10 Totally Real Ways to Deal with Your Crushing Existential Dread

1. Pretend You’re a Hero in a Meaningless Universe (Camus Style)

Nothing matters? Fine. Pretend you’re a stubborn hero anyway.

Push your rock up the hill. Scowl at the gods. Write bad poetry.

Meaning is a lie? Good. That means you’re free to invent your own.

2. Take a Blind Leap into Something Arbitrary (Kierkegaard’s Solution)

You’re paralyzed because every path looks equally meaningless?

Great news: pick one. Choose something — anything — and commit like your life depends on it.

(Kierkegaard called it “faith”; you might call it “joining a really weird hobby group.”)

3. Meditate Until You Realize Nothing Was Ever Solid Anyway (Buddhism)

Hint: your suffering might not be about “meaninglessness.”

It might be because you think things are supposed to be permanent.

Sit quietly. Watch your thoughts rise and fall. Laugh when you realize you’re no more real than yesterday’s weather.

4. Build a Fortress of Tiny Daily Rituals (Marcus Aurelius’ Grindset)

When the big questions melt your brain, zoom in.

Make your bed. Go for a walk. Answer the hard email.

The emperor of Rome didn’t beat existential terror with armies — he did it with habit, duty, and mild stoicism.

5. Write a Novel (or a Bad Blog Post) About It (Nietzsche’s Eternal Return)

Suppose you had to live your exact same life forever, again and again. Would you scream — or write a novel about it?

Nietzsche thought the way out was creative affirmation: don’t escape your life — compose it.

(Warning: your first draft will suck.)

6. Assume Everyone Else Is Just As Lost (Because They Are)

That person who looks like they have it together? They’re screaming inside too.

Philosophers just had the decency to admit it out loud.

Congratulations: you’re not broken. You’re just awake.

7. Laugh at the Cosmic Joke (Zen Buddhism’s Better Punchline)

You’re alive, clinging to a ball of rock, spinning at 1000 miles per hour, circling a giant ball of fire.

You think that’s not a cosmic joke?

Learn to laugh at it. Real laughter. The kind that costs you something. That’s wisdom.

8. Build Something You Know Will Decay Anyway (Sisyphus’ Revenge)

Everything you build will fall apart.

The sandcastle collapses. The empire crumbles. The startup fails.

Do it anyway. Build beautifully. Build stupidly. Build lovingly.

Your rebellion against meaninglessness is your meaning.

9. Love Someone (and Risk Losing Them)

There is no defense against grief.

Love anyway. Attach yourself to transient beings with mortal flesh and short attention spans.

Dread taught you that everything ends. Love proves that it’s worth beginning anyway.

10. Accept You Will Never “Solve” Existence (And Keep Existing Anyway)

Spoiler: there’s no grand final answer. No perfect “life hack” for being alive.

Existence was never a puzzle to be solved. It was always a storm to be walked through.

Take the next step. And the next. That’s it. That’s the whole secret.

Final Thought:

If existential dread feels crippling, it’s only because you mistook it for a bug.

It’s not a bug. It’s the feature that forces you to become something new.

Now get up. Your rock isn’t going to push itself.