Existential anxiety might reinforce bodily symptoms All crises have existential elements, but the crisis will transform to a predominantly existential crisis, when the dying person is no longer shielded from stressful thoughts about death, meaninglessness, existential loneliness and unsolved guilt issues. The suffering is not merely on an existential level, as the connection between body and mind is strong and existential anxiety might reinforce bodily symptoms, e.g. pain. In this article, the influence of death anxiety and loneliness is discussed in relation to pain treatment in palliative care.