Clinical Holistic Medicine: The Existential Crisis—Life Crisis, Stress, and Burnout

Abstract

The triple and parallel loss of quality of life, health, and ability without an organic reason is what we normally recognize as a life crisis, stress, or a burnout. Not being in control is often a terrible and unexpected experience. Failure on the large existential scale is not a part of our expectations, but most people will experience it. The key to getting well again is to get resources and help, which most people experience with shame and guilt. Stress and burnout might seem to be temporary problems that are easily handled, but often the problems stay. It is very important for the physician to identify this pattern and help the patient to realize the difficulties and seriousness of the situation, thus helping the patient to assume responsibility and prevent existential disaster, suicide, or severe depression. As soon as the patient is an ally in fighting the dark side of life and works with him/herself, the first step has been reached. Existential pain is really a message to us indicating that we are about to grow and heal. In our view, existential problems are gifts that are painful to receive, but wise to accept. Existential problems require skill on the part of the holistic physician or therapist in order to help people return to life—to their self-esteem, self-confidence, and trust in others. In this paper, we describe how we have met the patients soul to soul and guided them through the old pains and losses in order to get back on the track to life.

Spiritual crisis: a concept analysis

“…Individuals with religious convictions may also experience internal struggles, where good and evil may seem to be struggling for dominance. Some patients may experience profound meaninglessness or a death wish, which needs to be attended to seriously (Ventegodt et al. 2005).…”

“…A spiritual crisis may be a unique form of life crisis, in that something happens within a person, perhaps after some stressful event, such as a death of a loved one. Suddenly, the individual cannot make sense of the world around them; options seem out of reach, and it is as if the person ‘has hit a wall and they are unable to move on’ (Ventegodt et al. 2005, p. 300).…”

“…An individual may have a 'temporary loss of that connection with God' (Penson et al 2001, p.287), and this may bring on a powerful spiritual crisis in someone with a strong faith. Ventegodt et al (2005) add that spiritual crises may occur when individuals are not quite true to themselves and do not lead their lives in accordance with who they really are. Everything may come to a standstill.…”

Out of the wave: the meaning of suffering and relieved suffering for survivors of the tsunami catastrophe. An hermeneutic-phenomenological study of TV-interviews one year after the tsunami catastrophe, 2004

“…Forgiveness can alleviate suffering by changing the past not as a record of all that happened to us but by its meaning for us today (22). Furthermore, the key to getting well is to get resources and help (23). Thus, the spontaneous support of neighbours and friends is especially important in the initial phase after a catastrophe.…”

A need for holistic approach to the occupational health developing (in Serbia)

“…Therefore, a professional vision of occupational health has to be supported by the current plan of the WHO and the objectives it defines. The detailed guidelines for concrete definition of its future actions in that direction should be looked for in the definition (WHO, 2009) [2] related to the notion of "healthy workplace" which reads: "A healthy workplace is a place where workers and employers cooperate and continually improve the process of protecting IJOMEH 2011;24(3) 231 even national economies that gain in importance when the crisis is globally escalating [10][11][12][13][14][15]. In this paper, the individual's and public's health is viewed as a dynamic process, but not independent of other dynamic processes (e.g., economy, politics) that are all part of a much bigger process.…”