Existentialism and Anxiety?

Question

What are the reasons that Existentialists give to the experience of anxiety. I mean why do we feel anxiety?

English is not my mother tongue.

Answer 1

That's OK, Achmed. I won't make fun of you.

There are quite a few branches in Existentialism - there's Christian existentialism as found in Dostoevsky, Soren Kirkegaard and a few others. There's the communist wing of Sartre, and the absurdist wing of Camus.

Kirkegaard talks a great deal  about the dread of encountering the self, and by this he means seeing yourself as you really are, with all your lies, pretenses, biases, character defects, and such. It's not enough to see these things. Once the encounter happens, it's your duty to get rid of these things in your life, and here is where the anxiety comes in.  What if your current position at your corporation was obtained by cheating and lying? If you come clean, you lose your job. If you don't, you're living a false life. The choices are stark and not easy.

I dismiss Sartre. This is a man who thought that Life was nauseating. Who needs him?

Camus is definitely worth reading. Woody Allen sees life as a comic absurdity; all his movies are worth watching.

Answer 2

existentialist  stated the importance of psychologically critical moments where basic truths about human nature and existence come crashing down upon us, upsetting our preconceptions and shocking us into a new awareness about life. These 'existential moments' of crisis then lead to more generalized feelings of dread, anxiety, or fear.

In the first link full explaination of diffrent types of Existentialists Anxiety, like The Anxiety of Fate and Death, The Anxiety of Emptiness and Meaninglessness, The Anxiety of Guilt and Condemnation,