Keep thinking in fear about Death

[ProDude]

I'm 23 years old and for some reason it suddenly hit me that one day I am going to die.

I've obviously always known the fact of life that everyone dies. My parents will die, my sister will die, my extended relatives will die, my friends will die, my cats will die. Despite knowing this, the terror I feel about dying doesn't go away. I've always accepted it as some abstract concept but I guess I never really thought about what that actually means to be dead.

I dont fear the dying process itself, I fear being dead. I think about religion and beliefs of an afterlife and being a separate spiritual entity from my body, but I am skeptical. As far as I can tell, once you die you cease to exist. Your brain function ends, your heart stop and you return to the oblivion that existed from the beginning of time until birth.

I keep telling myself im being crazy and that it's a good 60-70 years away and yet I still can't stop thinking about it.

Anyone have any tips that might help me come to terms with death and return me to my state of merely acknowledging death as a thing that will inevitably happen one day?

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi ProDude,

Thanks for your post.

Telling yourself not to think about death while it's giving you anxiety is like telling yourself not to think of a pink elephant. Not only is it going to happen, but now you're so focused on it. So know that it's okay to think about death and it's okay to have anxiety over death. It doesn't make you crazy.

Can you think about what started this anxiety over death? Sometimes looking at that can make things easier, especially if there was something specific that triggered it.

I think the biggest advice that I can give you is to let the anxiety be with you for a bit. Death is scary, and it's a scary thought knowing that at some point everyone you know will die at some point, as well as yourself. There's no way to make that better or to sugarcoat it. But what we can do is acknowledge it without it all being totally in your face.

What you're feeling is anxiety, and it is totally harmless. See if you can recognise that - maybe that's giving it a persona 'death anxiety man' or a story 'the death anxiety story'. Being able to detach a little from it is going to give it a lot less power.

I hope this helps a little and gives you a place to start. If you're interested, you can always chat to a therapist about this - what you're feeling is very very common 🙂