Thanatophobia (heavy stuff inside, ye be warned)

[Hero of Lime]

Death itself doesn't scare me to be honest, I just don't want to die with lots of regrets. Obviously everyone feels that way, but there is so much I want to do that I haven't, and the thought of never doing those things scare me.

Another thing, I realize if I were to die, I would be forgotten outside of my family and close friends pretty quickly. The idea of everyone else having to go on without me. The thought of being left behind is the worst for me. Once I get older I assume this feeling would go away, but as a 21 year old, it weighs heavily on me.

As of right now, death by cancer is probably my irrational fear, ever since my cat got and eventually died by it this year. My mom said the same thing happened when her mom died of cancer when she was younger. At this point I would rather be murdered in cold blood than given a diagnosis of cancer, it scares me that much.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Personally a fear of death is what's keeping me alive.
I would have slit my jugular in a bout of depression if I didn't have it.

Always wondered what,if anything, is on the other side. A fear of finding out keeps me from exploring.

 

[Foolery]

I'm not really afraid of death. If I die, I die. But I'd better make my life worth it before I do. I guess it's because I've understood it and seen enough of it starting from a young age. My grandfather died from cancer when I was 4. He wasn't just gone to me, I knew what exactly what happened and where his body went. He was cremated. I've been to 2 funerals in the past year. Recently a friend of mine that was in a vehicle accident passed away. He was in a coma for a bit, but his body just couldn't recover. My grandma passed this past summer as well. Funerals have put a lot of things into perspective for me. So many things are quite trivial and shallow. Not the good bits, mind you. I just find it ridiculous how terrible human beings can act, when in truth, not one of us has much time. A lifespan may seem long, but there's no guarantee that you'll live the full amount. We are all just pieces of carbon and other elements that nature will take back one day soon.

 

[Weaver]

I have this hit me from time to time, usually when I'm in bed.
It's pretty frightening, really.

 

[Fox12]

Weirdly enough I've seen enough death to where it doesn't really scare me very much. I'm more scared of others dying to be honest, but even then I don't worry about it too much. For me it's more about achieving everything I want to achieve before I go. After that it doesn't really matter to me. If there's a heaven then great. If there's not then eternal nothingness doesn't sound so bad either.

 

[Akytalusia]

i've got probably the farthest thing from it, short of thanatophilia.. i'm looking forward to my death, and non-existence is the best thing i could hope for. the only thing keeping me from jumping on the next boat over is the lack of information about my projected state of consciousness post-mortem. if it's really non-existence, then that's fucking great. unfortunately my constant exposure to third party theists as part of my environmental conditioning forces me to consider other possibilities that aren't nearly as pleasant. thus i have to be careful how i board that boat. i spend just about every waking moment trying to determine the truth of the matter. it's literally driving me insane as my obsessively thorough investigation has lead me to suspect there's absolutely no information attainable by me pre-mortem. -.-;;

 

[stroopwafel]

When I was younger I couldn't fathom the thought of death or that one day I would just cease to be. But as I grew older I found out loss is an inherent part of life and that slowly we get used to the idea of dying one day. Our existence is like an hour glass that slowly seeps away our hopes, dreams and possibilities. Until there is no time left. It's a series of goodbyes both big and small. Death is simply the final goodbye. The only thing you can do in this life is make your time here worthwhile and not look back in regret. Easier said than done though. But all a person can do is try.

 

[piinyouri]

In bed. Always in bed. (and it seems popular consensus agrees)

Yeah it's...weird for me. Can you imagine just falling asleep and never waking up?
You won't even see black because black is a thing. and there's (probably) nothing after death.

This one get's me usually right after I have that "Wow, I'm ME..." realization.

 

[Zeraki]

I started getting this for the first time when I was around 6 years old. I'd lie awake at night thinking about what it would be like, and imagining eternal nothingness where everything I am would just cease to exist. So I would sometimes start to panic and try to occupy my mind with something else. This is why it always annoys me when you see news people telling parents how they should "tell their kids" about a certain tragedy to "help them understand". Kids are smart, they know a lot more than most adults are willing to admit. When I brought these fears up to my parents or any other adults they would always tell me the same thing "Oh you're too young to be worrying about that" which my 6 year old self thought was absolute bullshit.

Now that I'm older it's easier to deal with, but it'll sometimes creep up on me when I'm trying to sleep. Ah, that good old "Unnamed Feeling".

I'm more frightened at this point about other people or even pets dying though. That pain is not a fun thing to deal with, and I've been dealing with it a lot the past few years.

 

[Hagi]

Say what you want about religion, but being a diehard religious fanatic has its benefits, such as preclusion of Thanatophobia.

Might be the case for some but definitely not all.

My aunt is a diehard religious fanatic and in recent years there's been a lot of anxiety over the question whether or not her life was good and faithful enough to end up in heaven, especially after my uncle developed terminal cancer. A lot of fear over the question whether or not she did something wrong and whether or not there's still time in her life to repent.

