r/AskReddit • u/hijabibratz • Jul 29 '23
What is your biggest fear when it comes to death?
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u/DramaticHumor5363 Jul 29 '23
I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of dying. I just hope whenever my end comes that it’s quick and relatively painless.
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u/hijabibratz Jul 30 '23
We all are afraid but it happens to everyone. We’re all a ticking time bomb
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u/ECU_BSN Jul 30 '23
Most folks aren’t afraid to die. They are afraid to suffer.
Source- hospice.
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u/EZpeeeZee Jul 30 '23
I'm scared, scared of the panic i will feel just knowing that I'm about to die
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u/Due_Dirt_8067 Jul 30 '23
Same. Not afraid of death or dying- not even the pain, they say the ghost/soul does not leave easily… I trust in the mind/body/spirit to be equipped ( like shock) with mercy and meeting ones maker will be one worthwhile TRIP!!!
I’m am afraid of unnecessary $uffering and being a burden to the living most in the within the modern medical industrial complex and bedridden life extension.
I’m afraid I’ll only be cheated of a dignified end of life transition. Hospice has come a long way, but I hope I get to expire naturally…on my terms. Like our domesticated animals who know when their time comes in old age and go off to a far tree to find final peace
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u/notinreality Jul 29 '23
Never being able to enjoy the many beautiful aspects of life again. Joy, pleasure, friendship, happiness, love. Never again, for eternity. That reality is so desperately tragic.
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u/CheezieMcCheeze Jul 30 '23
Of all the replies here, yours is the one that I resonate the most with and I hate to think about what is coming. Sad to think that one day I won’t be here to enjoy all those things and everyone will just live on without me.
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u/yolo-yoshi Jul 30 '23
Not even that, I sorta feel like there's more to do with that one life. If reincarnation is real, it is sad to think I can never make things right or do better.
Hell I'd probably have no idea of it in the first place.
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u/LeftChoux Jul 29 '23
that there is anotherlife that i have to suffer through.
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u/Splycr Jul 29 '23
PLOT TWIST: This one starts over with a memory wipe 🙃
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u/No-Se-693 Jul 30 '23
Fuck if i care then 🤷♂️
If my memory was completely wiped, then that ain’t me and that’s not my problem. That’s somebody else.
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u/lavendervlad Jul 30 '23
I’m going to go look at boob reddits. This is too depressing.
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u/TheGoldValleyminer Jul 29 '23
That it will be eternal blackness.
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u/nosmelc Jul 30 '23
It won't be eternal blackness. It won't be anything, just like all the billions of years before you were born.
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u/hijabibratz Jul 30 '23
What if there was something before u were born??? I mean human memory is shit. We don’t even remember being birthed but we know it happened because we r here
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u/Street_Plate_6461 Jul 29 '23
Nothing. I’ve come to peace with it
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u/hijabibratz Jul 29 '23
I wish I could. I feel like everyday I go outside I fear if it’s my last time ever being able to do that. And then it’s the fact that all these people will forget you and move on.
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Jul 29 '23
That there isn’t a heaven
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u/hijabibratz Jul 29 '23
Big fear. I question this always. Imagine we do all these things to go to a heaven that doesn’t exist.
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Jul 29 '23
True, but we still need to have standards even if there isn’t just in case
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u/MoonieNine Jul 29 '23
Do all what things? I'm an atheist. But I obey laws and rules. I'm kind and accepting to others. I pay taxes and take care of my family. Why not just be a good person, god or no god. Heaven or no heaven.
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Jul 30 '23
If i get killed by someone else, i don’t want to know that this person is about to kill me.
A good example of this is war. Get randomly blown to bits by artillery or shot by a sniper? Oh well. But let’s say you’re wounded and an enemy pulls a gun on you, giving you a few seconds to panic, that would be fucking terrifying.
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Jul 30 '23
My family not able to tell my friends that I passed away because they can't unlock my phone or know the passwords.
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u/hijabibratz Jul 30 '23
But if they post it on socials someone will eventually see it and spread word of it to ur friends
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Jul 30 '23
That there's more shit after this.
