Anxiety over death

[kimberlya1228]

How many others feel an incredible sense of dread over death? I struggle with the thought of people close to me dying, either by natural causes or accidents. It consumes a large part of my life because I find myself always thinking about it. What would I leave behind? I become scared of the thought that I would no longer "feel" anything. How would my family feel if I passed away suddenly? The anxiety that these thoughts bring is sometimes unbearable. I am wondering if anyone else deals with these intrusive thoughts.

 

[whysewserious]

I used to...and then I lost someone. My Mom. It was not a fun experience.


But I lived. The rest of us, whether we barely manage or we jump at our day with vigor, we keep living.


There is fear involved in it for sure, but actually experience it in a way took a lot of the edge off of it for me. In a weird way, it's something we all share in one way or another and will experience. I don't fear death any more, not when there is so much living to be done.


I don't say any of this with any ill intent - I was there. I just hope maybe it gives a little encouragement that there is so much happening to be enjoyed in the meanwhile.

 

[Sue]

I don't worry so much about my death but I do worry and have anxiety over the thought of losing my loved ones. I think about it all the time. I lost both my mom and dad and it was awful. As much as I worried about it before it happened it was so much worse then I imagined. Death is a hard thing to deal with. I am a worrier so I also imagine the worse possible outcome.

 

[lexinonomous]

Death is something that worries me constantly. The older I get, the more and more I see how easy it is to die. I have seen so many people in my life pass on. Most of the people I've known to have died were young. Death is definitely something I fear. I can't imagine not living because it's all I've ever known. One of my reasons for being scared of death is that I'm not quite sure what's going to happen. I don't want to experience any sort of pain. The idea of no longer being able to experience life saddens me. Maybe my fear comes from being young, but I am not ready to die.


Not only do I worry about myself, but I worry about my loved ones. Life without my family would be terrible. I think it's pretty normal to be afraid of deah.

 

[Norjak71]

I've spent a lot of time looking at near death experiences online, reading about heaven and hell even though I really don't believe in them. I think there is really something after death I just don't know what it is and I'm very scared over it. I know astral projection is possible when you sleep where your soul actually leaves your body, so I can't be convinced it doesn't happen during death.

 

[John Snort]

To be honest death is the one thing that doesn't make me anxious. I've never been close to my family or friends. In any case I don't believe that death actually is the end of everything. There's the afterlife. Someone dies they get to live again in heaven or there'll be reincarnated. That's why when someone dies I don't grieve. I know we'll meet again. In this life or the next.

 

[kelden]

The only thing that really worries about death is regret of not had made something I would like to achieve when I was able to do it. Those thoughts really arouse my anxiety, since life for me is a no return ticket. I'm very concerned about the time I'm spending right now or in the future. The past, far behind us, really doesn't make me worry since is something I can change, but I know I can shape my future, at least I think I can.

 

[thecorinthian]

Well, anxiety over death is just one of those things we think about atleast once in our lives. When I first realized I was gonna die alone I felt empty-- but not without a lot of bargaining and anger. To accept the inevitable is wisdom in it's own right I guess but when scientists think of a way to make humans immortal I'd be first on that boat. The thing with existensial crises is-- don't allow it to rule the rest of your life. Live with vigor and when the day comes that you die you'll have a lot of memories to go with.

 

[djordjem87]

I am not anxious to die or not to die. I am more afraid about some people I love might die. That makes me sad although they are bunch of a-holes they are my family and the do not take care of themselves. I have anxiety but I never had this kind of anxiety, it is a fear that we have by birth they say or, at least I think, we develop by getting to know more and more about biology and stuff. With me anxiety is sometimes for trivial things and everything not concerning health is basically trivial. Anxiety also makes everything look far worse than it is and that is why I hate it. I think about death in the evenings and I come across split personality sometimes. I get very sad at moments and then I feel that it is a normal thing and that it can't be the end because we no nothing about anything actually and it seems that nothingness is what we are afraid the most. We just hate the thought of not being any more.

 

[Kosta]

This is very true, and I think that all my panic attacks have been connected with a deeply rooted fear of death. Everything began with thinking about short life, mortality, different illness. That led to the uneasy feeling in my chest, which was the outcome of my disease. And the next stage was panic attacks. But finally, I have started asking myself what I want to achieve with that fear. It was obvious, the fear is only a burden on my shoulders, and if something must happen than the fear would not be of any help. Why should I be worried about the natural process on which I do not have any influence?