Don't know all the details as to be honest I avoid contact as much as possible largely due to this.

But religion definitely does not confer an immunity to the fear of death. Different fears most like, but still fears.

 

[lacktheknack]

Say what you want about religion, but being a diehard religious fanatic has its benefits, such as preclusion of Thanatophobia.

Might be the case for some but definitely not all.

My aunt is a diehard religious fanatic and in recent years there's been a lot of anxiety over the question whether or not her life was good and faithful enough to end up in heaven, especially after my uncle developed terminal cancer. A lot of fear over the question whether or not she did something wrong and whether or not there's still time in her life to repent.

Don't know all the details as to be honest I avoid contact as much as possible largely due to this.

But religion definitely does not confer an immunity to the fear of death. Different fears most like, but still fears.

Sorry... diehard religion that I've subscribed to.

That better?

 

[Hagi]

Sorry... diehard religion that I've subscribed to.

That better?

You personally don't, no telling how your religion would influence another person.

Might help them, might not.

My point being, I really think it's more to do with the person in question and their personality rather than whatever religion they may or may not subscribe to.

 

[In Search of Username]

I... don't get this. I don't remember ever being afraid of death, really. And I'm afraid of/anxious about a whole lot of stuff. But I guess never death.

That said, I do LIKE the idea of reincarnation being a thing, the idea of having a chance to start over again. But it's not to do with fear of death, it's to do with regret about the choices I've made so far. I'd like it to be the case that I could get another chance at everything, but I've never been AFRAID of the idea that I won't, somehow.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

Honestly, not so much. Now, the fears of those close to me dying, yes. My own mortality however, not so much. I figure it's going to happen eventually, and me worrying about it isn't going to change anything (if anything, it will make my death that much sooner. Such emotional stress not only affect the mind but the body as well).

I do however imagine my death. I'm not sure I'd want one of those "sleeps peacefully into death". I also want my death to be tragic or heroic, to mean something. I was shot trying to help someone, starved after providing my food to other people during a horrific incident, burned after helping my fellow man escape a building. Obviously these are terrible examples, and most probably would result in others being hurt (god forbid), but my hope would be that I would be remembered for at least one good deed. Sadly my life is rather routine, I have really nothing going for me. I don't have an exceptional job which affects millions, I'm not super smart, beautiful, or skilled. If I can even do one thing prior to death that might help another, I would be able to die happy.

 

[Vivi22]

Thoughts of death and what it means to actually die kind of bothered me when I was a teen, but I was never really afraid of dying. I still don't fear it either. We're all going to die eventually, we can't do anything to stop it, so there's no sense worrying about it. And the funniest part is, I'm an atheist that believes there's most likely nothing after death except oblivion and it still doesn't bother me. I feel like most people struggle to not be bothered by that, but if I cease to exist when I die, hell if I'll actually care.

 

[McElroy]

I've had this thing once when I was maybe 9 years old and I read the news about an asteroid that might hit Earth in 203X or something like that. I was a bit upset that night and made my lil sis upset too.

Otherwise, nah, I still have almost 99 years to go according to my guess. Thoughts about the lurking nothingness feel... well, empty. Too empty to be really noticed.

 

[Pandaman1911]

I don't dwell on it much, but I suppose somewhere in my mind I'm convinced that the void holds no horrors for me. I guess that's the cool thing about depression, eh? The grass always seems greener, even if the grass is on "the other side". I suppose the only thing I'm really worried about is how I get there. Pain hurts.

 

[Davey Woo]

When I was a lot younger I used to be very afraid of the idea of my own death. I used to hope that by the time I would be dying of old age, technology would have advanced such that I could live forever. Now though I've realised that my own death will not be a problem, for me, at least. I don't believe in any kind of afterlife, so the idea of not existing is pretty easy to comprehend. I can't be worried about not existing, because when it happens, I'm not around to be worried about it any more.

The only thing that bothers me is how I die, because I would not want to be in pain or be suffering beforehand.

I think it all comes down to how you comprehend death, but the reality is, being dead means that you literally can't be worried about anything any more.

 

[Verlander]

I get this bad. It's strange as I'm a logical person, and not irrationally scared of anything - except this. It's an incredibly strange feeling, and it's always kind of with you. I can be lying in bed with my wife, talking about stuff or watching a show, and in my mind it'll be there - she's going to die, and I'm going to die, and I'm not even going to know. I'm just going to.... stop. That's terrifying to me.

 

[rednose1]

Have this infrequently, whenever it hits I try to focus on everything I have in life that's good, and it'll all be there even after I go on. Sometimes it helps alittle, other times it gets me out of that train of thought completely.

Also have times where I start thinking of the "possible" ultimate fate of the universe as a neverending cold sea of nothingness, and it scares me. What would it be like to be at the end, knowing everything is fading into sameness and not being able to do anything about it? That train of thought has kept me up before, and actually makes me glad I wont be there to see it.