Ever since I was a child I was afraid of getting older and dying. It has been in the back of my mind for most of my life.
I had phases were this fear was not really around and then phases where it is the only thing I can think of. Ever since Corona it has gotten worse and worse. It just struck me one day while playing video games with my friends. Suddenly I was like "I WILL die one day. I will not be anymore ... forever. I won't even know that I am not anymore." and I broke down pretty much immediately.
What followed was a phase of everlasting fear and anxiety. It was so bad that I just couldn't fall asleep unless I watched comedy until was physically not able to stay awake. Back then I thought it was a result of the isolation of Corona. Since then I moved back in with my mother (due to different reasons). Everything was fine for a while but now it is back.
I should be happy. I handed in my bachelor's thesis a while back, will soon move out again and have gotten a job in my dream career. I finished my therapy and while I am still not completely over my social anxiety but it is getting better and better. And yet the fear was never as bad. Last night I cowered into a ball under my desk and started crying.
It has gotten to a point were I thought about killing myself to end it. It is the same result either way. I won't remember anything anyway. Even the pain and grief friends and family would feel is only temporary. They too will be gone with everything that made them up one day.
I have no intentions of going through with it but it frightens me that I even think like this.
I don't know were this is coming from. Maybe from the feeling that I am wasting my life, that I am a failure and too far behind peers, that I am too old to have so little but I also know that it's not like I could have done a lot better. Due to circumstances outside of my own control I am were I am right now but I am doing my best to get better. It's just that it takes a lot of time and I fear that it takes too much time. I also lost a good friend recently so this probably plays into it as well.
Is there anyway of changing my way of thinking about death? I know I can't change the fact that I will die but how can I accept it without falling into existential nihilism like I currently am?
Edit: I also already called my therapist but since it's the weekend they won't answer before Monday.
negl homie I ache for the end of mine. I don't see beauty, or majesty, or any breathtaking superlative in life anymore. I despise the country I was born into, and the majority of its people. You couldn't pay me to consider educating these genocidal settler peckerwoods anymore. No educating. No camaraderie. Not even a buck for cab fare.
I just want it all to stop, if not for these murderous ghouls who don't deserve the blood, sweat, and spittle, then at least for me so I no longer have to see what further crackery the dogs'll perpetuate. I stopped fearing death when it first started occurring to me that these settlers will visit death on my community at a whim. Now I wish for it. The only dream I have anymore that doesn't involve me dying with a smile on my face is one where I'm running some bookstore in another country, far from this place, with a sign in the local language on top, and english on bottom, settled in the corner of the window right next to the door, in big block capitals-- "NO FUCKING AMERICANS".
I've felt exactly how you feel several times in my life, and I'll probably feel again, too hehe.
To be conscious is both a gift and a curse. You are conscious of your death whereas most animals simply live and die, though they can also be afraid of death even if they aren't aware of it. To be aware of it means you are afraid even though death is not around the corner.
Death is a part of life, it's an experience like any other. One thing that helped me be more at peace with my death is psychedelics, because they are an experience different from regular life, which is an insight to the experience of death. It's been shown that natural death releases DMT in our brain, and numerous people who've had an almost death experience reported a trip before they "returned."
Another thing you can try to diminish your anxieties is meditation. If you practice meditation enough, you'll be able to enter a conscious state where you shut off normal activity and you experience self-nothingness. When you blend in with the environment in meditation practice, you learn to not be afraid of nothingness. Death suddenly doesn't sound that bad, and you lose attachment to this life, so that you're no longer afraid to lose it.
In short, we shouldn't feel anxious about death. We will die eventually, why worry? Everything will come in its time. Even if we suffer the most violent and painful death possible, it'll be over eventually, so what's the worry? Consciousness is an experience, death will be another. Enjoy both when the time comes!
This answer is great. It pretty much summarizes what I was trying to say in the old post (that I linked), but better.
"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender." -2pac
I disagree with this type of answer. I was trying to come up with a way to respond last time the topic came up and now I think I have. Death is a part of life. All things created must be destroyed. Negation of the negation, dialectics.
Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us.
-Friedrich Engels, The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man
I don’t see immortality as either a worthy venture, nor something that is likely possible. Mortality gives life meaning. I’m sure if we were somehow immortal there would be negative unforeseen consequences. It is not desirable to conquer nature, but to live in harmony with it. That’s why I quoted Engels. Sickness will always be a part of life, but it has been and will be limited.
Humanity finds its own meanings of life. Mortality both makes things seem meaningless and gives meaning, another contradiction. Struggle is certainly a way of finding meaning. I think the drab proletarian life and the crushing force of capitalist realism is largely at fault for the meaningless in this society.
Now I’m wondering whether this debate is worth having at all. I guess it is as some find false hope in immortality instead of coming to terms with their own death. Regardless, immortality is certainly unfeasible within the foreseeable future, so we might as well come to terms with death. I don’t know if I’ll convince you, but I’ve said what I have to say.
Edit: I forgot to add Albert Camus’ famous analogy of Sisyphus being like the proletarian who daily works at something of which it’s products are not their own. Also, like the human who’s work on earth will never be complete at death. We are capable of finding purpose in such an absurd scenario. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Not really, if I were he doing nothing but an un-completable task I’d wish I could end it all. The point is that we assume he is suffering, but as our condition is like his we should imagine him happy.
