# What is the word for this feeling? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 13, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361 "2018-04-13T19:43:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/1 "2018-04-13T19:43:31Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/2 "2018-04-13T19:57:40Z")
[Anticlimax](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anticlimax)? (Look at the “real world” examples at the bottom.) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/3 "2018-04-13T20:01:23Z")
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.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=778307) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/4 "2018-04-13T20:28:41Z")
Isn’t a similar feeling to those of survivors of accidents or incidences where others die? Survivors guilt, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/5 "2018-04-13T20:33:29Z")
A phrase for it might be, “Waiting for the other shoe to drop.” ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/6 "2018-04-13T20:34:53Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Isn’t a similar feeling to those of survivors of accidents or incidences where others die? Survivors guilt, maybe? I think [survivor guilt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/7 "2018-04-13T20:45:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/8 "2018-04-14T02:21:36Z")
Does this have anything to do with the new [show on CW?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Sentence_(TV_series)) ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/9 "2018-04-14T06:12:11Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > 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.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=778307) Very helpful in clarifying my thoughts. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/10 "2018-04-14T06:22:19Z")
Discombobulation? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/11 "2018-04-14T12:10:10Z")
I don’t know if there’s an existing word, but [John Koenig](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictionary_of_Obscure_Sorrows) may have a word for it. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-this-feeling/812361/12 "2018-04-14T13:05:09Z")
Some sort of ‘existential crisis’? (Ok, that’s two words)