Help Fear of death

[AnonymousL]

How to overcome fear of death.

Please help. I'm desperate

 

[CasperDaGhost]

I try to rationalize it. Death is inevitable and necessary, so why be scared of something you can't even fight against? I also try to imagine it as something nice, it can be anything, so nothing wrong with imagining what comes after to be something you'd enjoy.

 

[Forever Sleep]

The things that help me are:

- It's utterly anavoidable. One way or another, you're going to have to go through it. It's a natural reaction to be afraid but ultimately- there's nothing you can do to stop it.
- Will my natural death likely be any more pleasant than a suicide? Not sure but I've seen plenty of family members suffer for years.
- Billions of people have already done it- including family members and friends. It's not like we'll be going through anything unique. Only unique to us.
- For some things in life- the thought of it is worse than the experience itself. In theory- in an attempt, I'll set the process in motion and then, try and get through the experience as best I can.
- I try to picture all the things I am dreading in life to remind myself why it's necessary for me to do this in order to escape them. Sometimes, I think the prospect of life has to become more awful than the fear of death.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

What works for me is comparing my life to what my death would be like. My life is absolutely awful with no interests in anything or no enjoyment in anything. I honestly don't even think I was meant to be a human because there isn't anything that I like. As for what I believe would happen after death, I believe that after death is just permanent non existence and I found peace in that by looking at it logically. After all, how can permanent non existence be bad for me if there is no me to begin with? The arguments relating to the deprivation of pleasure cannot apply for non existent beings as they can't crave anything, including pleasure and subsequently cannot get depressed due to the cessation of pleasure. Living beings, however, can get depressed over the deprivation of pleasure due to how we can perceive and feel the pain that comes from it

Also, I strongly believe in what I do, so much so to where I find other theories to be stupid (especially the religious ones). Of course I could be proved wrong by some undiscovered science theory but, as of right now, since death is inevitable anyway, I'll believe in what I want. It doesn't matter what I believe in as, eventually, I'll have to be dead anyways

My point is, believe in whatever you want to that will make you feel comfortable about death. It doesn't matter what you believe in as death is inevitable anyway

 

[FuneralCry]

In my case I could never see death as something to fear as I believe it to simply be the absence of everything, in fact the thought of ceasing to exist comforts me, I only wish for non-existence.

I only see eternal nothingness as desirable as those who no longer exist are incapable of suffering, they have no need for anything, they have no problems, worries or concerns and are no longer burdened with this existence, they are eternally free from this futile process of decaying from age where one is just slowly dying and waiting to die.

I envy those who no longer exist as they lack the ability to suffer, this hellish and harmful existence is what I fear instead, it scares me how there is no limit as to how much agony a human can feel, but for me ceasing to exist solves everything and brings peace from all the suffering.

 

[Linda]

Which exactly are you asking about? Fear of death, i.e. the state of being dead? Or fear of dying, i.e. the process you have to go through to become dead? People often conflate the two, which makes it hard to have a sensible discussion.

 

[strangelife]

as I noticed, many who have been here for several years have not committed ctb, those who have not been on the forum for a long time leave more often and are apparently more determined

 

[AnonymousL]

Which exactly are you asking about? Fear of death, i.e. the state of being dead? Or fear of dying, i.e. the process you have to go through to become dead? People often conflate the two, which makes it hard to have a sensible discussion.

The process mostly.

 

[mtoro998]

I was clinically dead once for about a minute from a heart attack. I do not remember convulsing or blacking out or any pain prior. I just remember talking to someone feeling completely fine and then waking up being shocked with a difibilator. However it did hurt alot once they revived me. If they had not treated me I would have died and not even been aware what was happening. Hopefully it brings you some peace to know this.

 

[Linda]

The process mostly.

That makes the question a bit easier to answer, because the short (but not very helpful) answer is to choose a method that is quick and/or painless. However, that obvously raises the question "Which methods are quick and/or painless".

Let's try to list the quick ones first. There are two obvious ones: a firearm, and jumping off a tall building. Provided you do it right, in both cases death is almost instantaneous. The odds are that you won't feel anything, because your brain will cease to function before any pain signals have time to travel along nerves and reach it. However, in both cases it's important that you do it right, because if you do it wrong you could finish up very badly injured and face a lifetime of pain and disability. Throwing yourself under a train or a truck could also be quick and painless, but it's harder to ensure that you do it right, and it also involves - and could traumatise - the driver of the vehicle, and it seems to me better not to do that.

