. From the moment you really know what is inside you, you will be able to act with more clarity.

Accept the lack of answers

There are some questions that are too complex to be answered, so it is important to accept that not all questions have answers. Questions like "Who am I? What is my purpose? What is the meaning of everything?" show that you are not an empty person.

Therefore, it is important to understand that not all your questions will be answered. Life is not like a discursive exam where you cannot leave questions blank because you will lose points. So, keep your mind at peace in the knowledge that there are things that simply do not need to be understood.

Seek professional help

In fact, this is the first measure that should be taken in cases of existential crisis. You should consult a psychologist, these professionals have the necessary skills to intervene in your condition in the best possible way, so that you fully recover and can live in peace.

Therefore, if you feel that your emptiness is only increasing more and more, seek the help of a professional. Psychologists are people with the sensitivity and knowledge necessary to deal with these situations.

How is it possible to fill the existential emptiness?

First, to get out of the state of existential emptiness, you must start going for things and adopting behaviors that are good for your mental health. Unfortunately, people who are going through an existential crisis tend to adopt self-destructive habits to deal with the pain.

This makes them even more emotionally fragile. From the moment a person starts to feel empty, what they should seek to do are things that generate pleasure. For this, it is necessary to seek new experiences, be close to the people they love or even change cities. This depends on the particularity of each person.