I have anxiety over the fact I might not exist

Anyone help me?

Your report that you feel anxious is a strong indication that you do, in fact, exist. The non-existent feel nothing. They do not engage in this sort of solipsistic word play, either. So you most likely exist -- as much as any of us exist.

You do stuff. Like doubt you exist. You probably also eat things sometimes.

Doubting's one thing you do. Try doing something else for a bit.

If you need an academic argument, this should take your mind off doubting like that for a while!

Reply to fdrake

You say probably. What happens if that's not true?What if I'm not feeling anxious because I actually don't exist? There may be a way to think things without 'I' existing?

Reply to Kranky

Go eat something and find out?

Reply to fdrake

But I could think I have eaten something and not have done. Equally, the 'I' that has eaten may be a character in a book and not real at all.

Reply to Kranky

Can you apply the same level of doubt to what's making you doubt all this?

Reply to Kranky Help who?

Reply to fdrake

But how wouud me believing I ate ascertain if it's certainly me existing. The thought may not be my own?

Descartes didn't even prove the 'I' exists in the cogito?

Reply to Banno

As if your imaginary friend is going to answer.

Reply to Kranky First off, what a luxury you have. Many people simply do not have the time to doubt everything they think. They have to make decisions and act on them. Drive to work. Find water. Hide from the gang. Stagger to their screaming baby at 3am. So, your predicament is a sign that you basic needs are being met, you have free time and likely no immediate threats. Yes, perhaps neither you nor they exist, But if you do, you have it better than a large portion of the world. Second, there is no reason to listen to the little voice telling you you have to solve this problem, and certainly at any time soon. What is that little voice up to? What is it an authority on?

Third, your problem is actually something else. You might be afraid to be social. You might not know how you are going to make a living. You might have deep fears that you are not adequate in more mundane, less ontological, ways. Smart enough, strong enough, sexy enough....according to your own criteria or fears about what others rightly expect.

Philosophical obsessions are usually distractions - emphasis on the word obsession. Because as much anxiety as you are feeling about this issue, anxiety is not nearly as challeging as fear and anger and hopelessness related to real life and real people.

This may all seem rude. I didn't try to answer the question you presented.

But if I see someone not eating, ever, and withering away, I am not going to rush to try to answer their obsession with, for example,
Why is there something rather than nothing?

They may think that is the pressing issue, but it's not. They need food or an operation or some therapy. And then need to figure out why they aren't dealing with the lack of nutrition, but rather shifted to something impersonal and 'the answer.'

And yes, I can imagine someone saying 'but what's the point of being social if I don't exist?' and any of a number of counters to what I said above. Well, if you don't exist, it doesn't really matter what you do, for you, and actually it's a way of avoiding finding out what you want to do and all your fears around that.

The ongoing anxiety and mulling over you're maybe not existing is not a problem, per se, it is your solution. An activity that is a solution. Is it a good one, however?

Reply to Baden more, as in, who is asking?

Reply to Kranky We need volunteer fire fighters. Have a go. Being shit scared in a fire storm that can flip a ten ton water truck on its roof makes it hard to doubt your existence.

Nah, I agree with him. He doesn't exist. Probably a bot.

Don't ever take any recreational drugs with an anxiety like this.

It might be better to believe that a bundle of calcium rods wrapped in meat tape, holding up a glob of prejudiced fat all resisting the dispersing flow of entropy is enough to make you want to not exist.

This miracle is yucky on the days it isn't insufferably dull.

Quoting Kranky

I have anxiety over the fact I might not exist

So...

You are an Australian Aboriginal?

Quoting Kranky

The chance of not existing is causing me huge anxiety...

Hey, if you don't exist, then you're not anxious at all because there's no you to suffer from anxiety. :point:

Quoting Kranky

How can I live, if I even do, without doubting every thought that enters my head. And then doubting that too.

Don't forget to doubt your doubt.




There's no reason not to doubt your doubt exists.

Reply to Kranky

Kranky: I have anxiety over the fact I might not exist

Are you sure you have anxiety? Are you sure it's about that?

My long earlier post is suggesting an answer to the second question. That you shouldn't be sure it's about whether you exist and further that is, in fact, about other things.

Reply to Kranky

Fundamentally, you can be wrong about anything - even about your existence no matter whether it makes logical sense or not since fundamentally even logic can be just all made up bullshit and failure. Many logical proofs in history have been considered absolute but have turned out to be false - including potentially everything you will hear here.

But think about the probabilities and your options. Whether or not logic or your existence is absolutely proven is irrelevant since it seems to be the best proven thing and even if you were wrong, your non-existence would make being wrong inconsequential.

So, stop being anxious because your feelings demand finality and absolute truths. This problem in your feelings is not a philosophical problem. You can feel unanxious whether you solve this philosophical problem or not.