How to Deal with Existential Dread and Stress
By Kerry Biskelonis, LPC, RYT
Published 4/24/2026
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Chronic Stress in Plymouth, Michigan
The last few weeks have felt like something that took me some time to name. I spoke to friends, clients, neighbors, and the feelings were similar - overwhelmed, restless, tired, apathetic, anxious, unsettled. The feeling of always being behind, trying to catch a breath, but the waves are relentlessly knocking me underwater. Nothing is terrible, nothing is acute, but just the feeling of a lot.
I was relieved to find I am not alone in this. After an impromptu 20-minute talk with my neighbor after school drop-off, we both felt a sense of relief, knowing our struggles were not just our own. I also know that, at my age with children, I’m in a season where life is super busy. The pace is something I’m having a hard time keeping up with. These are the small things - the small pieces of my life - logistics and calendaring and meal prep and carpooling and bathtime and homework and management and forecasting and birthday gifts and trauma reprocessing and outgrown shoes. These small things make up my day-to-day and carry their own weight.
But there’s something bigger - macro - that remains.
What is causing us to feel this way?
I watched Trevor Noah’s stand-up, Joy in the Trenches, on Netflix last night. The part that stuck out for me was how he qualified this moment of history - that we are in it, truly, in a moment of history that is historic. Since the start of Covid-19, these years are the ones they will write about. And so with that knowledge, Noah asks the audience, “Who will you be when history calls?”
This is the question I’ve noticed I’ve been grappling with, without knowing what I was asking. And I know I am not alone.
Who else is dealing with existential dread?
For instance, my friend greeted me with an existential crisis yesterday. It was 8:45 am, and we were lifting weights, but she was full-on spiraling about how she feels we are all “missing the plot” and just forgetting how to think for ourselves, ending her last rep and monologue with a, “like, what is even life about?”
Another friend shared about her chronic anxiety. She is constantly up at night, just feeling a full-body anxiety that has no clear origin. In theory, for her, everything is fine, and yet her body is restless.
A client told me that she feels it similarly - an uneasiness, overwhelm, and also exhaustion that, even though day to day is fine, she cannot shake this overarching feeling.
And then on a walk with my partner, where we shared in our own overwhelm, it hit me: it’s vulnerability.
What does vulnerability mean for us here in Michigan?
The small things of our life may be fast-paced and relentless and busy and sometimes hard - it’s the big things happening right now that are leaving us vulnerable. Vulnerable to unpredictable events. Vulnerable to change. Vulnerable to violence, upheaval, disruption, and oppression. Nothing is happening how it should - or how it feels it should. Nothing feels normal about how global events are unfolding or what lies in the realm of possibility with AI, robots, and self-checkout lanes.
We’re in uncharted territory. Industries are being created and collapsing at a rapid pace due to the influence of technology, despite all of us being burned out on technology and yet relying on AI like never before.
What feels comfortable and easy isn’t always the best option.
With this vulnerability, there is safety in retreating. Numbing. Avoiding. If we don’t talk about it, then we don’t have to deal with it, right? If we ignore the uncomfortable unfolding, then we can live blissfully unaware of the scary unknowns ahead. Sure, this may be “staying present,” but I think there is a lot of intentional avoidance because it all just feels too big.
We are at a point in history - not nearing it, but here - where everyone is going to have to decide if they are content to numb themselves with an endless stream of fentanyl-like digital slop or if they are going to fight for their humanity and touch grass and challenge themselves and create and contribute and love. - Brad Stulberg
And when things are overwhelming, and we feel vulnerable, we forget we have a choice. We have a choice in how we respond and relate to these fast-changing times. We have a choice in how we relate to each other, the world, and ourselves.
Ask yourself, what kind of life do you want to live?
As my friend, now doing glute bridges, lamented, she just wants to touch grass, be outside, and stop feeling like a pawn to algorithms and automatic thoughts. My neighbor wants to enjoy parenting and have more quality time with her kids, despite her full schedule. My client mourns transitions but is excited to build a new community as her identity shifts.
For me, when history calls, as it is right now, I want to be a neighbor.
I want to show up for others, gather together, and be in communion. I want to shop at the local farm, have bikes in my driveway from being the house where the kids land. I want to say hello and make eye contact with people. I want to take walks and notice how the creek changes each season, how the branches twist and turn around themselves, notice the birdsong, and watch my dog swim in the pond. I want to take out the trash cans while smelling the cool morning, take my coffee on the front porch, take part in community clean-ups and local elections, volunteer at my kids’ school, and cook seasonally.
What are the “small things” in life that appeal to you?
Sure, I want to travel and see things, visit friends, and have adventures. But the adventures most worth having are the ones that are small - witnessing the caterpillar stretch across the pavement, feeling the warm little hands of my son, the sound of kids in the backyard, the smell of lilacs finally in bloom.
I don’t like this vulnerability about the big things, and I cannot deny how impactful these big things are to all of us. We feel it in our bones. We know it’s happening all around us because there is a vibration - do you feel it? And yet, I can succumb to the restlessness, the anxiety, the fear, or I can be a neighbor. Neighborly. Focus on my immediate community. Minneapolis was an epic example of this - taking care of one another - even when things felt enormous all around them.
Are you ready to be a neighbor?
I think, maybe, this is who we can be when history calls - as it’s calling now.
Won’t you be my neighbor, too?
Where can I find a therapist near me?
At Reset Brain and Body, we support clients through foundational and holistic wellness, nervous system regulation, and more. If this resonates with you, you’re not alone. Our team is here to walk with you—through the overwhelm and into presence.
Ready to begin your healing journey?
Explore our unique approach to foundational wellness or fill out a new client inquiry form.
Conscious Transparency: This newsletter was edited by AI for grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, but every idea, tone of voice, perspective, and word choice was my own. This newsletter is imperfect because a human wrote it. Thank you for your graciousness.
This week’s Tools, Gratitude, Innovation, Feels
Tools: One significant way you can be neighborly is to get involved in your local community. One of our leadership team members just joined the Farmington Beautification Committee, and another is running for the Michigan Senate! Others are volunteering at food shelters, joining book clubs, and writing cards to the elderly. What is your way of getting involved? I’d love to hear it.
Gratitude: I heard a few stories about families teaching their children to call all strangers “neighbors” that they run across in the community. I love this concept because it builds trust and connection for our littles - instead of the fear and estrangement we may have been taught. Taking care of each other - in the coffee shop, the library, the grocery store line - as we are all neighbors. Because aren’t we, really?
Innovation: Rapid change is underway in mental health care. With virtual practices, AI therapists, chatbots, and insurance billing changes, there will, without a doubt, be more changes coming soon. As a practice leader, it’s imperative to me that we stay relational, real, and rooted in deep healing.To me, mental health is about the depth of our processing and self-awareness, and about rewiring our habits and creating new narratives for ourselves. I’m grateful Reset has always been grounded in strong trauma work through mind-body and innovative methods, and with psychedelic integration, perhaps moving quickly towards regulation, we can better assist clients with those cutting-edge tools, too.
Feels: I have also realized that, because of my big things vulnerability, I’m spending too much precious time planning for worst-case scenarios. I tend to struggle with the idea of being trapped or deprived of something or having to experience suffering. Maybe that’s all of us. But I found that I was grasping for solutions (extreme) and spending way too much time entertaining them. I just want to validate that if you, too, have seen yourself go there, you’re not alone. But make sure to phone a friend when you’ve reached a limit that feels more impulsive than intentional. Sit on it a while. Make a plan, but then wait. How does it feel 28 days later?
