fear of dying

[crazycow]

Hello everyone,

I just thought I would ask you all whether you suffer with th same fears as me.

Ever since I was a young girl I have feard death, the prospect of my whole body switching off and facing eternal nothingness fills me with dread. I know people keep telling me that when your dead you wont know it, it will be like sleeping forever, but I just cant stop thinking about it, when will it happen and whats it going to feel like? Does anyone else suffer with this awfull fear?

I suffer with panic attacks and anxiety which bring on all sorts of physical symptoms, I will list some that I am struggling with at the moment -
neck/shoulder pain
flashing in my eyesight
headaches (almost every day)
scalp pain
back pain
sinus problems
pain in the jaw and around the ears
strange head sensations
some vertigo
short episodes where I feel like I cant swallow......................... the list is quite long, sorry :)

So all these symptoms are pretty scary, ive looked them up on the net (i know, big mistake) and it comes up with all kinds of horrible stuff, strokes, TIA's, anuerysm's........ which terrify me, its all I think about and im only 22! The doctor says he thinks im ok, I had a CT scan a year ago which came back normal, guess im just paranoid.

Please let me know if enyone else feels the same, I would really like to hear from you, thanks xx

[morbidlyeuphoric]

Does it ever feel like your heart is beating super fast but when you check your pulse, it's actually beating at a normal pace? That happens to me a lot. It's one of the strangest feelings.Or I feel like it's skipping a beat, but once again when I feel my pulse everything is perfectly normal.

[detpiston7788]

Hey i hear ya on that. Ealier this year i was a total mess! It became one concern after another, if not HIV, then Liver problems, if not that, then cancer and the list goes on... I've had so many tests done and all came back fine but i still continued to look up diseases and compare symptoms to whatever symptoms i have and belive me, i was so scared for a while that i couldnt eat, i lost a tone a weight (which was actually a good thing, i needed it :) )  But then, i started taking meds and doing the thearpy thing and statyed away from the net.. Thats the biggie..Stay away from looking up diseases on the net... Very bad!!! Best thing u should do is go out with friends, get yourself into interests u might have.. Please do that, life is too short to worry constontley when at the same time your ok! Just tell yourself this  "Everyone thing is going to be ok"  You also should get in touch with an anxiety support group.  

Best wishes.
Adam

[flob]

i'm terrified of death. it's very easy to allow it to consume me...but one thing that i've found to help is simply numbers. sheer numbers of people who've already died and who will die....there are 6 billion some odd people in this world at this very second...all will be dead within a hundred years or so. ALL of them...that doesn't include everyone that's come before now and all that will come after...and everyone who ever has and ever will exist will die. imagine just 6 billion, which is only a fraction of the amount of people who've already died....thats a huge number. that really helps me to view it as just another part of nature. it also helps me realize i truly love life and so i don't take it for granted as much. whats more imporant is that i have to die...we all have to die...so that other people get a chance to live life. if humans didn't die, then you and i simply wouldn't be here to begin with. this comforts me to know that death is all part of the process so that someone else will get to experience life. why should i be so selfish to hog it all for myself?

anyway...these thoughts help me accept death for what it is. i don't know that they'll help anyone else...but they do me. death is a process of life...not and ending. we still exist in some form whether there's an afterlife or not. thats what i think anyway.

[crazycow]

Thanks everyone for the kind messages, its lovely to know im not alone.

Just a quick question, what do you think happens after we die?

[morbidlyeuphoric]

this is STRICTLY my opinion. I personally believe in an after-life-I've seen too many odd things to NOT believe in one-so I don't believe we just stop existing. However, because of this, death freaks me out even more because I don't exactly follow my religious beliefs. I just have them. So, if we do go to Heaven or Hell, and I'm all destined to go to the latter, you can see why I might be a bit conflicted and not too terribly overjoyed about the whole death thing. I hate that I can't just make a decision about it. It might make my life a little easier. Anyone else?

[crazycow]

Im terrified that there just isnt anything, that life will just stop. I mean theres so much I want to know, about the meaning of it all about all the other planets out there, I dont want to stop existing.  As, for my beliefs, well, im just not sure. Sometimes I look at Buddhism and watch the Dalai Lama and think, yeh that makes sense. I wish I had a faith.