I have friends and family who are suffering complete existential crisis because their lifelong careers - which they have been studying since childhood, then many more years in college - are being erased.

Even if you have other means to financially support yourself, a deep core pillar of your identity, the skills and work you take pride in, how you found meaning in life both in decades past and anticipated decades to come, no longer matters. In a very total and all-encompassing way. Being made as trivial and meaningless as waves in the ocean.