Then there’s no disagreement on that. Sisyphus and humans are the same. There is no inherent meaning, we will do things that don’t actually matter for any inherent way, and we must make up meaning that isn’t actually there. My disagreement is with your assumption that immortality would make one happy and that it is possible within this world. You claimed he was happy because he was immortal, when he’s actually happy because he decides to be despite no real reason.
Interesting, so basically someone immortal wouldn’t have to worry about death and that’s a plus. Maybe, but I doubt it’s possible.
fuck me sounds like you've never experienced proper depression..
I don't want to live any second longer than I have to and even that's pushing it to be honest.Please don't make me live even longer.
I doubt society will be rid of depression. As Breht said on Revleft a while back, it is impossible to seek a world without contradiction. We seek to end unnecessary material suffering through socialism and ending the class contradiction, but new contradictions will arise and life will probably be more rich and complex. When economic and physical barriers are no longer there to produce inequality many may feel bad in a different way because their own faults are truly the cause of their problems.
As long as we are mortals we will feel nihilistic at times. I think society will be able to greatly reduce alienation with socialism, but that doesn’t mean people won’t be in awe of existential mystery and apparent darkness. Capitalism crushes people more than is natural, but there is also inherent feeling of not being enough and wanting more in humans.
It doesn’t matter if you think immortality is possible in the future. Your argument that it would be a good thing is unfalsifiable. However, it’s a material reality that you will die and thus it’s best to come to terms with it.
Fair point, assuming immortality is possible. It is best to try to survive as best you can under capitalism while working for its overthrow. If we are assuming this is an accurate parallel then you should try to extend your life as long as possible and maybe research things you think will bring immortality closer, while finding ways to make death less scary, as you will die.
Interesting, you’d need a lot of correct variables. There may or may not be randomness that changes the outcome. In my opinion the world is knowable, but mortals can only scratch the surface. There will always be more for collective humanity to learn.
If the simulation were accurate it would pretty much have to know everything about the world , and thus be able to simulate everyone else into the future. Without that I don’t think it’s actually “you.” Either way it’s a bit of a ship of Theseus type of situation. Also, how could you give consciousness to a computer, and even so, there is no self so I doubt it would be “you” anyway. Well, this is all hypothetical anyway. It was good talking.
What has that got to do with seeking a world without contradiction? We eradicated smallpox just fine without ending up in dialectical limbo, why can't we do it with depression?
I’m saying there will be new and different reasons to feel bad even under socialism.
There was a similar post a while back with some good answers. I’ll try to find it.
Edit: found it, hope that helps
You have to prepare for death, a lot of people's fear of death stems from unpreparedness. Sort out a will, decide what will happen after you die, snuff out as many regrets as you can. Tie up your loose ends. These things helped me mitigate the fear a bit.
Personally, what motivates me is knowing that as long as I'm alive, the proletarian vanguard has +1 comrade, and I don't want to go without making a difference. Use the time you have to put your back into the things you think are worth fighting for. Don't be complacent; don't fall into the trap of thinking it's meaningless, for naught, or that your decisions amount to nothing. There are people who seriously would love to know you, and people who need your help. Every second you spend thinking about death is a waste of your time, so don't get caught up in it. It's an inevitability not worth thinking about. And try to find some comfort in the fact that literally every other organism that has ever lived crossed that same threshold.
Tl;dr - focus on the present moment and don't let it go to waste. When you're really in despair, try to draw attention to the pure phenomonology of being, the feeling of breathing, the reflection of light off the wet pavement; bring yourself back to the world, and then remember... there's much yet to do.
DMs are always open. :stalin-heart:
I agree overall, but death is still worth contemplating. Just don’t let it eat you up.
Alcohol is bad for your body (especially the brain and liver), your mental health, and doesn't solve any problems, just makes you temporarily forget about them. If you are trying to shut down your anxieties and feelings with alcohol, you're slowly losing touch with yourself
I honestly hope you are just joking, in which case, that was very insensitive of you. If not, I hope you'll stop justifying abuse of alcohol before alcohol abuses you
Hey comrade! I think I somewhat understand the way you are feeling. In the past years I have been dealing with some panic attacks and anxiety over it. The best approach is going to therapy, but in my case what really helps is trying to not think about it, focusing on the good things around you. Even though that normally is bad advice, in this case I think is different since death is inevitable, it will come one way or another, its out our control. This creates a void that chases us, a darkness that is ever present, I know this feeling is horrifying, but there is no changing it, so thinking a lot about it only feeds the void making it bigger and stronger.
I hope you can find solace eventually and learn to accept this, since I believe there is no cure for the darkness, but learning to live with it makes it easier to carry on. Maybe I'm full of shit and you do find a solution. Who knows.
In any case, remember that you are good for the world, and we never know what the future holds. Who knows if maybe even a revolution. Try to stay as long as possible, you want every chance of not missing that out.
Stay strong and stay safe comrade, best of luck.
Comrade, I don't know anything about psychology, psychiatry, or neurology, but I do know it would be a real shame if you were outlived by Henry Fucking Kissinger
See that's what I was looking for.
Why bother with living if we all end up in the neverending void of death?
Out of spite for Kissinger.
I read this a while back, I think it addresses your vibes. I don't know who the guy is otherwise but there's some good takes in there.
I'm already dead inside. Not much would change when I die except for my consciousness being gone.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
No offence but I wish Lemmy had a “hide post” feature like r*ddit
