Does Your Life Lack Meaning?
Vera sought out counseling with me because her doctor advised
her to discover the emotional causes of her chronic fatigue.
Vera, a successful stockbroker, was in a loving 18-year
marriage. On the surface, everything in her life was fine. She
had enough money, friends, and a good relationship. Yet Vera
awoke each morning battling fatigue and depression.
David sought my help because of chronic feelings of inner
emptiness. David is very successful in his manufacturing
business, has a good marriage and two adult children. Like Vera,
everything seemed fine. Yet the feelings of inner emptiness
drove David to overeat, overspend, and indulge in porno on the
Internet.
While both Vera and David were successful in their careers,
neither loved their work. They worked to make money, but their
work had little meaning for them. Yet when they looked inside,
neither could discover what did have meaning for them. Both
reported that they had never experienced a sense of meaning in
their adult lives, and that the emptiness and depression had
been with them since adolescence.
As I worked with Vera and David, it became evident that each had
made a decision early in their lives to shut down their feelings
to avoid the deep pain of unbearable loneliness. Vera shut down
because she was unable to tolerate the loneliness of her
mother