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How do you deal with a existential crisis?

How to you come to terms with the fact that you will eventually not exist?

Rant: This has been keeping me up at night for way too long and every time I think about it I feel like am literally choking on my own thoughts. I have other shit to do but everything seems so inconsequential next to this. I just can’t comprehend why or how the universe even exists or how a bunch of atoms can think or that quantum mechanics literally revealed that the world is not loaded when you are not looking like how tf do you know that I am observing something.

Btw I am not looking for a purpose in life although this may be interpreted as me asking for that.

If anyone has the same problem as me good luck my friend just know that you are not alone.

MajorHavoc ,

I agree with many here in that I expect not to be any more inconvenienced by death than I was before I was born.

A thought that I appreciate that others haven’t mentioned is: The atoms that currently happen to think they’re me have previously thought they were a fish or a raccoon or a different person, or whatever, and they will, eventually, again.

Since my life is probably just ripples on a pond, I am motivated to, ideally, make an interesting, pleasant splash. I hope I’m remembered fondly for the brief time (cosmically) that I’m remembered at all.

I also hope (perhaps against reason) that humanity (and whatever replaces us) are growing more compassionate, so that whatever interesting form my current atoms might join next may also have a decent time, and have a chance to leave more pleasant memories in others.

(And hey, maybe there’s an afterlife. If so, maybe whoever runs it isn’t one of the assholes that the con artists tell us to expect. Or if they are one of those assholes we’ve been promised, maybe they can be distracted and assassinated. I plan to be ready to roll with it, just in case.)

CouncilOfFriends , (edited )

Really liked how you worded that. It reminded me of this video about afterlife I rewatch when I’m having an existential crisis. One quote from the video,

"Ironically enough the only part of me that is immortal, for all intents and purposes, is my material body. Because after I die, and after our Sun dies, and after the planetary nebula it leaves behind fades away, every atom of me will be recycled back into the universe. Ultimately becoming part of other planets and stars. We are originally star dust literally, and we will be star dust again."

  • Cristina Rad
joucker29 OP ,

I haven’t thought about the fact that I (what makes me up) might someday be reborn into another form in this way. It is a really comforting realasion l do thank you.

spitz ,
@spitz@lemmy.ml avatar

The thing that helped me was “let go or be dragged”.

Death will happen whether I stress out about it or not. Stressing about it just contaminates the time you have. So I gradually learned to focus more on the “isn’t existence weird?!” than “death is coming”. And when you really get into the swing of it, your limited time becomes timeless.

RizzRustbolt ,

With the knowledge that all of the matter that makes up me existed before I was me. And that after I’m gone, that matter will continue to exist as something else.

WarmSoda ,

You’ve already not existed before. And then you were born.

agitatedpotato ,

I miss the nothing, what I ended up with here isn’t better, and damn sure isn’t as peaceful.

WarmSoda ,

You’ll be back there eventually, don’t worry.
Make the best of what you have in the mean time.

MONKEYHOG ,

What’s the point of worrying about it. It’s inevitable, and when it happens you’ll not care because you won’t be able to. So what does it matter

newIdentity ,

I used to think a lot about this and came to the terms that I just need to enjoy my life now. Not sometimes in the future. I don’t want to die with a bunch of regrets. My life could end at any moment so does it really matter.

You read it and might understand what I mean, but you don’t really have the same Realisation as me.

This post probably won’t have an impact on anyone. But it might. Maybe someday someone will stumble upon one of my comments or posts and it will change their life for the better. That’s also why I didn’t delete my Reddit account with thousands of comments.

This is already way to long and I need to end this.

TL;DR Enjoy life while you can and don’t try to worry about the end too much. Life is to short to live in fear of death

Varyk ,

I spent a lot of time as a child thinking about this.

I came to the conclusion that there’s not much I can do about it, so I’ll enjoy life while I can, although I am going to enlist in cryonics just in case.

IzzyData ,
@IzzyData@lemmy.ml avatar

I think you will need to make the transition from negative nihilism to positive nihilism.

Aside from that I don’t think I’m really convinced that interpreting the quantum wave function collapse when observed as the world not being loaded when you aren’t looking at it is accurate. Even our best explanations could likely be a misinterpretation of what is really happening.

This channel is great by the way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP6iyVJ70OU

Okkai ,

Rant:

I had a pretty intense acid trip once and came to the conclusion that nothing matters, there is no meaning to life, there is only an illusion of free will, and most likely our existence and personal experiences in life will be completely forgotten within 3 generations (almost like we never existed to begin with). I was super duper depressed after that for several months.

It eventually gave me a different outlook on life though. If it’s only temporary and there is no meaning, I can create my own meaning and enjoyment in life. Live in the moment, do what you want, and create as much meaning and enjoyment for yourself as you can while you have the opportunity. Don’t worry about what others might think because eventually their existence is going to be forgotten as well.

The act of dying might suck, but being dead and not existing seems very serene. Sometimes things just sort of end.

Muetzenman ,
@Muetzenman@feddit.de avatar

For me death is what gives life a meaning. No game is fun if you have to play it forever, no quest can be finished no boss is ever defeted. Things need to end. That is how Evolution works things have to change or everything is just frozen in time. The difficulty of decissions comes from their finality. You cant go back to school. You can’t go back and ask this person out. So your life might be meaningless in the grand scheme of it all but it metters in the short period of our existence. Does it really matter if you stand up each morning? It actually does.

WhatDoYouMeanPodcast ,
@WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net avatar

“Glorified Pokemon snap with rougelike elements. Fix your dogshit game, Nintendo”

confluence ,

I remember that I didn’t exist before and that was fine.

A touch of humility helps too… why should I get benefits that beetles and dogs don’t?

Life only exists because of death. I wouldn’t want to take life away from the world by avoiding something I’m not meant to avoid.

Godric ,

I dont think anyone can exist without taking life from the world. Each meal is taking life away from this world, even vegans deny a seed a chance to become a plant, or injure a plant by harvesting it.

confluence ,

Yes, and so I must give it back.

mrcleanup ,

Try to remember, you have not existed before, this isn’t something new.

And the fact that nothing matters means that we get to choose what matters ourselves, it could be money, fame, competence, love. You get to choose what to invest your time in and your choices will change the world bit by bit.

What kind of world do you want to help create?

1984 ,
@1984@lemmy.today avatar

This is like me at 20. :)

sours ,

I’ve been forced to exist and not exist. THAT’S TWO WHOLE THINGS. I Didn’t even wanna do one thing! Someone has to pay for this! I wanna speak to a manager.

mrcleanup ,

You are not alone, some people believe that at the very end instead of ceasing to exist, you do, in fact, get to speak to the manager.

mojo ,

I think of how small I am in the universe. We’re all just memories at the end of the day, so try to leave nice ones.

Godthrilla ,

Just enjoy the ride my friend. You are the product of such a mind bogglingly large sum of coincidence. You GET to exist. There are an infinity of combinations of atoms that never got to have self awareness. You. Won. Now do with it as you will. Life is shit, but it’s far better than to never have gotten the chance to interact with the most incredible MMORPG that an infinite universe can scribe on a sea of chaos for you.

strawberry ,
@strawberry@artemis.camp avatar

heh I juet dont

spittingimage ,
@spittingimage@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve never been afraid of death and non-existence, I’ve only been afraid of dying without having done or experienced as much as I could. Now that I’ve travelled, made friends, made art, been in relationships and worked and played beside passionate people, I feel like I’ve done things with my time. I don’t want it to end but I’m not afraid of it ending, either.

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