Discussion How do you deal with the fact that there is nothing on the other side?

[DesperateOne]

I've been thinking about this a lot. It feels like I'm trapped between two different hells. My life and brain is beyond repair due to isolation and severe mental illnesses, I know that for sure. This makes me want to CTB, but when I really meditate on the entire thing I get waves of existential panic. Like, once you are dead it's over. There is no going back. It's just complete darkness or not even that, complete nothingness... There are no second chances. Your conciousness fades along with all the memories/subconcious that were there.

When I was meditating on this issue I realized why religions exist. Having a guarantee that there is this paradise on the other side where all your loved ones are waiting for you is beautiful and keeps the terrifying nature of death away... but it's a beautiful story that is false at its core and that we have been telling ourselves for thousands of years.

So yeah, how do you guys deal with this? I guess this is what all these SI threads are about and y'all are struggling with this as much as I am? I guess the only way to get past this is with a bottle of alcohol and then just mindlessly go for it?

 

[sserafim]

I've been thinking about this a lot. It feels like I'm trapped between two different hells. My life and brain is beyond repair due to isolation and severe mental illnesses, I know that for sure. This makes me want to CTB, but when I really meditate on the entire thing I get waves of existential panic. Like, once you are dead it's over. There is no going back. It's just complete darkness or not even that, complete nothingness... There are no second chances. Your conciousness fades along with all the memories/subconcious that were there.

When I was meditating on this issue I realized why religions exist. Having a guarantee that there is this paradise on the other side where all your loved ones are waiting for you is beautiful and keeps the terrifying nature of death away...

How do you guys deal with this?

Honestly, it's a comfort that I'll never have to exist again (hopefully). I want to enter the endless void. It would be nice to be in an eternal sleep, and in a state of non-existence.

 

[m_account]

I actually hope that there is nothingness on the other end.

Just imagine that you will go through eternal sleep and nothing will ever bother you.
You won't have any pleasure nor any pain. You just won't give a shit. Beautiful isn't it?

No more responsibilities, no more desires, no more problems.

I find it freeing.

 

[Daughter of Sorrow]

Whether the afterlife exists or not can never be factually proven of disproven. It's all what we believe. Absence of proof is not proof of absence. If you can find empirical proof that the afterlife does or does not exist, you'd be rich enough to CTB by buying your own rocket to shoot yourself into the sun.

As a Christian, I say that "I believe" because there isn't proof one way or another. It's a mystery of faith. Did Jesus rise from the tomb on Easter? I don't know; I wasn't there. But I believe he did. And that's good enough for me.

That's how I deal with it.

 

[m_account]

I would take the stability of nothingness over volatility of life everytime.

 

[TiredTurtle]

To me the idea of reaching a state of nothingness where none of your problems or pains exist anymore is what makes the thought of suicide so alluring.

 

[Lookoutbelow]

I feel like we all lie to ourselves. A lot of us (myself included) say there is nothing after this life and that nothingness will be so freeing. I feel if I really believed this then I would just kill myself immediately and happily, but yet I continue to struggle everyday. I do think it will be like sleeping, but do I really believe it? Thinking something to be true and believing something to be true. Two different things.

 

[Beyond_Repair]

I've been thinking about this a lot. It feels like I'm trapped between two different hells. My life and brain is beyond repair due to isolation and severe mental illnesses, I know that for sure. This makes me want to CTB, but when I really meditate on the entire thing I get waves of existential panic. Like, once you are dead it's over. There is no going back. It's just complete darkness or not even that, complete nothingness... There are no second chances. Your conciousness fades along with all the memories/subconcious that were there.

When I was meditating on this issue I realized why religions exist. Having a guarantee that there is this paradise on the other side where all your loved ones are waiting for you is beautiful and keeps the terrifying nature of death away... but it's a beautiful story that is false at its core and that we have been telling ourselves for thousands of years.

So yeah, how do you guys deal with this? I guess this is what all these SI threads are about and y'all are struggling with this as much as I am? I guess the only way to get past this is with a bottle of alcohol and then just mindlessly go for it?

