Existential Crisis & Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Scale of Similarities
- Michael Nwadinso Okoro
- Feb 5, 2023
- 3 min read
In today's world, there are a couple of things that have gone wrong in the health and mentality of humans. Humans have come to know of health issues that did not seem to be prevalent in the past. Somehow, it feels like the ecosystem grows into something good with an adverse effect that follows it closely. On the grounds of things that did not seem to be prevalent in the past, there is post-traumatic stress disorder and existential crisis.
Written By: Michael Nwadinso Okoro February 5th, 2023
An existential crisis can be defined or described as persistent negative feelings and emotions linked to wondering about the inherent meaning of life. The phrase comes from a school of philosophy known as existentialism which focuses on exploring the meaning of human existence and creating a unique purpose in a world that often feels purposeless.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that sometimes occurs in humans who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being. Examples include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying.
While the existential crisis revolves around the inherent meaning of life, PTSD revolves around traumatic experiences. The two health issues have different meanings, but some things happen to a posttraumatic stress disorder patient that also happens to someone having an existential crisis. It is necessary to know that there are some misconceptions that people have concerning both of them which are not supposed to be. One of the most known misconceptions about posttraumatic stress disorder is that it does not exist in reality, and another is that it only happens to soldiers or people in war zones. For existential crisis, people think is not worthy to be called a crisis.
As stated earlier, there are similarities between the two health issues and this piece is aimed at pointing them out to the public eye. The book "Posttraumatic stress disorder fallacy" by Nattanya Andersen, showcases the author's personal experience and how most psychologists and psychiatrists mistake PTSD to be a mental health issue instead of referring to it as an issue of existential crisis. The author's perspective did revolve around the scope of existentialism, and she believed that the treatment that she received during her time as a patient was out of place.
When someone has an existential crisis, they begin to question the meaning of their life. The crisis tends to happen when the victim has experienced something tragic which is also the same way it happens for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. The one common similarity between the two of them is that they are triggered, and negative occasions trigger each of them. Thus, it is not out of place to say that a traumatic experience that triggers PTSD can also have the tendency of causing an existential crisis. Secondly, the symptoms of both issues are almost the same. An existential crisis victim feels anxious which is almost the same as the sensitivity against a danger that a PTSD patient exhibits. A PTSD patient will likely exhibit the symptom of always being on guard for the fear of falling into something dangerous. While an existential crisis or existential dread patient will continuously have relationship conflicts or doubts about relationships, a PTSD patient will likely have difficulty maintaining close relationships. There are many other symptoms out there on both issues that are somewhat similar, but the biggest similarity they both have is their effect on the human mind.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one should not keep silent about a traumatic experience because silence will cause more harm than good to the human mind. A posttraumatic stress disorder patient and an existential crisis victim will both exhibit the same kind of symptoms which is why they can be sometimes confused for the other. The goal is to be healthy and stay away from all forms of things that will prompt trauma.
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