Afraid to die.

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OK. It's a bit of a heavy subject. But the thought just crept into my mind (again).

I sometimes think of dying. Not that I am about to, though I am a little depressed because of circumstances. But when I think of dying, fear just spreads in my body and it feels like in my head there is a very large bell sounding loudly and it's terrifying me.

I just can't imagine myself not being alive. Not being aware of myself. Not seeing things. Not being able to touch and feel. Somehow I just can't imagine myself being mortal. It just freaks me out when I'm thinking of this.

Well, I might be able to imagine it to something like sleeping. But when I go to bed, I know I'm going to wake up the next day. Then thinking of this, I know that at some point in my life I'll be very afraid of going to bed if I knew that I'd be getting old and could die any moment.

I wish there would be something like the next level or a certainty that it just wouldn't end. But then you're coming in the realm of religion and although I believe, I doubt a lot, too.

I'm really trying not to think of this and getting my mind of this.

Maybe it's because the situation that I'm in that is making me think like this. I'm going to a seriously rough period of my life in where I have no certainties at all anymore.

Anyone else who wants to share his/her thoughts about this?

I also think of death in very much the same way you do, it's terrifying and I can't even imagine non-existence. What is worse is I once believed in an after-life and believed that people who didn't believe in the right god would be tortured forever in the after-life. Even though I don't believe in an after-life anymore, I still think about the concept of Hell I once believed in and become terrified all over again, since I can't be certain what will or will not happen to me after death.

By the way, I think you may have posted this in the wrong group since it would probably belong in the Politics, Philosophy, and Religion section. But now that I've posted here, I don't think deleting will be an option anymore, but I'm sure the moderators of the site will realize you made a mistake by posting in the wrong area and might just move it.

there is no life after life. i abhor death. i try to be philosophical about it. we will still be stardust. just on the miniscule chance that there is a loving god, i believe he would accept EVERYONE in heaven, even hitler, who would spend his first six million years washing jewish feet and loving it.

Thanatophobia. I know this quite well. The fear of one's own demise...The mere fact of nonexistence is what is most frightening of all. I have always wished to be somehow rendered immortal and corporeal (unlike what some religions teach). Unfortunately, neither will likely ever happen.

I am terrified by the thought of death as well.

The human mind comes equipped with a defense mechanism against such thoughts. When the defense is not working well, it means you're very depressed and need meds / therapy / support, whatever helps you to lift the depression as much as possible. You don't need to suffer from these thoughts, they're useless, don't serve any purpose, not to mention they're a waste of important energies. Just seek help for common depression, in the way you prefer that help to be. I'm talking from my personal experience.

Also, in middle age and later, the zest for life diminishes and though one's death remains forever a scary thought, of course, it doesn't cause such strong feelings as in younger years.

Occaisionally I'll have these thoughts as well myself, but they're usually fleeting. I tend not to focus on it for very long.

While I'm not the religious sort, I am the rare sort that actually admits to NOT KNOWING what happens after death. Alot of people are certain that they know, for example, "There's definitely no afterlife!" is something you hear alot these days. But the simple, absolute, indisputable fact is: They do not know this for certain. It's IMPOSSIBLE to know this.

IS there something beyond death? Heck if I know. Is there a God? Or perhaps many gods? Or perhaps something else that nobody's even thought of yet? Could be, could be..... I have no idea.

Even "non-existence" isnt necessarily final, which is another thought I've had. Consider: Every single person on the planet has already been through it. Before you were born, you did not exist (probably). Yet bam, here you are now.


Either way though, I for one just admit that I do not know the answers to the "big" questions. And I also know that despite what science-types like to think, the truth is, we only know very little about this universe and everything related to it as of yet. There's so much we DONT know. Always bugs me when people say things in such a way, assuming that they DO know, and of COURSE they must be right. And of course nearly everyone does this to some extent. I wish more people would simply admit to NOT knowing things, instead of always assuming that they do. And I dont mean in relation to this particular subject, I mean just in general.

So that's usually how I view the concept of death: I havent the foggiest idea what it's like, or what exactly happens, so I see no real point in worrying about it. As it is, I usually ponder things like this entirely out of sheer boredom. This particular topic doesnt come up for me very much though. Usually I'd rather ponder things like the general lunacy that is quantum mechanics, or stuff like that, heh.

there is no proof, but lots of evidence, that there is no life after life. i suggest you read bertram russell's "why i am not a christian". contrast that to the total lack of evidence besides warm fuzzy feelings that any religion can offer and you will conclude that the immortal soul has a miniscule probability of existence. you are right that we can't know for sure, but we can make a mighty good guess.

I am not afraid of death its self, but dying yeah sure, who isn't? I see it like this, before i was alive, I was dead or not in existence for 13.7 BILLION years. It never once bothered or inconvenienced me. I had no sense of time, I wasn't bored waiting to exist so I don't see why I should be concerned about not existing again. If I want to imagine what its like to not exist, i just try to imagine 1989, I didn't exist then.

The idea of existing again is interesting, but the odds are absolutely ridiculous. Assuming that we are just atoms, and to exist again all that has to happen is for all our atoms to come together again, the odds of that happening is along the lines of 1 in 10^5,000,000. It would take millions of billions of universes to even bring those odds to a reasonable level.

However, there could be an infinite number of universes, but then there is an infinite amount of atoms. Mathematicians, what is the probability of an event if there are an infinite number of variables over an infinite number of tries?

Then again, maybe we don't yet exist. There is more of a chance of us coming into existence right now as you read this, with all our memories intact, all our buildings built, our river beds corroded than there is of the big bang happening.

Of course I'm afraid to die. Why wouldn't I be? Once you are dead that's it, it's all over. I'm an atheist so I don't believe in some made up afterlife to comfort me.

We all know dying is inevitable for every living being on this planet (unless someone posts a thread here saying ''is it an Aspie thing to die?'' or something ). But I still know what you mean. I can't imagine myself dead either. It disturbs me that I will never be able to think or feel or anything like that. I will just be oblivious to everything, and just will not exist any more, after all this time of existing. It is a depressing thought. It frightens me even more thinking of how I'm going to die. Like I might walk out one day and be captured by some weirdo and he might strip me naked, throw me into a bush, stab me several times, then throw me down to the bottom of the sea, without anybody ever knowing what happened to me, and that thought scares me because it does happen. And when I hear of those dreadful things happening, I always think, ''oh my God, how was that person feeling, being took away? What was it like, to be beaten up and stabbed to death?''

Also the end of the world thing on 21st of December really frighens me. One minute we're all alive, the next minute we'll all be dead, then the world will go all derelict (watch ''Life After People''), and for the first time ever there won't be anyone to stop the world from becoming abandoned. I know we won't know anything about it, but it's still a disturbing thought while you're alive. I just keep trying to doubt that anything's going to happen on that date, and it's just one of those hypes, and if such a thing was going to happen then everybody would be preparing for it. And somebody told me ''if they can't even predict the weather right, then how do they know when the world's going to end on this precise date and time?''