I'm not scared of there being nothing after death. If I felt that I had a chance at life improving or a second chance at life, maybe I would be more fearful of death. But I don't think brain transplants will become accessible in my lifetime

Even though it's an eternity of nothingness, we won't be capable of experiencing it, since we will no longer be conscious

 

[DesperateOne]

I feel like we all lie to ourselves. A lot of us (myself included) say there is nothing after this life and that nothingness will be so freeing. I feel if I really believed this then I would just kill myself immediately and happily, but yet I continue to struggle everyday. I do think it will be like sleeping, but do I really believe it? Thinking something to be true and believing something to be true. Two different things.

This exactly.

 

[thewalkingdread]

Like, once you are dead it's over. There is no going back. It's just complete darkness or not even that, complete nothingness... There are no second chances. Your conciousness fades along with all the memories/subconcious that were there.

I feel Just like you.... I hate waking up everyday to this horror show we call life. I see no real future for myself, for humanity, for all sentient life. It all seems so chaotic, ephemeral and futile. A homeric waste of time.

Although I still enjoy somethings — simple, banal things like having a cup of coffee —most of my days I keep thinking of not existing anymore, thinking of dying, euthanizing myself peacefully... At the same time not really wanting to die, but, instead, kinda wishing I was never born, to begin with, so that I would never have had to experience any of this existential torture.

My psyche wages wars with itself in agony, even If only at the semiconscious background of my brain, during most of my awake hours... I spend the day craving for getting back to the sweet dark woomb of the unconsciousness of sleep, knowing only it is capable of quenching all the insufferable turmoil.

But If i knew this would be my last night of sleep, i think i would have a "sudden" bout of insomnia... If you know what I mean.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I guess I still have some aprehension over it because it is the unknown and all we know is being alive. But there again- there are states we experience in life that might be similar to it- sleeping and going under anaesthetic. They aren't scary. One moment we're here and conscious, the next we're not. Once we're gone- theoretically- we can't feel anything at all about it. So- really- it's only now and just before- thinking about it that we have to worry about.

Plus- it's unavoidable. We're all going to have to go through it at some point. Billions and billions already have. So- to some extent, it's one of those inevitable things in life that- because we can't change it- it's pointless to worry about. Still- I can see why it puts people off CTB.

Personally, I'm more worried if there is something after this. If God created that too, I'd say it's probably going to be just as screwed up.

 

[dreaming_of_pearl]

I've been thinking about this a lot. It feels like I'm trapped between two different hells. My life and brain is beyond repair due to isolation and severe mental illnesses, I know that for sure. This makes me want to CTB, but when I really meditate on the entire thing I get waves of existential panic. Like, once you are dead it's over. There is no going back. It's just complete darkness or not even that, complete nothingness... There are no second chances. Your conciousness fades along with all the memories/subconcious that were there.

When I was meditating on this issue I realized why religions exist. Having a guarantee that there is this paradise on the other side where all your loved ones are waiting for you is beautiful and keeps the terrifying nature of death away... but it's a beautiful story that is false at its core and that we have been telling ourselves for thousands of years.

So yeah, how do you guys deal with this? I guess this is what all these SI threads are about and y'all are struggling with this as much as I am? I guess the only way to get past this is with a bottle of alcohol and then just mindlessly go for it?

I don't tbh I usually just try not to think about it I wish for my memories to stay tho, I just wanna sleep forever I fear becoming notjing

 

[BlackMoon]

For me, I'll just return to the Dao, or the "Force", or whatever you call It. That's how I cope I guess.

 

[Resinn66]

(Off topic) I said this many times, we should never been born in the first place. The fact that Humanity could be the only intelligent life form in the Universe makes me sick. If that is true, if there is only darkness out there then life is just a horrible mistake. Regarding your question the fact that there is nothingness it gives me the urge to ctb and terminate this Hell

 

[WAITING TO DIE]

I hope there is nothing after death, because I view any form of existence undesirable. I honestly don't see any point of existing because it will ultimately result in some kind of loss, or pain or it will be eternally unchanging and therfore hellishly boring.

 

[BLEH:3]

Absolute and utter happiness, if i knew that there was an afterlife i would've gone absolutely fucking feral. How amazing is it that there is just nothing once dead. I am living just to die right now, like a book i started and didn't enjoy and kept reading just to end it.

 

[IsThisEverything]

I don't know what to think about any potential afterlife, for me it's the fear of the unknown. If there's nothing, at least we won't know that's the case when we're gone. I worry more about if the afterlife is worse, like going to hell.

