Experiencing Existential Dread? Tylenol May Do the Trick
Thinking about death can cause us to feel a sort of existential angst that isn’t attributable to a specific source. Now, new research suggests that acetaminophen, an over-the-counter pain medication, may help to reduce this existential pain.
The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
According to lead researcher Daniel Randles and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Canada, the new findings suggest that Tylenol may have more profound psychological effects than previously thought:
“Pain extends beyond tissue damage and hurt feelings, and includes the distress and existential angst we feel when we’re uncertain or have just experienced something surreal. Regardless of the kind of pain, taking Tylenol seems to inhibit the brain signal that says something is wrong.”
Randles and colleagues knew from previous research that when the richness, order, and meaning in life is threatened — with thoughts of death, for instance — people tend to reassert their basic values as a coping mechanism.
The researchers also knew that both physical and social pain — like bumping your head or being ostracized from friends — can be alleviated with acetaminophen. Randles and colleagues speculated that the existentialist suffering we face with thoughts of death might involve similar brain processes. If so, they asked, would it be possible to reduce that suffering with a simple pain medicine?
The researchers had participants take either Tylenol brand acetaminophen or a sugar pill placebo in a double-blind study. One group of participants was asked to write about what would happen to their body after they die, and the control group was asked to write about having dental pain, an unpleasant but not existentially distressing thought.
All the participants were then asked to read an arrest report about a prostitute, and to set the amount for bail.
Just as expected, the control group that wrote about dental pain — who weren’t made to feel an existentialist threat — gave relatively low bail amounts, only about $300. They didn’t feel the need to assert their values.
On the other hand, the participants who wrote about their own death and were given a sugar pill gave over $400 for bail, in line with previous studies. They responded to the threat on life’s meaning and order by affirming their basic values, perhaps as a coping mechanism.
But, the participants in this group who took Tylenol were not nearly as harsh in setting bail. These results suggest that their existential suffering was ‘treated’ by the headache drug.
A second study confirmed these results using video clips. People who watched a surreal video by director David Lynch and took the sugar pill judged a group of rioters following a hockey game most harshly, while those who watched the video and took Tylenol were more lenient.
The study demonstrates that existentialist dread is not limited to thinking about death, but might generalize to any scenario that is confusing or surprising — such as an unsettling movie.
“We’re still taken aback that we’ve found that a drug used primarily to alleviate headaches can also make people numb to the worry of thinking about their deaths, or to the uneasiness of watching a surrealist film,” says Randles.
The researchers believe that these studies may have implications for clinical interventions down the road.
“For people who suffer from chronic anxiety, or are overly sensitive to uncertainty, this work may shed some light on what is happening and how their symptoms could be reduced,” Randles concludes.
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In addition to Randles, co-authors on this research include Steven Heine and Nathan Santos of the University of British Columbia.
This research was supported by a grant and doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
For more information about this study, please contact: Daniel Randles at [email protected] and Steven Heine at [email protected].
Comments
Is the tone of this article intended as satire? It certainly reads like one. Existential crises are what make us human, part of what separates us from the other animals and makes us produce great art and philosophy to cope with *and ultimately overcome* our reasonable initial response to the realization of the apparent situation that life has no inherent meaning and we are all going to die. I want to keep on creating art that isn’t meaningless, and therefore I am going to avoid Tylenol as much as possible from now on. Next you’ll be talking about a wonderful new pill that prevents us from feeling responsible for our actions, or allows us to be happy go lucky right after our spouse of 50 years dies. Wonderful. The main utility of these studies in my view is to let us know what medicine NOT to take. For this service, I thank you with all my heart.
Love
Beautifully stated. I concur with your comment, and for that service, I thank YOU.
I respect your underlying presmise… surely there is something disasterously shortsighted to try to rid a human being of meaning in their lives. But please try to have some empathy for those this would try to help. Existential crises and chronic anxiety can be intense suffering, and many people cannot live a life of meaning while coping with despair and dread. If medication makes living easier, then living a more meaningful life is possible for more people. I’m glad you feel motivated by existentialism, but not everyone reacts the same way. Take care
As an artist who suffers from anxiety, I can attest to the fact that treatment for my anxiety has both made me happier, and made me a better, less inhibited artist. I have two words for people who believe artists need to suffer, and the second word is “you.”
Although that is how this study may apply to your personal experiences, it’s important to remember we are not all the same. Disparaging this information by suggesting its “satire” is insulting to me as I sought it out specifically to gain information in an effort to find relief from my constant chronic anxiety. The kind of anxiety experienced when frozen in a state of fight or flight which came to be after several concurrent traumatic events.
I’m grateful you havent experienced such, but I’d like to remind you there are many people suffering as I am.
This is a life saver for me. I just hope my liver can handle it.
– Best wishes on your artistic endeavors
Guess you’re existential dread doesn’t effect your life dramatically then. Because after reading this article I wanted to take tylenol. I haven’t slept in over a night because my own flesh machine feels weird to be in. Please don’t disregard things just because you dont understand them, because to others it could mean a difference between wanting to kill yourself or not. Existential dread and anxiety can seriously effect some, and just because you feel it’s just “part of the human experience” doesnt mean everyone feels that way.
Is the assumption that a reversion to “basic values” is consistent with thinking sex workers should be in jail? There’s a strange bias lining this study and that’s the believe that certain values such as a belief in criminal punishment and disdain for paid sex are “basic”. Frustrating read.
EK, I appreciate your concern about removing humanity, I feel exactly this way about the Buddhist “religion”. But, I would gladly remove my dread. I have dealt with it since I was a child. At 44, I want it gone. If tylenol may help, you can hold my humanity, I want a good night sleep where I dont lay awake in terror obsessed with my inevitable, looming demise.
Fascinating matter. Yet, the plot is deeper. Beyond the clear agenda to get rid of emotional pain (questionable),the article rests on the premise that there is a clear separation between one persons experience and the emotions in the environment. For example, how much DREAD is there where surrounded by neo-nazis? How much dread is there in a country where people have lost their basic freedoms? We experience this also, even if we are tourists. This is because of mirror neurons. We are empathic individuals, which means that locally drugging ourselves to release dread will ultimately just harm the body and create imbalance. What is needed is a methodology that treats the dread as a teacher of where our spirit is not yet free – and to work on releasing these areas of fearful contraction. Then, when we experience dread, it will transform by itself into the energy of compassion.
Yes but some people already are severely imbalanced. All they can think about/feel is dread, and that is not healthy or natural for the human. Medicines and therapies can help create the healthy and natural balance. You may not know or believe this because you do not experience it.
Funny, I seem to remember Vincent van Gogh died from self-injury. AND he never had professional success in his lifetime.
I, by no means, wish to join some dog pile on the first few commenters.
But feelings of meaninglessness, lack of connection, et al can be signs of far more dangerous issues. Depression has side effects, including death.
Yes life is oft full of searching to find purpose and place, and that can inspire great art.
AND if you can’t leave bed or pick up the medium for the pain you feel, the art will never get made.
For me, I will be consulting with my doctor, to see if this might help at times, because I would like to paint, but can’t find the will, while bogged down with ineffable fears.
Good luck to those who come to this trying to overcome what keeps them from thriving.
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