How have you overcome the fear of death?

[Manzanas]

Assuming the fear is present of course.

Personal events have led a friend of mine to ponder this concept, admittedly, A deep sense of despair and fear settles in when he comes to the conclusion that death, to him. Is quite simply, the end. Of thought, consciousness, life. etc..

He's a loose agnostic at best, but he's open and curious to how one of you, with similar conclusions have overcame the fear, or have you?

He'd like to ask a few questions, in hopes for a concept that can provide comfort in the concept of death. (Other than common beliefs out there. Like Christianity)

1. What does death mean to you?
2. If the thought led to fear, or despair. Have you overcame it? How?


Note - She's really interested on how an atheist, or the sorts overcame the fear of death.

 

[tobi!]

how did you overcome your fear of death
-yes
-no

what

 

[Yui Z]

I have hope, and that's why I don't fear it. Life's too short to worry about death too.

Oh yeah, I'm more afraid of other people dying.

 

[penguins]

imo religion is sometimes used as a crutch for people who are afraid of death
most people like to think that they'll still carry on even when they're dead
in heaven with a huge mansion or bugattis or whatever it is that religious people like to think about where you go after you die
but you just kind of have to accept that after you die, it's over
and if heaven doesn't exist or wtv you won't remember anything so there's no point in worrying
just
idk how to explain it sorry

 

[tumut]

Don't think about it. You can die at any moment in time, but if you're an ordinary person there is no reason to fear it if you ask me. I mean we're all gonna die eventually.

 

[Improv]

I've never really been afraid of death. I've had relatives die pretty much yearly for half my life now & I've had several friends commit suicide. It's just a part of life & one day you'll no longer be on this planet.

 

[Fhyn_K]

Life is what you take out of it and the same extends to death. Giving weight to one makes the other less influential. If you let the inevitable haunt you then you are only doing yourself a disservice in not making the most out of right now. You really don't need a long paragraph because the concept is personal and no one can sway your stance on it besides yourself.

 

[Brackets]

I've always come under the belief that just because you WANT something to be true, doesn't make it true. In my opinion holding on to hopes of heaven and eternal life is just a security blanket, and I've always been fine with not having that hope. I'd rather be realistic- I don't think there's anything after death.

I come into contact with dying people and death a LOT on my course, and talking to them helps me realise (ok going to be quite cheesy here) how wonderful life is, and how you need to make the most of it and just be grateful for getting a chance at life. If I've had a happy and fulfilling life, I won't fear death (hopefully), because, well, I've had my life and it's been good.

 

[boujee]

No one can really tell you how death will be like or how it will feel.
We can make observations but we won't really know until we experience it ourselves.
I haven't overcame my fear of it but I must acknowledge that I won't live forever.
You need to create your own hope/faith and just relax.

 

[Lock]

Like fear of yer own death or death of the things around you?

I dunno. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance... Lolz

I think you can only distract yerself for so long, but certain moments can bring the fear right back out of you. But seeing that I don't want to waste my time being afraid of what will eventually come.. I invest in experiences I can have before it's not an option anymore. I'm more afraid of watching what I know becoming irrelevant than death. If I'm dead then I can't review anything, but if I'm alive I can capture and revisit memories whenever I want to. The fear stops when you are surrounded by people who are supportive of you no matter what you've done. Hope and finding something to look forward can also change yer perspectives.

In the basics of religion, we want to believe that there is someone who unconditionally loves us and protects us. To give that desire a face and make it all powerful brings a sense comfort. But if religion isn't yer thing, you can always find those concepts in yer immediate influence if you are willing to give life a proper chance to exist.

 

[Mercedes]

Uhm we never die we just fall asleep and wake up in HEVEn. :/ lol

- - - Post Merge - - -

Trust me u had cAncer one time I saw the light, but I'm better now so yeah

- - - Post Merge - - -

I*

 

[Cazqui]

I don't fear it, because it's gonna happen regardless.... unless science finds a way to stop cells from aging and makes everybody immortal. Other than that it's meh to me, I believe in some sort of afterlife or maybe reincarnation but not a heaven or anything mainstream religious.

 

[Gusmanak]

I don't fear it, but I don't want it to happen, there are people I don't want to stop seeing, just tell them that they need to make the most out of life, and make smart decisions so that they can peacefully die.

 

[Shimmer]

I know I won't live forever but I'm still afraid of it because I don't know what it'll be like or what happens.

 

[Alienfish]

I don't know really. Probably some way of accepting it will happen at one point... And I don't have the best situation right now for an overly happy life so it probably hit me; if I die then I do.

 

[epona]

i'm only terrified of death by natural causes, it scares me ****less that i might live a long, happy and whole life and then one day just not wake up, i'd rather die with signifigance when i was younger
i know that makes absolutely 0 sense but i just don't like the idea of being old and looking back on all the memories from my life, i'd rather not see it coming in my 30s than approach my 80s/90s and know that my time was nearly up

i haven't really overcome my fear of death but i guess i'm sort of desensitised to it because i've had to deal with so much of it, one of my very good childhood friends died when i was 14 and that came as a huge blow to me as the only other encounters with loss that i had experienced up to that point were the deaths of elderly figures like grandparents and great aunts/uncles
i had to grow up really fast and learn to deal with death as a fact of life, and that was reinforced when my sister, who was only a few years older than me, died last year
i guess it's just something you become more and more accustomed to when you have to deal with it, i have friends who have all of their grandparents still with them and haven't really had to deal with a situation where death is a factor, and i know if anybody they were close to died it would be far more of a blow to them than it would be to me if i were in the same circumstances

with regards to how to overcome the fear of nothingness, i'm not a religious person but i like to believe in reincarnation. i think it's a nice idea and there's no harm in believing that i'll become a different spirit after this life ends

 

[Airysuit]

Due to a traumatic event I developed GAD and a chronic depression when I was 10 / 11. The first years I was really afraid of death, I always thought someone was gonna murder me in my sleep. When my parents were 5 minutes late I thought they'd died in an accident.

But since the first loved one I knew died (my dog), I'm not afraid of it at all. Since then my grandparents died, a friend, and some other animals and people I knew. Yes, I was sad, but I thought before I would flip out when someone actually died, because of GAD.

But I think its a really peacefull place, where I will be with the ones I love. It seems like a perfect end to life.

 

[GumCat]

It's actually kind of easy to stop thinking/talking about death when everyone talks that subject to, uh, death. I don't know, I hold a reverence for the dead I hope people do for me, too. I hope I make an impression on the people who get to know me and live on that way.

 

[ACupOfTea]

Part of the reason I don't fear death is because I'm religious. That's one way to overcome the fear.

 

[Jarrad]

"Poll: how did you overcome your fear of death
-yes
-no"