Anxiety/ Phobia of Dying or Something Wrong ?

[Artificial]

Hi there,

I'm just looking to get opinions or if someone has had similar experiences to give some tips or point me in the right direction.

Everyday I have this weird feeling that something is wrong with my body, for instance lately I've been thinking I have something wrong with my heart, maybe I get a strange pain and then I'll just think about it wondering if it's something bad or could cause me to pass out etc.

I have a fear of dying which might relate too it, I guess I'm scared to leave , scared to know what's on the other side so I'm super cautious about everything relating to health. A small issue is a big issue to me.

Otherwise I'm not an anxious person , very confident and have a professional career in which I interact with lots of people daily.

I guess I'm just wondering, is this a symptom of anxiety and should I just get treated for it ? Has anyone else experienced this and have any tips to overcome this ? It's just got to the point now where I'm constantly thinking about it and it's effecting my life.

[geoff]

Hello Artificial, and a warm welcome to the forums.

I can't diagnose you because I'm not qualified, however, if we have been through the same experience then maybe we can suggest, but you need to see a doctor and get them to diagnose you.

There are many people who are afraid of death but this is a natural thought, whether it's about ourselves or whether it's about losing someone we love or both, and although we know that's it's inevitable, that doesn't make it any easier.

Can I ask you a couple of questions and please only answer if you want to, these are for you to think about and then possibly write down on a piece of paper when you visit your doctor:

Is there something that you feel you’ve left “undone” or maybe a relationship you want to
repair, or someone you’d like to apologise to, a wrong that could be made right, or just make a list of what you want to do

-what else in life are you afraid of, have a talk to yourself, there seems as though something has happened to cause these thoughts and I'd to know if possible.

Take care.

Geoff.

[Wazowski]

Hi Artificial,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. It sounds like you have had these fears of getting sick and dying for some time now, however recently it has escalated to a point where it is having a detrimental effect on your life. Having constant thoughts about death sounds quite terrifying, and don’t seem to align with the person you described yourself to be. I hear that you are confident in the other areas of your life, usually don’t suffer from anxiety and are very sociable. So these fears don’t seem to make sense do they?

No one deserves to live with fears that are stopping them from living the life they want to. I agree with Geoff in that we are not able to diagnose you, however the symptoms you describe to me do sound like symptoms of a phobia, which is an anxiety disorder relating to a specific object or situation (in your case it would be death). A visit to the GP may help you to gain more insight into whether or not this is the case. Once you have some answers, you can then go about finding ways to treat it.

I think you are definitely on the right track! You are acknowledging this has become a problem, and you want to do something about it. I hope that you are able to find some clear answers soon.

Take care,
Wazowski

[Artificial]

geoff said:

Is there something that you feel you’ve left “undone” or maybe a relationship you want to
repair, or someone you’d like to apologise to, a wrong that could be made right, or just make a list of what you want to do

-what else in life are you afraid of, have a talk to yourself, there seems as though something has happened to cause these thoughts and I'd to know if possible.

I feel as though I have too much to live for, not enough experiences and a lot of people rely on me for various things. So I guess it's the fear of leaving all that behind but.. in saying that I don't think that's the root problem and you mentioned something may have caused this.

Having thought about it, last year I had a very unpleasant experience using drugs.
I had done drugs socially for the last 7 years with no problems and i'm a cautious user including testing. But I've noticed the last few times had been particular bad the days after, this time was no different however it was on another level.

I could barely stand for days as I felt dizzy, I had gone to the hospital multiple times due to heart palpitations, tingling sensations around my head/neck area and random bursts of crying thinking 'this is the end'. I had multiple tests, brain scans all returning normal and the doctors kept saying it could be anxiety but I didn't feel like it was because it was something physical I was feeling and I was reacting mentally to that. It took about 10 full days for those effects to reduce enough me to feel somewhat normal. I know that it was caused by the drug but it scared me enough that i'd never take anything again.

To me that was probably a turning point if I had to pinpoint anything in particular.