For what reason are you afraid to die?

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,704]

It is obvious to say that we prefer to be alive than not. But what about death do you fear? Do you fear the loss of consciousness? Do you fear that your legacy will not be as well as what you would like it to be? Is it the fear that you have not done enough during your time alive? Perhaps you believe in an afterlife but you fear that you may be doomed in Hell for eternity? Or perhaps you are not directly afraid of death but you are primarily concerned about the well-being of your family and friends? I do not expect the fear to be limited to just one of the aforementioned reasons (and others not mentioned), but I am curious about what aspect of one's death or its consequences people think about.

Loss of consciousness was my primary fear and perhaps it still is. But assuming I live to a very old age and have done most of what I could do in my life up until that point, I do wonder if I myself would no longer fear losing consciousness and instead adopt the attitude of being grateful that I have generally had a satisfying life. It is something I wonder about very old people in general: since they are close to death, do they tend to be more or less afraid of their end?

Edited October 7, 2019 by Luna the Great of all the Russias

[Ittoni 536]

I'm not afraid of death. What I fear is the process of dying. Once you're dead you won't even exist to experience anything, not even fear. But while you are dying you will experience the worst pain while your organs start to fail until they can't sustain you anymore. You can't breath, you feel like freezing, you will probably be hungry because if the treatments on the hospital, if you are luck it will be fatal and fast, if not well... It's gonna suck.

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

I'm not necessarily afraid of death...I just don't like the thought of leaving those I love behind. 

[ShadOBabe 18,984]

I’m just worried I might get a sucky, painful way to die. I’m a pain weenie. But then comes Heaven, so ultimately, it’s a negligent concern.

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

How about I don't think about that... These kind of questions just... bother me. I'm sorry.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

I'm not afraid of death as much as I am of pain. I also have a few people (one in particular) that really care about me, and you know how that would feel for them, so that's a reason not to want to die even a not painful death.

[Limestone-Pie 188]

I'm not necessarily worried about dying itself, I'm more terrified to see if there is an afterlife when I do pass away. Like I just don't want to die and...that's it. I can't bear with the full cessation of my very being, that is too much to bear. I do like to think that there is a god out there in some form and that spirits do exist but there is hardly any concrete way to tell that. 

That's why, as insurance, I'll freeze my body for science so that they might be able to resurrect me later. You have to always have a back up plan! If there's no afterlife than my ultimate Trump card is just to wait it out until I make my grand reentry! It'll be like Futurama but less cool.

[BastementSparkle 20,312]

Mostly I'm scared of the idea that I'll just...cease to exist. The though that once I die my consciousness basically just stops and I'm gone forever and I won't be able to think or feel or do anything ever again and I won't even know it's happened. I won't even know there was a me or that I was worrying about this because there won't be an "I" to consider that anymore. It makes everything feel utterly pointless to me, it doesn't matter if I spend my whole life struggling because all of that effort means nothing, and even if I somehow end up happy, that happiness is totally wiped away by death anyway. Even making the world a better place for others is pointless, because if I cease to exist then they probably do to, so it's like I did nothing really. If there's nothing after death, then my mere existence is just...completely worthless. I could have not been born and it would make literally no actual difference at all.

 Also, scared of pain and suffering before dying, and kind of scared at the concept of hell a little too, so if there's an afterlife it's hopefully not that. I'm not sure there's anything bad enough to actually deserve Eternal torture, I could at least understand some severe punishments in some particularly bad cases, but...eternal torture? No, I can't think of a single person I'd wish that on, even just the concept of it existing is nightmare fuel even if I never end up there.

 Basically death freaks me out in general, and I live in constant terror and existential dread because of it.

[Prince Doopliss 2,350]

While I don't fear death if itself. Just the loneliness of the state. Dying is a natural thing. However the loneliness of it is creepy because there is not knowing what you are going to see. The fact that their will be one with you is what scares me.

[Samurai Equine 45,906]

"Do not fear death."

How many times have you heard this phrase in life, fiction, and many other places?

I don't see how people can say that so easily. Just because it's inevitable for every living creature doesn't mean it's not scary anymore just because you told me not to be afraid. I mean think about it; it's VERY scary! Because outside of what science tells us, there's no way to know for sure what death is like.

• Does your consciousness, your very "soul", and everything about you cease to be and you can never witness the world and its splendor ever again?
• Is it like being perpetually asleep, but you can never wake up, never move, never communicate with those awake, and every modern piece of science just registers you as dead?
• Does the soul actually exist, but you are doomed to wonder the earth, maybe the entire universe, as a non-corporeal entity that cannot ever be fully observed or interacted with, and you are incapable of interacting with the physical world as well?
• If you do become some kind of invisible, un-observable ghost; do you even have control over your own actions?

There's a lot of things simply not answered for. I don't understand how other people manage to NOT be afraid of death so easily.

...Thankfully, as an agnostic Christian, I have the idea of some kind of heaven or afterlife to fall back on. It's the only thing that actually calms me down and makes me unafraid of my eventual death.  Honestly, the idea of an afterlife is about the only thing that makes life worthwhile, IMHO. I've often asked "What's the meaning/point of life?". Yes, I know, the typical answer is to just live it and try to find that out for yourself, but that's never been fully enough for me. It's a great answer, sure, we all have to find our own way in life. But at the end of the day, no matter what legacy you leave in this moral world, it all ends the same. We are born, we live a while, and we die. Sunrise, sunset, dust in the wind~ Seems rather pointless. Having an afterlife or eternal paradise to look forward to, a reward for living a full life, seems to just make this cruel life a bit more bearable for me. Depending on the religion you follow, you may need to do more than just live a full life. Believe in the right god, do the right works and practices, etc. There's a lot of details and personal interpretations to sort through, but I believe it all equates into one thing. We should all strive to try and be good people, not just for others but for ourselves as well. That might be the best way to a peaceful, perfect afterlife.

