Bills, the future, job security: Do your thoughts constantly circle around whether it will all be enough? Drawing on more than 10,000 coaching sessions, I help people in my practice in Duesseldorf and online to resolve existential anxiety.
How does existential anxiety show itself?
- You lie awake at night running through scenarios that may never happen
- You check your bank account several times a day even though nothing has changed
- You avoid spending money, even when it is necessary, because nothing feels safe enough
- You feel an inner tension that does not ease, even in calm moments
- Your body reacts with stomach pressure, muscle tension, a racing heart, or a lump in your throat
- You cannot enjoy the present because your thoughts are already on the next threat
- You plan and control more and more, yet the feeling of security never arrives
- You withdraw because you cannot or do not want to talk about your worries
These reactions are distressing but explainable: your nervous system has learned to respond to uncertainty with a permanent alarm, even when your current situation is objectively stable.
Where does existential anxiety come from?
Existential anxiety rarely has just one trigger. Often the origin reaches further back than it first appears. If you grew up in a home where money was a topic spoken about with worry, shame, or conflict, your nervous system is particularly sensitive to financial uncertainty, even when the external circumstances today are entirely different.
Sometimes it is a specific event that pulled the ground from under your feet: a job loss, a divorce, an illness that called everything into question. In other cases the fear grows gradually, fed by societal pressure, by the conviction that you must always perform and provide, and by the feeling that no safety net will ever be large enough.
That is exactly why existential anxiety can be present even when you objectively have enough to live well. Your mind knows this. But unconscious parts of you have not understood it yet.
What makes existential anxiety so persistent is that it works with scenarios that sound plausible. "What if I fall ill?", "What if the company closes?", "What if my pension is not enough?" These are not irrational thoughts. But with existential anxiety, these thoughts spin in a loop that will not stop, blocking clear thinking and holding the body in a state of constant tension, as though the catastrophe had already happened.
How does coaching for existential anxiety work?
Existential anxiety comes from the past. And it always revolves around the future. Even when a sudden redundancy or a crisis is the trigger: the event alone rarely explains why the fear runs so deep. The reason it shakes you so profoundly is that a part of you is touched that already knows from the past what insecurity feels like. That part resurfaces now. In coaching, we bring you back to the present: we look at which part is reacting, what it needs, and resolve what keeps the anxiety running.
My approach: The SAF Method™
The SAF Method™ stands for the three steps we work through in coaching:
- S – Soothe the Symptoms: Your nervous system is running on constant stress: sleeplessness, stomach pressure, racing thoughts that will not stop. In the first step, you learn to calm these reactions down.
- A – Address the Activators: A formative loss, a period of deep insecurity, experiences of scarcity in childhood. We defuse what your nervous system and parts of you learned from that time.
- F – Free the Fueling Thoughts: "It won't be enough.", "I'm going to lose everything.", "Without money I'm nothing." These "fueling thoughts" keep the anxiety alive, even when your reality has long since changed. When they dissolve, inner calm returns.
With more than 25 years of experience, I have accompanied many people through existential anxiety. Some need only a few sessions to break through the mental carousel and regain the ability to act. Others carry conditioning that reaches far back into childhood and need more time, because the fear has built up over decades. You decide the intervals between sessions: some come weekly, others every two to three weeks.
Which method addresses what?
At the beginning we sort through your situation: which part of your fear is responding to something real that you can influence? And which part has ignited itself on the current situation but actually comes from an older experience? That determines where we start.
| Method | What it does for existential anxiety |
|---|---|
| WingWave | Defuses the emotional charge of the scenarios keeping you awake: images of loss, spiralling thoughts about money and the future |
| Hypnosis | Builds an inner sense of fundamental safety that calms the constant tension and the mental carousel |
| NLP | Dissolves the catastrophic thoughts, such as: "Everything is going to collapse", "I can't do this on my own" |
| The Work | Questions the beliefs: "Without financial security I am lost", "I have to provide for everything or it will all go wrong" |
| IFS | Clarifies which inner part is trying to protect you from the worst through control and constant provision |
| TRT | Reaches deep biographical layers when the existential anxiety is rooted in childhood experiences of scarcity or insecurity |
What can you achieve in coaching?