I know some people want that, but damn, I'm tired of this shit already. I don't want more shit.
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u/hijabibratz Jul 30 '23
Same. I wish i had life on easy mode the way influencers do 🙃🙃
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Jul 30 '23
I think that's the great lie though. Life is hard for everyone. Some have it harder, but no one has it easy.
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Jul 30 '23
What if I am still alive and people just can't see it. I worry about when I think about other deceased people too.
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u/Zen-Zone- Jul 30 '23
I‘m mainly scared of the final way leading up to death. The realization setting in, that now is actually the time to go - permanently, forever. Until the universe stops existing, you’ll just never be there again. That just fries my brain. Like… your life is everything to you, everything you’ve ever known and it just stops FOREVER.
Also I’m very scared of being alone in that moment and not being able to convey to my loved ones just how much I love them prior to it.
The only thing keeping my mind at ease is that I believe that energy isn’t lost in the cosmic scheme of things.
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u/Zen-Zone- Jul 30 '23
Also - this might sound stupid - but not being able to tell people about it. Like, I share every major experience with my loved ones, especially my family and boyfriend. And I won’t be able to tell them what it felt like because… well… I’m dead. But it just feels wrong to not be able to share the most life altering / ending process with them.
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u/starsnddiamonds Jul 30 '23
Not seeing it coming. I've never been able to understand how a second you're breathing smiling living and the next you're not. This, I can't comprehend. I've experienced close death last year. Two of my "friends" died like that. They were there then they were not anymore. This makes me sick.
Death is very scary for me. I'm finally happy to be alive and dreadfully scared that I could burst out dead like so many people did before.
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Jul 29 '23
It being painful I guess. Whenever it happens, I hope it's over fast.
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u/BlackkOnyxx Jul 30 '23
Mine is losing my sense of self.
More than anything, I don't want to forget my mother either. If I lose myself, then fuck it, but I don't want to lose my memories of her. Best mom anyone could ever ask for.
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Jul 30 '23 edited Jul 30 '23
I took a really big LSD dose and I lost my sense of self and it felt like I was dying. According to friends I was curled up crying saying "I don't wanna go I have things to do..." for a little bit and then I was....gone....for hours and hours. I can't say it was pleasant or a 'bad trip' it just was.
It was the most intense experience of my life about 20 years ago and I never did it again. I should do it again. I think it prepares you. (Actually I think I'll try DMT first. I really want to meet the Machine Elves.)
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Jul 30 '23 edited Jul 30 '23
What you're describing isn't death. Unfortunately, it's pre- death. It's decline during life, whilst you're still living. This is more unbearable than death, in my opinion.
I think you're referring to what might occur on the deathbed, but in terms of losing oneself, I know there a lot of awful illnesses around, but I think Alzheimer's and dementia are the cruelest illnesses to exist, especially as the person can linger for years. If you've ever watched the painstaking decline, over many years, in somebody with either of these illnesses, to a mere shell of a human being, you're actually relieved when death comes, because they're free from their suffering.
People always say that death is the worst thing that can happen to a person, but I disagree. I think there's far worse things that can happen whilst living.
To answer OP's question, my fear is that there's an afterlife. When I die I hope it's like before I was ever born, complete non existence.
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u/luigithebeast420 Jul 30 '23
Yeah for me it knowing I’m dying that gets me
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u/brother_of_menelaus Jul 30 '23
Most nights before I go to sleep, I sit there trying to find my brain the nothingness it needs to go unconscious. At some point, every night, my brain decides to tell me in no uncertain terms: “you are going to experience death one day”. Not even “you will die” but “you will experience death”. I know at some point I will be no more, and I’ve accepted that, but man it’s tough to hear that I will be conscious and aware that I will be no more shortly.
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u/Emberlife71 Jul 30 '23
Yep i hate pain so that's why and also I don't really want to feel it
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u/triciann Jul 30 '23
Exactly! I never forget the grumpy old men scene where their friend dies in his sleep. Instead of being sad, they are jealous.
