Death-- you ever feel scared of it?

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I'm talking about a phobia. Not in a specific circumstance where death seemed likely (like an illness), but despite being healthy and probably young. And not just worried, but terrified of it to the extent that the mere mention of the word death is hugely upsetting?

If so, did you get over it? How? What age did you feel like this at?

NTs, please do NOT answer. I'm tempted to say it's okay to answer for a child, but then I recall shutting up and not mentioning this to my parents, so I don't think so. And I want to get an idea of what percent of the spectrum feels or felt this way.

Never.

It's because I know it's not the end.

Are you afraid of death or afraid of the dying process? I'm sort of not looking forward to the dying process.

No, not at all. I'm not looking forward for the dying process either, although I'm a bit curious about it.

We are all going through the dying process now.

I'm with you, DandelionFireworks. At different times of my life, I have been scared s**tless of death! In fact, I probably begin to lose a friend in high school when I brought up the topic (I can still cringe) when his mother was sick. I just really wanted to talk about one of my biggest philosophic topics, and to me the topic was hanging in the air. Well, it wasn't for him. It was way inappropriate. I should have just been way straightforward with his Mom being sick. And mainly just be there for him and not say much.

It gets better with age.

And, I kind of feel, with my political activism, with my writing, including here at WrongPlanet, I have kind of left my mark on the world.

Not exactly. Death is just a change in status.

I don't know if 'scared' is the right word, though I do feel a kind of fear/sadness considering that my own conscious existence will perhaps come to an end. I don't think I have any phobia-level fear of it, though.

I wish to point out the absence of evidence regarding this.
Not that I'm trying to start a religious debate or anything, and I suppose the concept of what (I assume) you believe can help one cope with the idea of dying.

Personally, I think that when biological function ceases, your brain included, your consciousness ceases. Which is why I am fearful, or reluctant to the concept, of death.

Before I ever got to the experiences that death being a real likely outcome (yes, illness) I had the thoughts of me dying and thinking about it - I was terrified about it.

I remember when I was around six years old and I was afraid to go to sleep because the forsight of me dying and what that was like wasn't something I wanted. My parents where a little stupified when I came down from bed and told them I could not sleep because of that .

Since my last decade experiences with the exposure to the real potential of death and a few close calls I can't say I feel the same about it.
I've put alot of thought in this subject and I'd say I was more afraid of the potential unknown after death and the experience prior to death then death itself.

Realisation of my own mortality and choosing for life made my fear of death go away.
Aless I am yet again in the same situation and my fear of not fulfilling my life goals before my life ends plays a bigger part then instead of the fear of death - besides I do think I am too young to die.
If I had done what I wanted to do, lived of old age and had this it might have been less looming.

My own first experience in realisating my own mortality was a gradual awareness, the moment as I experienced it was like a switch flipped similar to what I've seen after that in the movie V for Vendetta shown in this clip - although overdramatized, it's a movie after all:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPXUALsJg0M[/youtube]

People who haven't gone through similar situations (or are unaffected by it as of yet) go through a very gradual realisation as they age, since the wear of their body gives it away plus death seems to come nearer because of first the grandparents go, then your parents, uncles and aunts go, then your siblings, nephews, nieces, etc. go. Eventually it becomes inevitable to face.

The part after death I keep a agnostic approach (I can't prove it, but I can't dismiss it either - I simply don't know everything there is) to it and I keep looking if there are people who can prove it otherwise - I've been talking to some Jehovah's Witnesses on a weekly base near a half year now looking if they can prove it (I doubt it, but if they can show me their convictions as valid I might reconsider - until this moment I haven't heard anything that potentially can have another source but I keep open-minded).

If you have more questions, I'll get back on it.

Cheerfully,
Wallourdes

I'm not here to argue with a 15 year old athiest. Also, I am not religious.
Theres plenty of evidence for those with the eyes to see. If you're not one of them, thats not my problem.

I am afraid of many things, but I've never been afraid of death. I am a Christian, so I believe in the afterlife. In fact, I'm actually looking forward to dying because I know that what awaits me on the other side will more than make up for any suffering I experience on Earth.

I am not religious, and I was scared of death until a couple of months ago.

You see, next year I plan to go. How much longer should I keep suffering?

You and me both, Alex. I hope I can roam the universe and see all there is to see.

...I wasn't trying to argue, merely contribute my opinion on the matter.
I apologise if I seemed to be antagonising against you or what you said.

I think especially then. There was something the beginning of second grade, when a teacher made an announcement that a boy from first grade had dropped a match into the gas tank of a junk car (and I completely understood the kid of idle curiousity that a person might do this. And when you're a kid, you have all kinds of ideas like this. And most of them don't work, nothing happens), and the teacher seemed hesitant, unsure, that made the whole thing worse. She didn't tell us how bad he was hurt, that also made the whole thing worse.

When I was in 4th grade showering, it suddenly hit me real hard and real heavy that I was going to die one day. That, at age 10, exactly one-tenth of my life was over. I latched onto the idea that by that time they would have artificial organs (something my mother had talked about). Out of the shower, I asked my parents if they wanted to play a game that night, something I usually didn't do.

In Oct of 8th grade, I became a Christian. The idea of heaven sometimes seemed scary. so, just the singing, what if I can't get into it? (that is, I worried about being aspie in heaven!). It didn't seem to really work for me (even though I was a Christian for more than a year), at various times, it didn't really seem true, I went through a series of crisis that very confusedly kind of rolled one into the other.

toward the end of 9th grade, ROTC directing traffic at a Saturday and Sunday all day outdoor county festival. People aren't moral, people aren't ethical (the way this adult talked, the way J. treated M. when he should have known better but I guess he didn't). This guy at this Baha'i booth, "okay, the Baha'is in 25 words or less. Probably things you believe in"

That summer I made a conscious effort to think through religion. Sitting in the garage, secretively reading some of my mom's books on religion. Sitting in my closet, secretive writing my thoughts, trying to do it as a logical deductive kind of thing, and carefully hiding these writings. That kind of worked. But it set me up because when I tried to think through other things, like health worries, like relationship, I really think the logically deductive approach is counter-productive, it's feel and texture.

vaguely worrying about going to hell for about the next four years. And the fact that I kept going to church, both because my dad kind of made us and because I had some friends there, sure didn't help matters. I used to pray "if I have offended anyone . ." And I kind of thought astral projection and there was a bigger alternative reality than just Christianity.

Okay, I might some intellectual Christians at age 19 my freshman year at college, that kind restarted some of these worries, that combined with loneliness. (I was 19 because I took a year off between high school and college). I thought through the issues again, again in writing and again being overly careful hiding my writing. I guess that kind of worked in a sense.

What really worked was discovering academic ethics at around age 23, 24, 25. Wow, there's a group of people who really care about other people and who aren't all hung up about religious issues (also a girlfriend at age 26, and I met her at a chess club of all places!)

Now, philosophy did not work out as far as a social group, and neither did political activism. But that one I'm going to remain both intellectually and emotionally hopeful. Stay open, I will find a variety of compatible people and groups.

I'm a lifelong atheist, I'm 43, and I've never been afraid of death. Not only that, I don't understand why anyone would be. Not looking to spark a debate, just stating my own stance.

Anyone gonna get frozen?