What is an existential crisis?

Are you having one?

Lately, I've heard a lot of people throw around the phrase "existential crisis." As an existential psychotherapist, I am stoked. It's time we started to discuss this widespread but serious (and at times painful or scary) experience.

Although a common phrase often used during the punchline of a joke, let's first clarify what it actually means to have an existential crisis.

To have an existential crisis means to painfully grapple with our existence and its meaning. People find themselves trying to answer: Why am I here? And, Who am I? It's the moment when you face the absurdity (and, arguably, inherent meaninglessness) of life. When you start to worry that life is pointless and nothing matters.

Sound familiar?

Yes? I’ve been there.