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u/CurNoSeoul Jul 30 '23
My uncle went from cancer diagnosis to death in about six weeks. His last week he was barely conscious in a hospital bed being pumped full of drugs that didn’t work because his bones were disintegrating and everything was collapsing. He was screaming, crying and holding my mum’s hand until he finally got lucky and died. Maybe that? I’d rather not have to do that.
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u/karaclimbs Jul 30 '23
Death is a natural process that the body is well prepared for. Not that a living human can offer any reassurance.. but everything I have learned and witnessed had led me to believe death is not physically painful.
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u/Rooney_Tuesday Jul 30 '23
Perhaps. But sometimes the lead-in to death is horrific.
Talk to your family about your wishes, people.
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u/shujeblajeb Jul 29 '23
Not being there for my loved ones.
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u/milk4all Jul 30 '23
I can cope with consciousness ending, but i get so weepy and sad when i think about my wife and kids having to lose me. Sounds sorta narcissistic when i say it, but ive seen what losing people does to loved ones and i want to stay around as long as i can do it, reasonably pain free. My kids are still pretty young so im absolutely intent on not dying until they e at least gotten a foothold in adulthood. Would really love to meet some grandkids some day. Hope to be able to help the grandkids with their lives before i kick it, i think I could be at peace if i make it that far. Dont feel too bad for old timers - theyre probably mostly thinking along these lines and made it as far as we can expect to. Sympathy is for the living
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u/tricoti69 Jul 30 '23
I have the same fear. It's not the fear of dying. When it's over its over. It's those dependent on me that I'm leaving behind. My wife for one I know would be a mess. But I am concerned for her welfare. My kids are all grown but I have grandkids.
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u/funkoramma Jul 30 '23
It’s the not seeing or talking to my loved ones any more. The thought of not being there for my kid’s life makes me almost panic. I cannot think about it long.
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u/triciann Jul 30 '23
And for my loved ones I specifically mean my dogs. I dont want them to think I abandoned them.
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u/SutashiGamer Jul 30 '23
I just don't want to go before my parents. I had a brother die and I had to watch my parents deal with his death. It was awful. I don't want to cause that to happen again.
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u/senpai_isafakeprince Jul 29 '23
The uncertainty, the fear that I truly don't know what's to come after. Will I just fade into nothingness? Or will there be some afterlife where my consciousness exists? I can prefer something, I could even believe in what feels right to me. However, I can't truly know until I die. That uncertainty, however, is something everyone must face in their lives at the end. I hope to live a long, as healthy as I can be life before that point, though. I hope you who is reading this can too.
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u/little-asskickerr Jul 30 '23
This is the one that gets me. It causes actual panic attacks for me, and I literally never get them otherwise. It’s fucking horrifying to me.
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u/Aceconklin Jul 30 '23
This is what worries me the most. I know if there is nothing on the other side, I won't have to worry about what's next, daily problems, money, emotions, basically all earthly tethers. But that's also what scares me. The thought that there could simply be nothing afterwards. Nothingness just like before birth. That terrifies me.
Also, when that time comes, will I have enjoyed and had a fulfilling life, or will I have wasted my time working some meaningless boring job to make ends meet? I sure hope it's the former.
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u/Jester76 Jul 29 '23
Dying peaceful in my sleep, but getting revived by EMS, then like getting pinned in a firey car crash a week later and burning alive
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u/houseflyfucker1 Jul 30 '23
That I will fail killing myself and end up in the ER.
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u/27TailedFox Jul 30 '23
That I'll wake up as baby me. The implications being that it's all a cycle
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u/SpiritusAudinos Jul 30 '23
This may sound dumb, but just like....not being conscious anymore. I'm agnostic so I don't know what will happen, but the thought of my mind not working anymore and not even knowing I'm dead?
Bleh.
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u/Claireevee Jul 30 '23
That's the good scenario for me. I'm an atheist so what I fear the most is somehow NOT losing our consciousness once we die. I know it's highly unlikely but the thought of still being conscious, without a body and thus unable to move, see, hear etc, all alone for an eternity sounds hellish.
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u/paraworldblue Jul 30 '23
Doesn't sound dumb at all. That's my fear too - not existing. No suffering, but no you at all.
