The Fear Of Death

What is Death, really? What happens when we die? Where do we go? I have no clue, but I do find the subject of death fascinating. But many people don't. Many people fear death, some to the point that it interferes with their life. I was close to being one of those people. Mainly I was afraid of dying in my sleep. Then ironically I began considering suicide later (though not seriously), and I think it was mainly due to the fact that I became at peace with death. So if you are depressed you may not want to read this post, and may want to read this post instead. But if you are just afraid of death and want to stop letting it control you, then you may find what I have to say intriguing. I also want to make note that I am in no way qualified to help with serious mental conditions, but reading this may give you a better understanding of death.

Why are people afraid of death? Because they don't know what is on the other side. Religious people will say it is God, some will say it is nothing, others will say reincarnation, but the fact of the matter is we don't know.  No one has come back from the other side with absolute proof of what is over there, that we know of. So that leaves the unknown, and people don't like what they don't know. But this is not a reason to fear death. You do not have to let your fear control you.

Fearing death isn't all bad though, as it can have its benefits. It is what keeps us alive and makes us look twice before crossing the street. But it is not something that should be feared in the sense that it starts taking over our lives. Like if you are afraid to go outside because you might be hit by a car and die, that is too much fear. However, if you start crossing highways with speeding cars, you may want to reevaluate how you look at death, and consider if you're suicidal. As you need to have some fear of death to keep you alive, or at least a stronger desire to live than to die. Ultimately, I think we should be aware of the risks when we do dangerous things, but death is something that can happen at anytime to anyone. You could have a heart attack and die right now while reading this. I sincerely hope you don't, but it could happen. I could die while writing this. What I'm getting at, is you have to accept the fact that you can die at any moment if you want to get over your fear of death. It's fine and dandy to tell yourself you don't need to worry about death because you won't die until your old, but it's not necessarily true. Young people die all the time. People who are healthy and those who are not healthy die. Death doesn't discriminate.

So, you can die at any moment. Isn't that a lovely thought? While it's true, but will death really be that bad? There are a lot of different opinions when it comes to death, but to put it extremely broad you are either annihilated from existence, or there is something else (e.g. Heaven, reincarnation, true enlightenment, etc.). If there is something else, I think most people would be okay with this. They may be sad at first to leave their loved ones behind, but they could take solace in knowing that they will eventually be reunited with them. The only potential thing that would be awful is if Hell really does exist and you went there. That would suck. But I would like to think that most people who are generally good people would not go there regardless of what they believe. In other words, something after death isn't looking too shabby. But what if there's nothing and we get annihilated? Well, then we won't realize it. The reason people are so upset at the thought of there being nothing after death is because they are thinking about what death will be like when they are still alive, and if it is nothing, they think this will be awful because they will not have things that they have now. But in reality when they are dead they will have no idea what is happening, because the person who was alive will be gone. There will be no happiness or joy, but there will also be no pain or suffering, or consciousness. In short, the dead person will not know they are dead because they will have no conscious thought. I'd rather there be something after death, but once death occurs if there is nothing we will not realize it because there will be nothing to realize.

If you want to go kill yourself to find out what happens after death, please don't. That's not what this post is about. This post is just supposed to help you be less afraid of death especially if that fear is starting to take over your life, and I hope that if you are afraid of death that this post has helped you.

Does the thought of death scare you?


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