Hello NM156. I understand your fear as I am going through this myself. I have had so many health issues in such a short period of time that I feel like I am just waiting for bad news. I normally suffer from anxiety but have been able to like you, not need medication. I have benefitted greatly in the past from counseling and religion. I find a lot of comfort in reading passages from the Bible and my counselor has been great. I also try to find people like myself that know what I feel because no matter how much your family or friends love you, it they dont know the feeling, its hard to have them understand. I also downloaded a meditation app to my phone and which I plan to use soon as well as bought some ebooks from Joyce Meyer. I'm not sure what denomination she belongs too but at this point, I just look for comfort. Just know that at some point, you will find people that you can relate too and will help in finding comfort. And remember, you are not alone... :)

I would say confront it. You must kill the dragon. You can't run from fear forever.

Take a week off work. Go have a holiday by the beach. And really wallow in the idea of dying.

Wallow and indulge. Cry for it, rail against it. Do the whole nine yards. I'm not being facetious: I mean it.

They say that if we have an anxiety disorder, to quell or control the symptoms. But the fact is, symptoms are triggered, by fears and worries.

If we get rid of the fears and worries, there is nothing there to trigger us. Accept your death. Accept a world that hasn't got you in it. Fully visualise it. Fully experience it emotionally.

I was lucky, I guess. As a child I had horrible nightmares. For years and years. I would be murdered by the wicked witch, or fall off a cliff trying to escape her... and I would die, and I would be put in the coffin, and then they would wheel me into the cremation chamber and I would never wake up. I literally died a thousand times in my dreams. There was no escaping. And I cried a LOT. But it means it's kind of over with now. Well, that and letting my brother drive me places. :D :D :D

Hello. I have had the fear of dying since I was a small child. I have always been an over thinker, and exactly the kind of child who would find nothing better to do than sit around at the age of 7 and ponder the fact that someday I would cease to exist.
And that fear has always been there and i think the thing that helps me the most is that I have finally accepted that that fear will always be with me until the day I eventually do die.
I want to question it, and analyze it. I want to twist it and turn it and poke at with that big stick I have until I finally come up with the way to conquer that fear. But I don't let myself do that anymore because there is no answer. There is absolutely nothing that anybody can say or any answer that I will ever come up with that will take away my fear of no longer existing.
I do believe in God, as much as my analytical mind will allow me to. I am a questioner and so of course I question whether or not he does exist..but ultimately I have made the choice to believe because I think its better than not believing..but that doesn't take my fear away.

Sometimes if I allow myself to think too deeply about it, I will have those moments of panic where I bolt straight up and I get the adrenaline surge from hell and I am instantly terrified. But then I just get my mind on something else instantly until I forget about it.

I am a very controlling person and it helps to remind myself that death is the one thing that I don't have to control. I couldn't control it even if I wanted to. It will come when it comes, in whatever way it is going to happen. Its not up to me when it happens, although I try to stay as safe and healthy as I can. But ultimately it is up to God and the fates when I die and I just have to let it happen when it happens. That helps me quite a bit when I get into my overthinking spirals and it takes some of the weight off of me. I feel like I have to control everything and this is the one thing I don't have to control.

My daughter came to me crying one night because she was so scared of dying. And it broke my heart because she was 7 years old and not only did I know the fear she felt but I knew that if she was overthinking these things already, then she inherited my personality and she stands a good chance of developing an anxiety disorder.

But I just gave her the advice that I wish my parents had given me when I came to them when I was 7. And that is that there is no amount of preparing you will ever do that will ever take that fear away. It will always be there, and the best thing you can do is try to forget about it. I said "don't waste nights crying in bed because you know that someday you WILL die and there is nothing you can do about it.". I said "Get your mind on something else and forget about it because you know that someday you will die and there is NOTHING you can do about it." All the worrying in the world will not change it..so just don't think about it.

I also remind myself that nothing in my life is EVER as bad as I think its going to be. I have never died before so how do I know its so bad? Just because I think its going to be awful and scary doesn't mean its going to be awful and scary, and its actually pretty arrogant of me to believe that I know exactly how it will be considering I have no experience in that department.

There is a quote from Peter Pan that says "To die must be an awfully big adventure.", and I am actually going to get a tattoo that says that to remind myself that just maybe it WILL be an adventure and not the horrible experience that I think it will be.

It looks like you have been given some good advice hear from everybody that has answered, so hopefully at least some of it will strike a chord with you. And if it doesn't, just keep looking until you find what does make you feel better. :)

Thank you everyone for your posts. All of you have given me things to think about and use. Fleurdelisa what you describe in how your attacks come about is almost exactly like mine. I have tried like several of you suggested to lean on my faith but I lack it. I believe in God, but how can we ever know? I am so envious of those people that are so resolute in their faith that they have that comfort. I guess in many ways I envy those that are at peace with the possibility of nothingness, but I must admit I don't think they really are OK with it.

The most successful strategy has been for me to try and accept it, and that there is nothing I can do to stop it. Lately I can see my life before me and just how quickly time seems to be moving. The new issue is picturing myself near the end and how when you look back it all seems like just a blink. It saddens me. I want to fill my days with memories, experiences and adventure but instead I sit in front of a computer too much or obsess about something meaningless in the grand scheme of my life.

Dude. JMHO obviously but there is no grand scheme.
All there is is a succession of moments you either use to your benefit or don't. When you die, your molecules disband and you become other stuff. Your consciousness disappears. You are no more.

JMHO, there is no everlasting soul, there is no eternal hell or heaven, there is only that time that you have here on this earth. That's it.

This is all you get. So you need to get on with it.

As to dying: when you are dead you feel no pain. Nothing. Being dead is a non-issue: literally. Dying too soon won't bother you. You will be dead and not aware of anything. Dying can only bother you when you are alive.

And clearly worrying about dying while you are alive is a waste of the time you have alive that you are not going to get back. Pick a direction to operate in while you are alive: positive, constructive; or negative, destructive. You're on a tightrope above niagara falls. If you fluff around in the middle, you are going to get precisely nowhere.

So pick a direction and stay with it. :)

When you have something like this in your normal pattern of thought, embrace it, add fun and silly thoughts to this pattern, and give it a way to release in the way you want it to.

All too often, we find ourselves staring into space with wonder, awe, and then we slap the anxiety into it. So, anxiety is natural, make it work for you.

Best wishes, you are not alone in this. Welcome to this wonderful group!