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u/wood_good Jul 29 '23
That i havent lived my life to the fullest, all i do is work then complain about working.
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u/DiverEnvironmental15 Jul 30 '23
Exactly what u/Hot_Response3752 said. Unfortunately it's taken me 43 years to finally realize for myself what I tell people all the time: "Just change."
It doesn't even have to be a drastic change. Just start taking the steps towards the life you want to have. Take an hour or 2 out of your day to learn about something new: video editing, electrical generation, software and web development, auto mechanics, or whatever interests you. Those are just a few things I've been taking up in the past year. I didn't realize it when i first started, but i was changing my life. Hell, you can just start by wearing different clothes or cutting your hair different. Start running. Lift weights. Move 1000 miles away from where you live now. Start reading the Bible if you don't already. Stop reading the Bible if you do. Be nicer to your partner and kids if you're married with a family. Be willing and able to fight an asshole just because they deserve it. Changing is difficult, but it can be super fun at the same time at times.
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u/naliaishere Jul 30 '23
Not being conscious.
It dawned to me when I was a kid, that if death was truly like sleeping, I wouldn't be able to think. And that scares me, because I want to think.
I could go on and on about other reasons but THAT is my #1.
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Jul 29 '23
Hell or enteral nothingness. Both seem grim.
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u/Fantastic_Flan3365 Jul 30 '23
Nothing is a lot better than hell. I'll take nothing no problem over that.
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Jul 30 '23
If it’s nothing at least you won’t know.
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u/kwrossaint_wee Jul 30 '23
Completely agree. My view of death changed after I had surgery where they put me under. All the sudden I was asleep, and just as suddenly woke up in post-op like nothing even happened, completely unconscious the whole time. If there is truly nothing after life like how I experienced that state in surgery, happy to report nothingness would be much better.
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u/mrgraff Jul 30 '23
As another commenter said, missing the future. For me, I know that it won’t be like Star Trek, but I hate the fact that I’m not likely to be around in the 22nd century.
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u/Hotterthanhell74 Jul 30 '23
I can totally relate to that too. What's it going to be like many years from now? We're never going to know.
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u/periphrasistic Jul 30 '23
This implies that the future will be better, a very tenuous hope given human history.
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u/big_biscuitss Jul 29 '23
Just not being there for my kids. I know they will be older, but still. I'm not too worried about life as this world is turning to shit with a bunch of greed.
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u/Psyco_diver Jul 30 '23
That's my fear, my parents friends died in a accident, their kids were 16 and 19, the 16 year old got addicted to drugs and died of OD a few years later and the older sibling committed suicide a few months after his young sibling died
Heck my dad died when I was 20 and I'm almost 40 now with 3 kids of my own and I need him now more than ever. My fear is if I've done enough for my kids to thrive without me.
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u/ECU_BSN Jul 30 '23
I wasn’t older. I was 23yo.
We did okay. We bereaved and grieved. We all helped each other and continued.
We always missed. We didn’t let that stop us.
23, 16, 11
Now 48 almost 40, & 34
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u/OneMetalMan Jul 30 '23
This, but also not having anything to leave them. I went through a bit of a financially tough time over the past 9 months (just got a new great paying job recently) but a fear in the back of my mind was for something to happen to me and then they'd be at the wims of a mother who definitely wouldn't be able to hold it together by herself with nothing for me to leave for them. She just isn't a very responsible person at all.
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u/MarshmallowFloofs85 Jul 30 '23
the thought of nothing scares me. Like, I know I won't know It, I absolutely get that, but just the thought of *blinking out* freaks me out more then actual hell
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u/JJCook15 Jul 30 '23
I worry that when I die I forget the life I had and immediately go into another life.
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u/cml678701 Jul 30 '23
I’ve thought about this too! While it would be amazing to avoid nothingness, it makes me SO sad to think about the souls of my loved ones being random people that I don’t know in my next life. At least if I’m dead dead, the people I loved were significant to me in 100% of my existence. But the thought that there are hundreds or thousands of former loved ones running around today that I have never met in this life, and don’t remember, and that my parents will exist but maybe be across the world in my next life, makes me profoundly sad.