I have nothing against atheists, scientists, and people of other walks of life. They might have their own answer to "What is the meaning of life?", but nearly all the time, I have never heard an answer from them that I find satisfactory. The legacy I leave behind is nice, but it's nice for others, not me. How my body decomposes and feeds the ecosystem is all nice, but that answer ignores what happens to my specific consciousness or "soul". If any answer you have makes you happy, that's fine, more power to you! I respect and acknowledge it, but that's just not enough for me. The idea of an afterlife is. I hope we can learn to mutually respect each other's view points. 

[The Historian 515]

I'm not afraid of death itself. That doesn't bother me, especially cause I've often thought of bringing it on myself (I'm treated now, don't worry). What I fear is a slow, painful death. One where I waste away, unable to do things for myself. The process is what I'm not too keen on, not the thing itself.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

When I was very little, I developed quite  a fear of death. My mom sat up with me several nights and talked about it with me. Now? I'm okay. I'm not afraid of dying. It's just something that will happen some day.

[Steve Piranha 28,781]

Years ago, I was actually looking forward to death. Now, it’s rather indifferent to me. I got a stuff or two to do before dying, like consuming whatever left of G4 horses is out there.

[Latecomer 438]

I'm a procrastinator - odds are I'll have so many things I was going to do "someday". But that might be a chicken-and-egg thing - do I procrastinate becuse the idea of being on a literal deadline terrifies me?

[TBD 17,228]

Ah death. I cannot say because whatever my answer is right now could change once I experienced it.  In other words, me: “oh sure death big deal” *knock knock “oh shit!”

I would say this though..saying good byes. 

[Thuja 3,658]

As someone who has dealt with suicidal ideation for more than a decade, I'm not as scared of death as I used to be when I was a child.  Death happens to all of us, no one can escape it.  I think the only things that I'm concerned of, should I die, is the fact that I won't be able to play video games that might come out after I died, or the fact that no one would be able to take care of my cat when I'm gone.  I sometimes worry about my cat more than I care about myself, she's an older cat and most of the shelters around here are kill shelters.

I'm not really scared of death itself, sometimes I wonder what happens when we die.  Are our spirits aware of it?  Would we just reincarnate as a different being?  Do we go to some other realm when we die?  Or is there nothing?  Do we just drift off and lose awareness?

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

As someone who has genuinely wanted to die more than once in their life, I can't really say I'm afraid of death anymore. There was a time when I used to dread the uncertainty factor, but the more secure I grow in my opinions as I get older, the more and more I naturally refuse to believe that death will have made my life meaningless. 

[Emerald Heart 24,588]

Not scared of death, but tbh would hate to be the first one to die out of all my BFFs.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Spooky Emerald

[Latecomer 438]

1 minute ago, Spooky Emerald said:

Not scared of death, but tbh would hate to be the first one to die out of all my BFFs.

 

 

You wouldn't want to be the first, but would you want to be the last? (It reminds me of all the Twilicorn immortality angst back in the day.)

[BroomsNHops 260]

To leave those I love behind, but death is natural and comes to all.

[Sunlight Glisten 368]

19 hours ago, Ittoni said:

I'm not afraid of death. What I fear is the process of dying. Once you're dead you won't even exist to experience anything, not even fear. But while you are dying you will experience the worst pain while your organs start to fail until they can't sustain you anymore. You can't breath, you feel like freezing, you will probably be hungry because if the treatments on the hospital, if you are luck it will be fatal and fast, if not well... It's gonna suck.

As someone who has been on my deathbed and delt with all or those things it truely does suck.

When dieing you come to an acceptance of the fact you will die very soon.  When I didnt doe it was kinda surprising. I had friends who accepted my death and now seem to have trouble interacting with me now that I am not dead (undead???) 

The greatest fear was knowing my 3 kids would grow up and not have a dad. Not because some deadbeat walked out on them yet still having to suffer the same hardships. 

[Ittoni 536]

10 minutes ago, Sunlight Glisten said:

As someone who has been on my deathbed and delt with all or those things it truely does suck.

When dieing you come to an acceptance of the fact you will die very soon.  When I didnt doe it was kinda surprising. I had friends who accepted my death and now seem to have trouble interacting with me now that I am not dead (undead???) 

The greatest fear was knowing my 3 kids would grow up and not have a dad. Not because some deadbeat walked out on them yet still having to suffer the same hardships. 

that must have been quite en experience. glad you made it.

i was also revived but mine was much more instant. still, it feels like it doesn't end and it suddenly hits you that this is it.

[Quinch 1,119]

The instinct for self-preservation, really.

I don't believe in consciousness after death, be it afterlife, reincarnation or anything similar of the sort. In all honesty, continuation of consciousness is kind of a fantasy even when your heart is still beating. Likewise, once I'm dead, I will be in a state that prevents me from worrying about the effects of my non-existence and since dying is inevitable, I find it hard not to think simply, "eh, screw it".

On the other hand, urges ingrained into me by countless iterations of "continue living so you can propagate your genes" fill me with dread when the idea of dying makes its way into my mind. So, being torn between reason and instinct, the whole situation ends up being generally unpleasant.

[SparklingSwirls 21,261]

I try not to think about it too much, but when I do think about my death, I try to not worry about it. I could see death being something not to be feared if I had lived a long fulfilling life, given friends/family plenty of happy memories to look back on, and was able to leave this world in peace and comfort (dying in your sleep would be the way to go I think).

[Sherem 4,807]

death just comes on way or another, the only variant will be how much it will hurt or not at all, other that that thinking about it is a waste of time