But if there is nothing, it reinforces the idea that life is meaningless.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

I look forward to non-existence forever, which is what happens after death to a human or any other animal

After death will be like before I was born no chance of extreme pain , no problems , zero probability of extreme suffering for me, no worries

The problems began for me when I was birthed into this evil world as a fragile small animal that can suffer extreme pain

If anyone wants to be sure that there is nothing after death just read books on evolution , the brain , the cell, biology.... The more u read the more u see evolution is true and that a human's ancestor is a single cell a machine. it all ties in together and makes sense even with chemistry physics ( the law of entropy) ai books etc

There's not a doubt in my mind

What Actually Is Consciousness, and How Did It Evolve?

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Consciousness is no exception—it seems nonphysical, but is very much a biological phenomenon.

www.psychologytoday.com

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/finding-purpose/201907/is-there-life-after-death-the-mind-body-problem

 

[venin.n]

Personally I think that nothing is better than this. As Plato said: much worse things can happen to a man than death.

 

[thislife77]

The fact that there is a chance that the "afterlife" could be even more suffering that this is terrifying. I would also hope for nothingness. No consciousness at all. Just like it was before birth. There seemed to be no consciousness or awareness of anything (or nothing) prior to birth. It pains me that I cannot know the truth. The unknown is scary af. What kind of creator creates intense suffering? A divine one, of course..

 

[FuneralCry]

Eternal nothingness is all I wish for personally, the thought of such a thing comforts me so much, in fact it's the only comfort. I don't wish for any kind of existence and I just don't want to be burdened with the ability to suffer, the only relief for me lies in an eternal and dreamless sleep, existence is the true hell and source of all suffering, existence is what I fear and struggle to deal with.

 

[thewalkingdread]

What kind of creator creates intense suffering? A divine one, of course..

Correction: A divine psychopathic, sadistic, evil one....

 

[fishlover]

This makes me want to CTB, but when I really meditate on the entire thing I get waves of existential panic. Like, once you are dead it's over. There is no going back. It's just complete darkness or not even that, complete nothingness... There are no second chances. Your conciousness fades along with all the memories/subconcious that were there.

When I was meditating on this issue I realized why religions exist. Having a guarantee that there is this paradise on the other side where all your loved ones are waiting for you is beautiful and keeps the terrifying nature of death away... but it's a beautiful story that is false at its core

i have felt the exact same way for the longest time. awful panic attacks and derealization over my very existence and the thought of what happens after death, wishing i was religious for the comfort of it all. up until recently it was really holding me back in actually going through with an attempt.

but then.. i dunno exactly, i feel more at peace with it now. its still a work in progress for sure but being on this site has helped a lot. ive been trying to change my mentality to think of death as something like a peaceful rest, going to sleep forever, rather than a finality. its easier to think of it this way. at the same time it helps that im just... so so so tired of living. ive just kind of let go.

also, we all die at some point in the end. death will come whether you like it or not- why not make it on your own terms?

 

[february in alaska]

I've never been religious, always a stout nihilistic atheist. But I'm also just as terrified and confused about the unknown as everyone else, so I completely understand this feeling

I like to think about it like this: whether you CTB or not, you will eventually die. Everyone will end up in the same place, the same place millions and millions of people have already passed to. So making your peace with it and imagining something nice waiting on the other side can be a really good thing for anyone. Despite not believing in god or heaven or hell, I like to believe there's some good safe peaceful place outside of all this

 

[isthisit?]

If there is nothing on the other side then I'll be happy. By happy meaning right before nothing I'll be happy and then I won't be anything.

 

[annointed_towers]

What makes you so sure?

 

[Nlis2244]

I also came to understand the need for religion. Thinking that on the other side you will find your loved ones, and good people will be awarded, and evil ones punished is nice. But what i really think will happen is nothing, just the end of consiousness. And I don't find that bad either. Many times i'm overwhelmed by the bad things that happen, so it's nice to cope by reminding myself that nothing that happens , good or bad, actually matters. We are just matter and energy that exist since the beginning of the universe, and will exist until the end, that happens to be momentarily mixed in a very specific way. Sadly i can't manage to adopt this philosphy in everyday life, it would make everything much easier.