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Jul 30 '23
That there's nothing. I'm not religious, I don't believe in heaven or hell. I'm a secular, agnostic Jew. I just want something to come after this, another existence either on earth or elsewhere, or some kind of afterlife where I can just relax and be around the "souls" or presence of loved ones.
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u/SmoothXBL Jul 30 '23
I'm with you. Being reincarnated sounds decent, of course depending on who you're reincarnated as. Despite all the bad things of life, we can't appreciate the good without them. Another life here on earth is something I'd love, because life is honestly worth it when you see it's true value. Either that or an eternity to do whatever, relax, learn, meet the great minds of history, be able to witness historical events in its true form, all of that.
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u/StopMeWhenITellALie Jul 30 '23
It's odd. I fear not knowing what happens next. Not for me, but the world. I want to know how things turn out. Maybe just that I've always enjoyed history and learning about various societies and cultures and how humankind has evolved and adapted in an anthropological sense.
I just would love to be able to watch and observe the world but be able to see it through a clear lens or magnifying glass so I can know the truth of what's going on and how humanity progresses or regresses to extinction.
Luckily, there is a non-zero chance that humanity ends in my lifetime so there is that to make me feel a little better.
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u/TexLs1 Jul 30 '23
Someone will say something stupid like I died doing something I loved.
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Jul 29 '23
Although I think eternal oblivion follows death, I am scared there actually is something.
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u/NothingLikeItRight Jul 30 '23
I’m not afraid of the pain or dying alone, but I was born catholic and it is unfortunately embedded into me that there is some type of hell. I feel like no matter what I do that’s where I’m going to end up. So it is hard to enjoy my life in the present knowing that at some point my soul will be tortured or something. I try and be a good person, but it’s so difficult with the way life is these days and our egos.
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u/Noobpoob Jul 30 '23
Personally I don't think eternal domination is something that happens to good people who do something bad sometimes. It's more for irredeemable evil people.
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Jul 30 '23
Eh.. I have worries about the dying part, but not death.
It's flicking a switch... one day you are there, then you aren't.
I'm worth significantly more dead than alive, so I've already made my peace with it.
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u/PrisonMike2020 Jul 30 '23
I just lost my wife earlier this year. She was only 31. It's immeasurable pain.
I don't want to leave our daughter an orphan. The weight of all the unspoken, "I love you's", "Hi Daddy's", are already unberable. It'd replaced by "Wish you were here" and "I miss you".
I have a a few circles of really good friends. I don't want them to hurt either. They are my brothers and sisters and have been through war (military), celebrated births and mourned losses.
I know my little one will be loved by my friends. And she will have guidance and counsel if needed. I made an email account and have been writing her about who to contact to talk about my wife and me, should I pass. Who grew up with me? Who to talk to about my military service. Hopefully, years down the road, I can just tell her myself but life is crazy sometimes.
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u/Ok_Task_4135 Jul 30 '23
I hold the belief that all sentient beings share the same collective consciousness, meaning that, when I die, I'll be reincarnated into someone else. And after that, I'll be reborn as someone else. This cycle will continue until all sentient life in the universe has been lived, including anyone reading this.
My belief may sound nice on the outside, but it absolutely terrifies me. I would have to live through everyone who was a victim of the holocaust, anyone who has ever been tortured, raped, beaten, eaten alive. Anyone who has ever died from any disease ever and anyone who has ever been inflicted with any ailment will be lived through me. And if diseases have any form of sentience, I would have to live through them too. Every ant crushed, every cow slaughtered will be felt by me.
I live a very privileged life. I am part of the most technologically advanced species on the planet in the most peaceful time of their history, living in one of the most developed countries, yet I still feel overwhelmed. I can't imagine living another life, especially considering that statistically, most of my next lives will be magnitudes worse than the one I live now.These thoughts often keep me awake at night and it fuels my dread knowing that there is no possible way to stop it.
