Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Existential Crisis

I'm wondering if there are other children who worry about their existence. For some reason, I remember having this crisis when I was around the first grade.

Through the years, my son has experienced this and I was first aware of it when he was in the 5th grade. He was clearly upset about why he exists in the world eventhough we had given him the parental reason and what our faith taught us. He was not satisfied.

We would get periods where this upset him but it never lasted more than a day. Now that he's a teenager, he seems to handle this though he seems very sensitive. The last time I noticed he bothered by the topic was after seeing the movie Knowing. He was upset to the point he did not want to share in the discussion we were having afterwards and asked we don't discuss it.

I saw an article recently on existential crisis therapy and wondered if anyone had tried it and if it had made a difference.

DD11 is an extremely sensitive child and we have dealt with many intensities early on. She has questioned her purpose in life, her frustrations over world's injustices and at times anxiety over her existence.

What has helped her is lots of conversations when she is having "her moments" as well as when it's a normal day and I bring up a topic out of the blue. I found a great book online that discussed many philosophical topics and we made it our summer project last year. I don't recall the name of it, but there are many books on philosophy for children.

I have not heard of the therapy you mention, but there is a summer camp I read about (Yunasa, I think) that is for gifted children dealing with the emotional aspect of giftedness.

Jen

I remember having this problem myself from as far back as I can remember (first clearly dated memory involves a crib mobile, so, yeah, pretty far back)

When I was 12 I gave myself a talking to, and decided to stop asking the question, because I was getting incredibly frustrated and becomming totally and utterly non-functional as a human being. It took me a few months to "quit," but I did, and when I came back to it at 15, I was more equipped to handle it. Sort of. Of course I got myself into a whole lot of trouble over it, and eventually converted to a different religion.

I think a lot of kids go through this (most, probably to a lesser extent, though ), and based on my experiences, by the time I was 3, talking to people about it was the worst possible thing, because absolutely NO-ONE could follow my explanations. It made me feel intensely isolated to discuss it... to the point of being suicidal from sheer lonliness. I don't think my thoughts were so unusual, but I think I didn't have a vocabularly to discuss it that was recognisable to others. So instead of "helping" a normal, thoughful teen, I think it's probably safer to just give him the tools to work though it on his own and not meddle too much, especially if he doesn't want to talk.

If I saw signs of the same thing happening in my kid as a teenager, I'd invest in art classes, and a large gift certificate to a religion and philosophy book shop *and not go with him to the bookstore*

2 cents from someone who was "intense" about this
Michaela.

DC18 and I are a lot like that, both starting from a very young age. Delving into philosophy and theology helped once I was a little bit older (teen years and into college) and better equipped to deal with the issue and to make sense of the world around me.
Also, some movies and my intensity/sensitivity did not go together well as a younger person, and, although it rarely happens now that I'm an adult, that movie unhinged me for a couple of days as well...

Thank you for the replies. I think I worry too much. I was thinking hindsight for a bit as I am reviewing my life insurance policy. I started thinking, what if I'm not here to help him through these thoughts because he gets so noticibly upset and sometimes debate with others who are passionate about their beliefs.

I think what sparked these questions started when his class was trying to design a utopian society in grade school. He seemed very troubled as he tried a variety of scenerios and he could not find one that would be equal to the definition of utopia.

I worry too much.... he'll find his way as this is a lifelong journey.