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How do you deal with “existential anxiety”? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/autisticandadhd@lemmy.world
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I guess the feeling that there needs to be a purpose, that there has to be a “goal.” I struggle with days off work, because I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. I worry that I’m a failure across my life, I don’t know what it means to have done my life “right.”

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[–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

i realized "the meaning of life" is essentially a christian concept disguised as something universal and stopped worrying. "life is useless", as ailton krenak would say -- usefulness is a property of things, not people, after all

i have a different kind of dread: my own mortality. it comes every once in a while and i just wait for the dread to go away

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    It's fun because it's the contrary to me. It's Christianity that made me understand that my life has no meaning, no goal, and that it's okay: God is the master, he already redeemed the world in Jesus, the evil is already vanquished (even if obviously not dead yet, just like a dead wounded boar which is even more dangerous because it has nothing left to loose). I have nothing to do. It's fear of being unworthy that makes me want to “merit” my life; but the Bible teach that life is a gift freely given. There's no merit to search, and my worthiness is not losable. I just try to be the best person I can be, not to look for a reward of any kind, but just because it's the right thing to do. And my numerous failures will never make me a failure. Christian or not, it's hard for everyone: nobody's a failure.

    But, to be honest, most Evangelicals wouldn't recognize me as a Christian anymore, especially the American one, from what I understood.

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