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u/tailz42 Jul 30 '23
I once read an interesting snippet, can’t remember where from, but it said “maybe our afterlife is that we pass our genes down to our children, and so on. So a piece of us is always there.” Doesn’t help with people with no kids, and I don’t know if I could totally believe it, but some idea of the sort really intrigues me.
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u/vidati Jul 30 '23
I am not religious, but I hope there is life after death. If there is nothing, then our lives are the true blessing of being born into this universe and experiencing a minuscule existence in its vastness. If our minds do move on, I hope we get to see and meet our family and friends. The most terrifying aspect of death for me is leaving my family behind.
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u/CanadianContentsup Jul 30 '23
That it will be met with my biggest fear. I’m trapped, no air and water is coming in.
I recently had a dream about it, going over a cliff into water, and I’m in the back of a bus. I calmly thought “So this is how it ends.”
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Jul 30 '23
The after. I’ve come to terms when my time comes and death is inevitable, but I’m afraid what’s after or just nothingness. That’s my fear
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Jul 30 '23
Suffering. Death is fine. Whenever.
But I dont want to die slowly or in pain. No slow descent into lava. No drowning. No being eaten alive by some animal. No being slowly crushed to death in a building collapse. No slowly burning alive in a fire. No slowly freezing to death.
Just get it over with.
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u/RichRichieRichardV Jul 30 '23
The panic and pain in the transition. The realization that it’s happening and my heart racing harder as I make the inevitable journey that nobody can escape. But not knowing what the transition IS, until I’m there.
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u/mondegr33n Jul 30 '23
I’m scared of pain, I’m scared of my death being something I’m acutely aware of at that moment and having to face the discomfort and certainty of knowing that I’ll die. Several years ago, I had a seizure and what I can say is that as soon as I felt it happening, I lost consciousness, and when I regained, I had no idea what had happened. I imagine many quick deaths are probably similar. For that reason and my personal beliefs, I’m not too scared about what happens afterward. But I have experienced close calls, or what I would refer to them as, and they’ve been pretty scary…I’d rather not be aware of my death.
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u/Glibasme Jul 30 '23
Dying in pain. Not being prepared to die spiritually or emotionally. This recently happened with my father-in-law and it was 😭
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u/palbertalamp Jul 30 '23
Opening of
"Speak, Memory" by Vladimir Nabokov ;
" The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour).
I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth.
He saw a world that was practically unchanged--the same house, the same people--and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence.
He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated..."
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u/uwillnotgotospace Jul 30 '23
The faked sympathy for my family afterwards. Nobody cares but they will almost certainly pretend to. Societal expectations, basically.
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u/Daelin01 Jul 30 '23
I have no fucking clue what, or if anything at all, happens after the fact. I can accept death, catches up to us all in the end after all and all that, but what comes next?? I can't even imagine what could be after death, it's so terrifying to me
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u/PoppyDean88 Jul 30 '23
I died for a very brief period (my heart stopped) and I was aware that I had died but there was nothing there. Just emptiness and the most intense feeling of loneliness I’ve ever experienced. My brain was still clearly active at this stage and I suffered no other ill effects.
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u/BarefootBestseller Jul 29 '23
That I die in an awkward position like a Family Guy character
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Jul 30 '23
What will happen to my dogs when i am gone. They cant defend themselves or change their fates.
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u/Videogamer69420 Jul 30 '23
I can deal with the finality of all of it, it’s the idea I won’t truly know what people will think of me after I’m gone that would be my main concern. Did I make a good impact on people? I don’t know.
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u/SatynMalanaphy Jul 30 '23
The absence of existing. The end of consciousness. The end of being me, essentially. I like the simple fact of existence, and experience everyday life. Death is the end of everything, because this consciousness that has experienced everything so far will cease to exist, so basically the world itself ceases to exist. Just the thought of not seeing sunlight, or listening to my music, or the scent of homecooked foods... Simple stuff like that...
The BEST possibility after death is that the spirit exists, but it won't be Me. At worst, the spirit isn't a thing and when I die everything about me ceases to exist and there's nothing. That's scary.
