Doom, having long been expected, has been averted, and you’re left with the question of “Now what?”, since you kinda planned on dying and didn’t have a backup. It hit me when the Soviet Union went down, as I had been expecting a global thermonuclear war, and when I got a diagnosis whose three year survival rate is 50% and four months later was told that if I was compliant I’d be more or less okay. Somebody, probably the Germans or a mad Classicist, has a word for this. What is it?
Don’t know a word for it, but you might be interested in a thread from a few years ago started by a cancer survivor who expressed similar emotions about her status.
Isn’t a similar feeling to those of survivors of accidents or incidences where others die? Survivors guilt, maybe?
A phrase for it might be, “Waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
I think survivor guilt is different from the feeling that comes from having not made long-term plans for a long life because you were sure you were not going to live a long life.
Yes, I see that. The survivors were not expecting a life or death situation. The OP is talking about something they are given to believe, and then it doesn’t come to be. So, yes, I understand the difference now.
Very helpful in clarifying my thoughts. Thanks.
Discombobulation?
Some sort of ‘existential crisis’? (Ok, that’s two words)