“It is terrifying to live without purpose.”
It can be.
But I think when someone is terrified to live without purpose it is because they are frozen with TOO MANY purposes.
It’s like analysis paralysis. Common symptom of minds that reflect a lot.
Or a physical example is cerebral palsy: It looks like the limbs are locked in place but it’s the opposite of locked in place:
The muscles are pushing and pulling against each other so perfectly with so much force that they cannot move.
Equal purpose, equal force, matched, locked and appears ‘frozen’ in place.