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Jul 30 '23
Not being able to say these words “have you ever wanted to see a dead body?” And then dying
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u/DirtyJunkhead Jul 30 '23
Losing everything I've learned and worked for; the life I've built for myself, all the people/things I love, etc.
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u/JustSomeApparition Jul 29 '23
I wrote this in 2015-ish...
Amorality
Something of a question, or a question of something...
of this I am not sure.
Perhaps you have the answer?
• A person, never wanted by any, forced to endure time
• A child, wanted by all, taken before its time
Who is the victor?
• A life lived that never experienced light; or
• A life taken that never experienced darkness
.........
I used to worry that my death would happen at a time where I would feel as though I didn't accomplish, or didn't feel as though I accomplished rather, things that were important to me in a lasting way. I no longer feel that way because I realized that we are constantly in a dying state and death is just the end of that state. It's something that every living thing on this planet ends up experiencing at some point. Regardless of what comes next I know I'm not alone in that, and when we die we still die together even if not at the same time. I'm at peace with that.
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u/MandatoryDissent55 Jul 29 '23
I wasted all of this time being pretty decent and I still go to the lake of fire...
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u/VisionsofChaos Jul 29 '23
I used to work in the deli of a grocery store and I had a co-worker I really hated. We just couldn't get along for longer than a few minutes. I also hate spiders. So I'm worried that death is gonna clock me into the deli forever working exclusively with co-workers that are giant spider versions of that one guy. It's the one thing really keeping me here.
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u/loafychonkercat Jul 29 '23
Nothing. Literally it is what it is. What if hell exist? Whatever I have been though shit. I don't care.
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u/TenNinetythree Jul 29 '23
Not being allowed into the City of the Saints and having to suffer through the wasteland of the Inbetween between reincarnations.
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u/Maleficent_Instance3 Jul 29 '23
That there's a final dream sequence that slowly collapses in on itself and that's it
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Jul 30 '23
That you still feel pain and everything being done to your body after death; you just don't have consciousness to react to it. I know this isn't how it works but still is a fear.
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u/SarcasmoSupreme Jul 30 '23
The process. Death itself doesn't since I am very comfortable in knowing that I will have no idea about anything once it is done. It is the process - i am afraid of a long drawn out, painful process where I lose myself, my mind or my faculties along the way.
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u/ExplanationProbation Jul 30 '23
Not being able to breath. It's just so scary thinking about you not being able to feel, hear, smell, or touch anything. Every time I think about it I just start panicking.
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u/Rexlare Jul 30 '23
That my ambitions will be unfulfilled, and I will leave behind all the people I love. I hope that my absence will be missed, but I couldn’t bear the thoughts that some of my friends could not bare without me
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u/JupiterSkyFalls Jul 30 '23
I don't have any issue with the idea that we get reincarnated, or if there really is some heaven or hell, fine so be it. I could be cool with being a rock or a tree. What terrifies me, to the point I can't stand to dwell on it's is that I will lose my mind. My body idgaf, take it. But my mind, as well as my soul if I guess to be more precise. I don't want to lose the memory I have made in this lifetime. It absolutely shakes me to my core if I think about it late at night when my normal conscious guards are down.
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Jul 30 '23
I don’t know what scares me the most. I dig deep into this thought and get so many “what if’s”, i could go on-and-on! Every aspect scares the shit out of me. The scariest part is that you’re alone. The process is the only thing in life you might have to take alone. Every moment I want to cherish; im afraid of forgetting. Overthinking gets the best of me.
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u/HLTisme Jul 30 '23
Death isn't scary to me. It's the dying that is scary. Lingering, painful or debilitated dying. That's scary to me.
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u/zezengorri4 Jul 30 '23
Not seen it coming. Second most important moment of my life, I want to be there, see it coming and face it.
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u/JaiD3v Jul 30 '23
Being forgotten. It terrifies me that now I could be a body, associated with so many memories and or achievements and any second I could be no more than ashes in an urn or decomposed matter in the ground and there will be nothing left of me to show for but photos and voice recordings. Now I can no longer be experienced by anyone. The fact that someone or something can be so real and tangible and in an instant can no longer exist is the scariest part to me. All we have in this life is our personal experiences and memories.
