Poll of the Day > Do you personally fear dying?

(+) Yeah! (+)

toopic
---

I'm not afraid of dying, but I'm afraid of how I might die. Peacefully in my sleep please...

I dont fear dying, but I do have an irrational fear of not existing
---

Mead posted...

I dont fear dying, but I do have an irrational fear of not existing

so you hold out no hope of a heaven or anything?
---

I have one of the most complicated relationships with death. I've suffered severe and crippling fear of death most of my life. The sort of fear that would leave me in absolute, indescribable terror and despair and weeping hysterically any time I thought about it. I've woken up from a deep sleep with the thought "I'm going to die someday" popping into my head and had an instant panic attack because of it.

I've also been suicidal since I was 8 years old and have wished myself dead or fantasized about death endless times. Which I've never really seen as a contradiction. I have to die someday anyway, and if that's just the end, why waste time with the middle? No more suffering, get it over with. When you're severely mentally ill and just existing is like being one open wound, it kind of makes sense.

Then I completely lost my mind and ended up in a psychotic state for about a year. In and out of mental hospital. And one of the thoughts in my crazy head was that I had looked too long into the abyss and the abyss had finally looked back. I did end up on the razor's edge of dying a couple of times while I was crazy. Can't even come close to describing all of my delusions and visions, but... I started feeling like there is something really really wonderful after death. And felt like I kind of can't wait to get there.

Then I was put on a dopamine blocker and I knew the deepest despair I've ever known and I wished for the sweet sweet release of death with every breath.

Now I'm on lithium and it really numbs my emotions. Apparently this is what it feels like to be a normal person, but sometimes it feels really dead inside. I like it better than being an open wound though. And now my fear of death is... Intellectual but not so emotional. I don't think about it much. I still hold out an inkling of hope that there is something good after death.

Insanity and hope, so closely related.
---

ill probably be drunk when it happens

Idk, I don't wanna die tomorrow or youngish, but like I believe in the afterlife.

LaggnFragnLarry posted...

ill probably be drunk when it happens

That actually happened to a friend recently, he got drunk, tripped and hit his head and burst a blood vessel. Crazy.
---

JebronLames posted...

Mead posted...

I dont fear dying, but I do have an irrational fear of not existing

so you hold out no hope of a heaven or anything?

Im agnostic about the whole thing

I dont think we understand anywhere near enough about existence to determine one way or another whether or not theres any kind of experience after we die
---

Yes I fear death. Not so much of others but my own. I had a panic attack several years ago triggered by breathlessness and the thought that I was going to die. Since then I've been very aware of my own mortality. I know death is inevitable and it's futile to fear it but I can't help but let my mind wonder at times. I however try to focus more on the journey not the destination as I can't change the fact at some point I'll not exist again just like before I was born.
---

No. Fearing the inevitable is the greatest waste of energy.
---

I forgot to mention that I fear one thing significantly more than I fear my own death. My husband's death. If he dies before me, I have no reason to be on this planet. I would also be completely helpless and probably end up dead in the street or a ward of the state. Not sure which is worse.

I pray to the universe in general to die before he does. Like even if that meant a violent and painful death five minutes from now, I'd take that over the alternative.
---

I don't really fear my death but I am not wanting to go at this point. I think there is something beyond. I fear my family's death. My husband has had 2 open heart surgeries and my daughter 2 brain surgeries that has left her physically disabled. It was hard to handle emotionally. My mother, on the other hand lives with me and suffers from alzheimers. I do not want to live with my family if I get like that and seeing the way my mother suffers mentally and physically I don't want to get to that point.
---

Alzheimer's is a truly terrible thing. No one should have to go through that, as a patient or a caregiver. :(
---

Not really. I'm kind of neutral/numb to the concept by this point. Obviously I don't want to suffer when it happens, like getting hit by a car and having your body smashed up and in pain. As far as actually dying though, that part isn't scary to me. I don't think it'd feel any different from passing out or dozing off if it happens naturally.

Plus I believe in an afterlife, so that makes it easier to adjust. I'd almost rather I didn't though, I find it more comforting to think I just won't exist any more than to continue on in some fashion. I actually fell asleep to that thought last night, imagining just being completely undone and fading away and forgotten. It lulled me to sleep which strange to think about.
---

The state of being dead doesn't scare me. There's also worse fates that I can imagine than death.

That said, most of the ways you can die are awful and those scare me.
---

I fear not dying soon enough more. I don't want the physical and mental toll of being elderly.

I don't want to die, but fuck being 90 plus.

I feel that. Especially since I have a degenerative disease that WILL get worse and worse as long as I live. I don't want to live past like 80, max. 70 may be better.
---

I mean with medical advance, I'm a healthy person so I'm fine living to whatever age with be comfortable. It's just once quality of life is gone, push whatever plunger shoots the sleepy forever drug.

It makes me really angry sometimes that I can give my pets the dignity of death when their quality of life is too low but I can't do the same for myself.
---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0MIFHLIzZY" data-time="
---

The only thing I would fear about death is how it would affect the people around me

i welcome the sweet release of death

no one on Gamefaqs is afraid of dying. Also no one on CE smiles for pictures and no one tips. They also never smoke, never drink alcohol, and don't listen to music.
---

I don't fear it but I damn sure dont want to die.
---

Sober? Feared. Drunk or pissed-off? I'm ready.
---

I'm pretty sure I'm immortal. I'll push the limits until I know. I'm in better shape at 72 than I was at 30. So, no, I don't even think about death.
---

Not to sound like the 3rd brother in 'The Tale of the Three Brothers' from Harry Potter, but I'm ready to great Death as an old friend.
---

I don't believe that a just God would allow Hell to exist (at least in the fire and brimstone for all eternity form that most Christians believe in), so that just leaves 4 possibilities.

