🧭 Recognising a crisis of meaning: an overview

How a crisis of meaning differs from passing doubts – and where the line to depression requiring treatment lies.

Crisis of meaning Existential crisis Life crisis Z60.0 Midlife crisis

In brief

A crisis of meaning (Sinnkrise) is not an illness and not an official category, but a phase in which your previous goals, values or way of life come into question. Typical signs are feelings of emptiness, a lack of direction or the question "Is that all there is?". Triggers can be upheavals in life – losing a job, a separation, children leaving home, a milestone birthday, a serious diagnosis – but a crisis of meaning can also arise without any clear external cause.

What matters is telling it apart from depression as an illness requiring treatment: if joylessness, lack of drive, sleep problems, hopelessness or a noticeable drop in performance last for several weeks, professionals no longer speak only of a crisis but of possible signs of illness. This portal has its own detailed topic area "Depression" for this; the present pages deal with the non-clinical, existential side and refer you there if needed.

Step by step

Take stock instead of acting at onceTake your time before making irreversible decisions (resigning, separating, moving). An acute crisis is rarely the best moment for far-reaching decisions.
Check physical and mental warning signsUse the next page, "When professional help is needed", to check whether there are signs that go beyond a crisis of meaning.
TalkTalk to someone you trust or use a free, anonymous service such as the TelefonSeelsorge – simply saying things out loud often brings relief.
Use low-threshold servicesPsychosocial advice centres, self-help groups or philosophical life counselling do not require a diagnosis and are a possible first step.

Deadlines

Watch out – common mistakes

Dismissing a crisis of meaning too quickly as "just a phase" can mean that actual depression is overlooked and goes untreated.
Conversely, not every crisis of meaning is an illness – not every uncertainty about your path in life requires a diagnosis or therapy.
Big, final decisions (resigning without a follow-up plan, a hasty separation) during an acute crisis often cannot be undone.

In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals

No diagnosis in its own right

"Crisis of meaning" (Sinnkrise) is not a diagnostic term in ICD-10-GM or ICD-11. It comes closest to descriptive categories such as Z60.0 "Problems of adjustment to life-cycle transitions" in Chapter XXI of ICD-10-GM (factors influencing health status) – a so-called Z code, which documents a life circumstance, not an illness in the strict sense. Only when the criteria for a depressive episode (ICD-10 F32/F33) or an adjustment disorder (F43.2) are also met is there a mental disorder requiring treatment.

"Midlife crisis": popular term, uncertain research

The term "midlife crisis" goes back to the Canadian psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques (1965) and is a concept of popular psychology. According to the research results available here, no reliable, widely replicated empirical basis for a typical "midlife crisis" in the German population can be found; studies on life satisfaction across the lifespan reach inconsistent findings. These pages therefore deliberately avoid concrete figures or frequency data on "the" crisis of meaning or "the" midlife crisis, as no reliable source exists for them.

Distinction from grief

Grief after a loss (death, separation) can trigger or accompany a crisis of meaning, but is a process in its own right. For grief in the strict sense, the Wegweiser portal is building its own topic area.

Who is responsible

No authority is responsible for "crises of meaning" as such.
Depending on need: family doctor (Hausärztin/Hausarzt), psychotherapist, psychosocial advice centre or pastoral care.

Quick questions

Worum geht es bei „Recognising a crisis of meaning: an overview“?

How a crisis of meaning differs from passing doubts – and where the line to depression requiring treatment lies.

What should I do first?

Take stock instead of acting at once: Take your time before making irreversible decisions (resigning, separating, moving). An acute crisis is rarely the best moment for far-reaching decisions.
Check physical and mental warning signs: Use the next page, "When professional help is needed", to check whether there are signs that go beyond a crisis of meaning.
Talk: Talk to someone you trust or use a free, anonymous service such as the TelefonSeelsorge – simply saying things out loud often brings relief.

What do I need to watch out for?

Dismissing a crisis of meaning too quickly as "just a phase" can mean that actual depression is overlooked and goes untreated.
Conversely, not every crisis of meaning is an illness – not every uncertainty about your path in life requires a diagnosis or therapy.
Big, final decisions (resigning without a follow-up plan, a hasty separation) during an acute crisis often cannot be undone.

Evidence

ICD-10-GM, Chapter XXI, code Z60.0 "Anpassungsschwierigkeiten bei Lebensabschnittswechsel" (problems of adjustment to life-cycle transitions) (BfArM, icd-code.de)
ICD-10-GM F32/F33 (depressive episode/recurrent depressive disorder), F43.2 (adjustment disorder)
On the "midlife crisis" as a term of popular psychology that is not clinically established: general overviews of the specialist literature; no specific, current German prevalence study was found in the course of this research – this is stated openly here.

As of

As of September 2026 · Sources and method

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