 

[sidney]

I used to be a bit fearful about death because of all that "heaven or hell" crap, but since I have learned more about the afterlife, I'm not that scared to die anymore. I'm also not attached to my immediate family at all, in fact I would be happy if my dad died, he is one hell of a wicked soul to be honest, so death is something that I don't even fear, whether it's my death or the death of my loved ones, since there is an afterlife anyway.

 

[Ashley0323]

Yes, I have also thought these things. I have a huge fear of cancer, since it runs in my family, and it also runs in my fiances too. I have fears of my family passing, and having to go through that. Lately, I have seen so many horrible sad stories floating around online, and I find myself putting myself in their place, feeling what they might be going through, I think thats how it started.

 

[Laneorexorcist]

In think that we all have those intrusive thoughts, death is part of our human process and nowadays is such a weird process, and I think that is natural to have them. But yes... I found myself thinking about it constantly but it's more focused on what is going to happen, what am I going to see, what's going to happen with my soul or my conscience... That's definitely what am I most scared about.

 

[misszerable]

I've lost both of my parents and my sister and but I still have one bro, sis, and my son. I am at a point in my life when I'd like to work, save, and leave something to secure my child. Yeah, I'm anxious about my own death because my son is fully dependent on me and he is a special child. He has autism and though his intellect is in the higher level, he is socially and emotionally affected by autism. I am a single parent, too, so my life at this point is focused on providing for my son's needs and creating offline passive income streams that will earn something to support my son when I'm gone. I guess you can say I'm anxious and it has a positive effect because it keeps me on my toes and motivates me to work.

 

[clair02]

I used to worry a lot about death, my own and the deaths of loved ones, but I have come to understand that the fear that we have of death is just a fear of the unknown. It's human nature to be afraid of anything that we don't understand. I found a book, Ask and it is Given, by Esther Hicks that helped me to come to terms with the fact that life is never ending. We are spiritual beings in physical bodies and the end of one journey on this physical plane is the beginning of another, even better part of our eternal lives. I don't know if this helps you, but it certainly helped me get over my fear of death.

 

[GrubbyRose]

I really do not fear my own death at all, but I do fear the death of the few people I am close to in this world. Most of them are elderly family members, and while I do fear their deaths, most of what I fear is separation from them and being left in this world alone. I know that they will be in a far better pace, and I will catch up to them one day, but it still hurts.

 

[Humphrey247]

I've experienced this first hand so I know just how terrifying it is. Someone close to me made me realize that the reason I feared death was because I was afraid that my life would have been meaningless since I hadn't accomplished anything noteworthy. I'm not completely over it but I find that just avoiding thinking about and focusing on what I could do while I'm still alive helped a bit.

 

[explorerX7]

The sole reason for me having to worry about death is that I would not want to leave any financial burden on my loved ones. I don't want to leave any bill which would have my loved ones to be called upon to take care of and I would prefer that they would not have to fund my funeral expenses, otherwise, I have no problem with death because I know it's a reality of life.

 

[111kg]

I think that people who say they don't fear death are people who don't understand how fragile is the human body actually. Just imagine: a layer of 4-5 mm of bone struture and then your nerves in the spine. If they some how get damaged, you could become quadriplegic or even die. A simple blood knot can make you die in your sleep. A bacteria caught in a hospital, that doesn't respond to antibiotics, can cause serious health issues.


This is why we have to live our lives in the best possible way. If the reaper is to come soon, we should be able to say that we have had a full and happy life, not one in which we had barely survived.

 

[LoyalServant]

I am very happy to see I am not the only one experiencing anxiety over death!


It was mostly about my death and how it would happen; would it be painful? would it be long? would I die alone? would it last for a long time? what would happen to me afterwards?


These thoughts used to consume most of my days. I would constantly daydream and become anxious about death afterwards, sometimes I wouldn't even notice the time pass. After speaking about my concerns to a close family member and a psychologist I came to the realisation that death, whether it be mine or not, is completely out of my control.


This helped me focus on the present. It's important to realise that the time we spend contemplating something that is completely out of control prevents us from living. These thoughts sometimes still creep up, when they do I remember that right now, in the present, I am alive and well - I focus 100% of my attention on the present usually noticing the setting and environment I am in. It works like a charm for me!