1. Annihilation. You cease to exist, but you'll never know it, so nothing to really worry about.

2. Heaven. Always a winning choice.

3. Your spirit rejoins the cosmic consciousness. I imagine you'd suddenly be able to understand everything in the universe.

4. Reincarnation. Your spirit returns in another form in an endless cycle. Not sure I want to be a blobfish after being a human for several decades, but it beats annihilation I suppose.

Actually, there's another possibility.

5. Solipsism. I can only prove that my own mind exists (cogito, ergo sum). None of you may actually exist except within my mind. The entire universe could just be a simulation, if you will, within my organic brain? computer? something else? "Death" may not actually exist, merely a reboot of my simulation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u-cTXryG4k" data-time="
Live Before I Die
---

Everyone's afraid of death.

Anyone who says otherwise is either a psychopath or someone who hasn't almost died.
---

Yellow posted...

Everyone's afraid of death.

Anyone who says otherwise is either a psychopath or someone who hasn't almost died.

I've almost died more than once (two of those times as a kid once almost drowned the other almost got stuck by lightning), and I'm not a psychopath. In fact, the reason I'm not personally scared of dying has more to do with caring than not.

I'm not scared of dying because I wouldn't have to see any more suffering in people I care about. No more stray cats' babies I can't save, no more being a drain because I can't function. Physically or mentally.

I'm not wishing to die, don't get me wrong, I'll go when it's my time and I'm long past trying to rush that. I'm just... so tired deep down in the center of my being. When it is my time, I think everything will be okay. I can't say I've lived a full life or whatever, but living another 30+ years isn't going to change that either.

There's no point in fearing death, while I'll admit it's natural it's also futile. Death comes when it comes, and while sometimes you can do something to prevent/delay it... well... Eventually there's just nothing you can do. I don't see the point personally in fearing the inevitable. Death is sad, yes, it's even harder not to feel sad about it. But afraid? I find it very easy not to fear dying. I've made my peace with the fact that I will one day die.

Despite realizing that death is inevitable, and pointless to fear, I fear the death of others though. I don't know why, but that's something that causes me to have anxiety attacks from time to time.

Yellow posted...

Everyone's afraid of death.

Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise.
---

I'm afraid of the dying process, if anything - particularly the fact that it might be long and painful.

But that really only comes into play if I spend a lot of time thinking about it, which I don't do.
---

SunWuKung420 posted...

Yellow posted...

Everyone's afraid of death.

Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise.

Traditionally the time of the day for executions :)
---

SunWuKung420 posted...

Yellow posted...

Everyone's afraid of death.

Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise.

Bad news if you're a vampire.

And yes, of course I fear death. That's what's called the survival instinct. Those who say they don't fear it are mostly at a comfortable distance from doing it. I've watched both of my parents die in hospital and it was impossible to kid myself that what I witnessed was a peaceful and dignified slipping away.
---

Firewerx posted...

Those who say they don't fear it are mostly at a comfortable distance from doing it.

No one is at 'comfortable distance' from dying. Any of us could drop dead right this second for any reason though.

I fear the pain, and hate the idea of other people cleaning up the mess I would leave behind.
---

The ultimate unknown.
---

My last adventure
---

ChaosAzeroth posted...

Any of us could drop dead right this second for any reason though.

Most of us are intellectually aware of that as a remote possibility, but we don't seriously expect to. It's a different story if you're elderly or seriously ill. Of course young, healthy people are going to say they don't fear death, as if they're tough guys spitting in the Grim Reaper's eye.
---

SunWuKung420 posted...

Yellow posted...

Everyone's afraid of death.

Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise.

Fearing death is like fearing opening this website
---

SunWuKung420 posted...

Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise.

Sunrise would imply I'm alive though.
---

Death itself? No. I fear pain, not death.

A quick death would be merciful compared to a "painful prolonged death".
---

Mead posted...

I dont fear dying, but I do have an irrational fear of not existing

I guess that's the best depiction of how I feel, too.

Even as earlier as like 12 years old, I'd think about one day just ceasing to exist, and it'd terrify me, I'd just feel this cold, gaping emptiness inside.

Even now, all I can do is distract myself from thinking about it. I need to take better care of myself, but I do exercise, and honestly staying youthful and healthy and living as long as possible is the main motivation. I'm agnostic, but I'm not against the idea of a heaven existing...I'd really love it to be true, in fact! But there just doesn't seem to be any rational way it could be true, and I don't have much in the way of blind faith (hence being agnostic).

I really want to see some people braver/more desperate than me try out shit like human cloning and...I saw once about a guy trying to do a brain transfer into another body...
Just see how that stuff turns out, have some better idea about what gives a person their sense of self, retention of memories, etc... Likewise with the even more out-there sci fi stuff w/ the human mind uploading to a computer or such, but that seems even more implausible, and no longer having a biological body would be eerie/depressing.

I remember a story about nurses in hospices and the things the dying patients would tell them, and the most unanimous thing they all said was missing the full use and health of their bodies. Treasure your body...take good care of it. Keep it functioning as long as you possibly can. Sadly you only get the one.

Almost the entire thread of this poll has been so deep. Just thought I'd point this out. :P
---

streamofthesky posted...

Even as earlier as like 12 years old, I'd think about one day just ceasing to exist, and it'd terrify me, I'd just feel this cold, gaping emptiness inside.

I tend to get a panic feeling and if I think about it too much that feeling will increase. I suppose I have some form of death anxiety at least.
---

Death doesn't scare me it's an eventuality, the only thing that concerns me is if my family, and pets will be okay when I'm gone
---

I'm much more afraid of dying than I am of being dead.
---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClQcUyhoxTg" data-time="
---