Humans 101
5 Tips for Handling Existential Fear
Fear can crush or strengthen you. Here’s how to use it to your advantage.
As a person who grew up in a religion that preached the end of the world, I’ve spent most of my life grappling with fears similar to those we’re experiencing right now.
When I began using psychedelics therapeutically, I found significant relief for the first time in my life. After just a few ayahuasca ceremonies, I went from being a person who’d spent most of their life not wanting to live due to extreme existential fear and trauma to someone who accepted life’s uncertainty and felt grateful to experience anything at all.
My relief came with a series of realizations that unfolded one after the other. Not all of them will bring you comfort. By nature, life is often difficult and unfair. But ultimately, I believe these realizations helped me become a stronger, more emotionally prepared person.
1. Everyone faces unavoidable pain, and how you handle it is a choice
As a child, there was a stretch of at least five years where I had nightly panic attacks about how my parents would die. Whether it was the next day or in 60 years, it didn’t matter. I felt unprepared to ever…
