Aren't we all just trying to lose ourselves? The little voice in our head? The incessant chatter? Saying, '"What are you doing? what aren't you doing? What the hell are you doing? why can't you do something?" The more you tune into this elliptical thinking, the louder it becomes. How being alive without that constant nagging means a loss of control, terrifying in the least. The distractions from the self: love, war, beauty, etc. All of these things are rarely devoid of fear. But what is the "self" making us think that makes us run screaming from it at all opportunities? Is it that we are reminded of our mortality? Therefore, I would go further to say then that this Self is Death? Pragmatically, it is; so be it. Existentialism says existence comes before essence. Hell is other people, everything you do and think is futile? But the liberating fact is that you can chose that things are meaningful to you. So, wherein religion leaves everything up to "god" and "fate", Existentialism leaves it up to you. That can be a burden, n'est ce pas?