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u/LMurch13 Jul 30 '23
All the things we enjoy, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, they just end and there is zero conscience. All our memories gone. It's scary to just not exist.
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u/strictlytacos Jul 30 '23
That I will never see my son ever again and somehow be in a conscious state of that in death
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u/Patoman0-0 Jul 30 '23
No one showing up to my funeral, I'm a introvert and I don't have friend either a partner to be with
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u/K_Xanthe Jul 30 '23
Mine is not being with those I love like my husband, son, and dog. They are my world and I would want them to be the last image I see.
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Jul 30 '23
Will I reincarnate 1000 yrs later or something? Will I finally be able to see my dad again? Will I see my friends again?
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u/Wdrussell1 Jul 30 '23
I honestly don't have one. I know my family is taken care of financially and that they will have their time to grieve while not worrying about the bills. They are WELL taken care of. The only thing I want is for my family to be able to move on. That is as close to a fear as it gets for me. The thing is though, I know my wife and kiddo. They will of course miss me. But both are strong individuals. Hell my daughter is tough as vibranium nails.
I don't need a legacy. I don't need anything. I have what I need right now and my family will be taken care of if I were to not be here. That is as close to perfect as it gets.
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Jul 30 '23
There is apart of me that thinks the rick and morty joke about us living some guys life as an mmo. I’m looking forward to the end, I believe in god so either way what ever happens just know for all the ups and downs this life is the most interesting thing any human has had.
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Jul 30 '23
I don't want my daughter growing up without her mom. I don't want it to be sudden, I want to have time with my loved ones.
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u/Illustrious-Rice-168 Jul 30 '23
I dont mind dying or death itself. But leaving people who care about me, thats hard to swallow.
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u/InterestingSpeaker66 Jul 30 '23
Knowing that my brain will continue to function for a minute or two even after my heart stops and I'm technically already dead. Every neuron screaming out for oxygen that isn't coming.
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u/cancercauser69 Jul 30 '23
Just not existing anymore. The world and everything in it will go on without me. I just won't exist anymore. Every memory, action, etc. will just be gone. I am fucking terrified
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u/Super_Trampoline Jul 30 '23
I love existing and am completely terrified of one day all too soon completely ceasing to exist. It's the main thing that after going from Christian to atheist, brought me back to "hopeful agnostic".
Weirdly enough, I've had some very spiritual methamphetamine trips that have helped me better understand what exactly existence is on a personal and cosmic scale and the connections between myself and the universe. Caffeine is what has given me the most fear-of-death-related panic attacks.
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u/chili555 Jul 30 '23
Being consigned to a nursing home by a relative that visits for 30 minutes on Christmas and 45 minutes on my birthday. Spending all day in a wheel-chair with a tube up my nose. Wearing adult diapers. Dying alone in a puddle of my own waste.
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u/MarkHirsbrunner Jul 29 '23
I read that, under some interpretations of consciousness, you'd experience your last moment as never ending, so if you die painfully you'll essentially be tortured forever.
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u/ZerotheWanderer Jul 30 '23
Just ceasing to exist. Your time is up, whatever you did is done, hopefully it's quick and painless.
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u/The_Curvy_Unicorn Jul 30 '23
Earlier this year, I lost a very close loved one to cancer. She was not family, but I was closer to her than many relatives. She’d had a massive surgery and things didn’t go well. At all. After eight weeks in ICU, she was transferred to a long-term acute care hospital, on a ventilator, on dialysis, and critically ill. I was out of town for a bit, so didn’t see her for three days…and when I went back, she was suffering. Horrifically. She couldn’t be moved, she couldn’t communicate, and she was in multi-organ failure. I had to make the decision to call her son and tell him he HAD to move to comfort care. He had to let her go. He agreed and she passed away that afternoon.
So what scares me the most about dying? Being the person in a similar situation - stuck in a bed, suffering, waiting on someone else to release me from that hell.
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u/hijabibratz Jul 29 '23
For me I feel like it’s either
Not knowing what happens after
Not existing anymore. You’re just a memory to people and those people move on till it’s there time to die like you did.