When we feel like nothing we do in life matters, or that we have no purpose and are drifting aimlessly, or even that we have no hope for a positive or successful future; what do we do? How do we deal with these feelings, and what happens if they don’t go away? I will try to help with these questions with this post for those who struggle with them.

I will first start by introducing a bio-evolutionary concept that I learned about from the clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson; it is understood that the brain is made up of varying neurological structures that range in evolutionary age and function. Most notably, there is the lower brain, or brain stem, which governs automatic and autonomic bodily functions; the middle brain, or cerebellum, which governs muscle movement and action; and the higher brain, or cerebrum (most often associated with the larger cortex areas, or cortices), which govern higher order thinking, abstraction, and interpretation of stimuli.

Now what does this have to do with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and feelings of existential anxiety? In the fact that each part of the brain plays many important roles, including the assessment of our social status, our personal self-evaluation, our goal-orientation and achievement, and relation to a higher order of being. All these factors are interpreted by our minds, usually unconsciously, and thus generate an emotional response within us that tells us where we are in life, compared to where we think we should be. In other words, the brain interprets the presence of unpredictable circumstances (entropy) and our ability to adapt to them (evolutionary fit), and uses the biological signals of anxiety to show our lack of adaptability or fit; this anxiety places us in a stress state, which prepares us for a multitude of responses, albeit, at a high price of biological resources (stress and preparation is equal to aging). That is, being stressed, or preparing for fight/flight/freeze because we are uncertain and do not have enough information to formulate a more specific, adaptive response, places a very real biological burden on our minds and bodies, and can easily lead to burnout and demotivation if not addressed.

This is the biological basis for the underlying feelings of anxiety, aimless, uncertainty, depression, and hopelessness; if the brain (or our unconscious mind) interprets our circumstances as dire (regardless of how true this is in reality, only our interpretation) it represents this information in the form of negative emotion. In other words, if we are working towards a meaningful, productive, and responsible goal, our brain will interpret that as movement forwards, or as general progress, a sense of purpose or a pathway forward through adversity and uncertainty, and indicates this progress to us via positive emotion (being in a flow state, happiness and joy, a sense of accomplishment, meaning, satisfaction, and fulfillment in a goal or role). Conversely, when we are not working towards a goal, or have no goals at all, the brain represents this state to us as negative emotion; it can also be caused by a lack of purpose, or even general anxiety and uncertainty about the future. This can be summarized as a lack of hope or optimism, where we cannot mitigate the negative emotions of the present with the potential future pay-off of accomplishing our goals and improving ourselves and our lives, and the lives of those around us (family, community, province, etc.).

How does one recognize and address this? I use the example approach of CBT for two reasons, in conjunction with existential anxiety: first, because it is one of the most robust, concrete, and researched approach that most effectively demonstrates these concepts to us, and provides to tools to recognize and address these issues; and second, because the tools it offers directly affect our cognitions (thoughts) and behaviours (actions) and thus our feelings (emotions) about ourselves, the world, and the future. If were to look at this problem through an existential lens, such as Logotherapy, we would point out three areas for potential sources of meaning; creation, experience, and attitude. These same three areas would also be applicable through CBT, but would be represented more as concrete changes to thoughts, behaviours, and feelings, rather than abstractly as creating something or someone, experiencing something or someone, and having a particular attitude towards life and adversity, which can be vague when not applied to a specific individual’s circumstances.

So what would this change look like for each person? It would vary according to what they felt necessary to change in order to achieve the goal of reducing uncertainty or entropy, and replacing this uncertainty with certainty or purpose, or a higher orienting principle of thinking, behaving, or feeling, that guides them through this adversity and uncertainty in life. While this will be very different process for everyone, an example of a CBT technique addressing such an existential issue may be the following: an individual recognizes that they experience negative automatic thoughts about the futility of their future; despite this recognition, they struggle to address it concretely, rather than simply changing their attitude, such as with Logotherapy; to that extent, CBT techniques of challenging cognitive distortions would put forth concepts of recognizing polarized thinking (all-or-nothing, either-or), control fallacies, overgeneralization, and jumping to conclusions. In other words, assuming that life can only be one of two ways, and not recognizing the complexity that is inherent in existence; assuming that all aspects of life are within one’s control, or should be; generalizing the outcomes of one circumstances to others that are not related; and using this overgeneralization to more efficiently, but inaccurately, make quick decisions about what one should or should not do in life, and thus potentially missing opportunities that would otherwise be beneficial to our lives and health, but choosing not to see it or pursue it because of our assumptions of the outcomes.

With this post, though potentially vague or nebulous, I hope that some of the information imparted within is helpful to the people who chance to read this article; if anyone happens to observe these writings and wishes to learn more, or even to set out on their own journey of self-discovery, transformation, and transcendence, and to consolidate life’s entropy and their own feelings of anxiety, aimlessness and depression, they can do so through the right fit of psychotherapist!

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