- Sleep peacefully again without future scenarios keeping you awake
- Make decisions without being paralysed by fear of loss
- Recognise the difference between justified foresight and anxiety-driven need for control
- Stop the mental carousel that prevents you from living in the moment
- Build a fundamental sense of security that does not depend on external circumstances
- Feel joy again without constantly bracing for the worst
Which topics are connected to existential anxiety?
- Anxiety with Illness – When worry about the future stems from a medical condition
- Fear of Failure – The fear of not being good enough
- Fear of Death – When the finiteness of life causes anxiety
- Fear of War – Existential threat anxiety triggered by world events
- Burnout & Anxiety – When professional overload leads to exhaustion
- Panic & Panic Attacks – When existential anxiety escalates into panic
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder – When fears spread
Frequently Asked Questions about Existential Anxiety
What is existential anxiety?
Existential anxiety is the deep worry about securing your livelihood, your future, or your basic existence. It may relate to financial pressure, job loss, meaning in life, or global crises and often feels very stressful and paralyzing.
What are the symptoms of existential anxiety?
Typical signs are constant worrying, insomnia, inner restlessness, difficulty concentrating, and physical stress symptoms like tension or stomach problems. Many people feel a sense of helplessness and paralysis.
What causes existential anxiety?
Existential anxiety is often triggered by concrete events, such as job loss, illness, separation, or economic crises. Unprocessed experiences from childhood, like poverty or insecurity, can amplify the fear significantly later in life.
What helps acutely with existential anxiety?
Pick just one of the spiralling thoughts and check it against reality. Not all of them at once, just one. Ask yourself: Is what I am afraid of right now actually true in this moment? It can also help to move your body, because the tension needs to release physically before your mind can settle. But techniques like these only keep the fear in check for the moment. They do not change what triggers it: the old patterns, the experiences of scarcity, the fueling thoughts your system still treats as true. In coaching, we go to those roots, so that over time you no longer find yourself in a situation where you need an acute remedy at all.
Is existential anxiety the same as fear of the future?
A realistic worry has a concrete object and motivates action – you know what you're afraid of, and you can take steps against it. Existential anxiety is more diffuse: it paralyzes, blocks clear thinking, and often leads to either doing nothing at all or falling into blind activism that changes nothing about the actual situation. In coaching, we look at which part of your fear is a justified concern that you can respond to concretely – and which part is an old emotional pattern that has ignited itself on the current situation.
Can existential anxiety be overcome?
Yes. The path leads through four steps: First, acknowledging and accepting the fear instead of pushing it away – because suppressing it is exactly what keeps it running. Second, examining your own thoughts for their basis in reality and finding out where you actually have influence and where you don't. Third, consistently bringing your focus into the present instead of spinning in future scenarios that may never come true. And fourth, consciously working through the worst-case scenario – because truly thinking fear-laden thoughts through to the end can free you from the worst-case scenario.
When is coaching for existential anxiety a good idea?
When you notice that the fear dominates your thinking – when you lie awake at night replaying the same scenarios, when you can no longer make clear decisions during the day, when physical symptoms like stomach problems or tension set in, or when you start postponing important things because everything feels pointless. The earlier you start, the less the pattern solidifies.
My concern may not be serious enough.
Existential anxiety does not have to mean that you are on the brink of financial ruin or about to lose your home. Perhaps you have a secure job, but the thought of losing it keeps you up at night. Perhaps you earn well, but the money never feels safe. Perhaps it is just a quiet background feeling that prevents you from truly committing to anything because you are constantly bracing for the worst. All of that is serious enough – not because the external situation has to be dramatic, but because the inner burden is real and takes up more space over time if you don't look at it.
I have already tried so much.
Many people with existential anxiety have already practised positive thinking, drawn up financial plans, or tried relaxation techniques – and got stuck in worst-case scenarios, because the fear does not sit on the rational level. In coaching, we go where previous approaches could not reach: to the emotional roots, to the old experiences of scarcity or insecurity that ignite themselves on the current situation today.
Ready for the next step?
Your existential anxiety can be overcome. Get in touch to explore in an initial conversation whether this practice fits your needs.