I exist because I think too much

I seem to have an existential crisis every other week. At least I’m not alone. Someone in the Guardian asked, “What is an existential crisis?”

One brain box answered:

It’s what happens when the foundation of one’s most basic assumptions ( i.e. what one is living for, who one is, etc) is eroded to the point that nothing stands on it any longer. Once this happens, the person realises their entire life has been lived in falsehood, because what they were living for (if anything) was an empty purpose. This is what is called despair.

Now if you find yourself in this position, there are three things you can do (paraphrasing Kierkegaard here):

1. Attempt to continually distract yourself so that you never have to face the fact that your life stands for nothing.

2. Attempt to create a new purpose through right living, or

3. Attempt to find a new purpose in something external to yourself.

There is a fourth option, but I don’t recommend it, declare yourself an existential cartoonist, start a blog that nobody reads, and count the days until your wife kicks you out of the house.