What about painless (or low pain) methods that are not instantaneous? Again, I can think of two: ingesting or breathing a substance that puts you painlessly into a sleep from which you will not awake (such as fentanyl, carbon monoxide, etc.), and hypothermia (which is the method I will use). I'm not well informed on drugs, so I won't say any more about them. With carbon monoxide you don't want to be revived halfway through, as you could survive with serious brain damage. Hypothermia may involve some discomfort at first, as you will obviously feel cold for a while, but we have all felt cold many times and it's no big deal. Eventually you feel warm and just want to go to sleep. You pass peacefully. The main risk with hypothermia arises if someone finds you before you are dead and succeeds in reviving you. If they do, you could survive with brain damage and/or frostbite. Frostbite can lead to amputated limbs. So it's best done somewhere there are no people.

There are many other methods that will work, and there are extensive discussions of almost all of them on this site. Just do some reading. (There are also discussions of some rather fanciful methods too, so exercise some judgement.) All of them seem, to me, to involve some discomfort. Ingestion of sodium nitrite is discussed extensively on SaSu, but from what I can gather from posts here it can be quite unpleasant for a while.

Does that help?

as I noticed, many who have been here for several years have not committed ctb, those who have not been on the forum for a long time leave more often and are apparently more determined

It's not a matter of determination, or not always. As I explained in my introductory post, if my husband dies before me I will ctb - and I know exactly how I will do it. I am under no pressure to do it now, because even though I am not especially enthusiastic about life, I don't feel terribly oppressed by it either. I stay on the site because I think I can be useful to others.

My guess is that many of the people who are on the site only briefly have not caught the bus. They were here because they had problems, but then found a way to deal with their problems, either because of the support they received here or for some other reason.

 

[strangelife]

That makes the question a bit easier to answer, because the short (but not very helpful) answer is to choose a method that is quick and/or painless. However, that obvously raises the question "Which methods are quick and/or painless".

Let's try to list the quick ones first. There are two obvious ones: a firearm, and jumping off a tall building. Provided you do it right, in both cases death is almost instantaneous. The odds are that you won't feel anything, because your brain will cease to function before any pain signals have time to travel along nerves and reach it. However, in both cases it's important that you do it right, because if you do it wrong you could finish up very badly injured and face a lifetime of pain and disability. Throwing yourself under a train or a truck could also be quick and painless, but it's harder to ensure that you do it right, and it also involves - and could traumatise - the driver of the vehicle, and it seems to me better not to do that.

What about painless (or low pain) methods that are not instantaneous? Again, I can think of two: ingesting or breathing a substance that puts you painlessly into a sleep from which you will not awake (such as fentanyl, carbon monoxide, etc.), and hypothermia (which is the method I will use). I'm not well informed on drugs, so I won't say any more about them. With carbon monoxide you don't want to be revived halfway through, as you could survive with serious brain damage. Hypothermia may involve some discomfort at first, as you will obviously feel cold for a while, but we have all felt cold many times and it's no big deal. Eventually you feel warm and just want to go to sleep. You pass peacefully. The main risk with hypothermia arises if someone finds you before you are dead and succeeds in reviving you. If they do, you could survive with brain damage and/or frostbite. Frostbite can lead to amputated limbs. So it's best done somewhere there are no people.

There are many other methods that will work, and there are extensive discussions of almost all of them on this site. Just do some reading. (There are also discussions of some rather fanciful methods too, so exercise some judgement.) All of them seem, to me, to involve some discomfort. Ingestion of sodium nitrite is discussed extensively on SaSu, but from what I can gather from posts here it can be quite unpleasant for a while.

Does that help?

It's not a matter of determination, or not always. As I explained in my introductory post, if my husband dies before me I will ctb - and I know exactly how I will do it. I am under no pressure to do it now, because even though I am not especially enthusiastic about life, I don't feel terribly oppressed by it either. I stay on the site because I think I can be useful to others.

My guess is that many of the people who are on the site only briefly have not caught the bus. They were here because they had problems, but then found a way to deal with their problems, either because of the support they received here or for some other reason.

Yes, I absolutely agree that it is definitely not worth rushing to a decision on ctb if there is such an opportunity or there is at least a small hope of correcting the situation.

 

[AnonymousL]

Does that help?

You see, i'm just not a person that can make myself do a certain thing if i realize that it would mean death directly.

So like jumping isn't really something I can do. I chose for SN since that is something that was easy to get. I heard about some discomfort but I hope it wont be too painful.
If i could get benzo's that would be much easier but its hard to get them for me.

I'm scared i will call for help as i'm a very anxious person.

 

[Linda]

You see, i'm just not a person that can make myself do a certain thing if i realize that it would mean death directly.

So like jumping isn't really something I can do. I chose for SN since that is something that was easy to get. I heard about some discomfort but I hope it wont be too painful.
If i could get benzo's that would be much easier but its hard to get them for me.

I'm scared i will call for help as i'm a very anxious person.

We are all different. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you well.

 

[Olisop21.]

The process mostly.

I fear both. Can't seem to override the fears and just do it. I feel very desperate right now.