Thoughts on Death

[looking4answers]

I was doing some research and ran across this article and thought I would share it.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-r..._b_837079.html

[looking4answers]

I want people to read this and dont want it to get buried.

[suzy-sue]

Very thought provoking .I read something very similar a long time ago .This saying always springs to mind when such subjects come up . "There’ll be two dates on your tombstone everyone will read them.. but the only thing that matters is the little dash between them"
Thanks Sue x

[looking4answers]

Thanks Sue, My hope was that others would read this and think about it and post because after all that is what so much of our anxiety is about.

[keta]

I’m not sure how this article as any relevance to anxiety as such and how we live our life with problems they come with it. I would say nobody on here would be scared of death in some cases people think about it as a release from all this.
Also some of the stuff is not very practical especially if you have a family and responsibilities you can’t just follow your heart and go and do things like you going to die tomorrow. If I was going to do that i would either jump on the first plane to escape somewhere or just give up and finish my life, but what about the loved ones left behind and all the responsibilities i have here. Sorry this is bit morbid but just saying what i think and i don’t agree it’s always possible to do what he says. Yes people who worry about stupid things might be able to put this into practise but people who are scared to leave their own home because of their anxiety that’s a totally different thing.

[Ingenious]

It's an interesting read, as Keta says there is the reality of balancing our daily lives with our aspirations. For me the one point I most agree with is forgiveness (or not holding grudges as this article puts it). A surprising amount of the weight we carry on our shoulders is actually hatred and grudges towards other people because of things they have done to us. Letting go of that can be life changing.

[debs71]

I totally agree with that article.

I have been pondering lately just how much of my life has been utterly WASTED on anxiety, depression and panic. To really contemplate it upsets me greatly.

I spent years without anxiety, but just generally lacking confidence, but I was more or less stable and happy, but for the past 8 years my life has been plagued by mental health worries and I am SICK OF IT.

When I turned 40 last month was when I really started to think about how I want my life to progress, and I don't want the rest of my life to be swallowed up by anxiety. I think that mentally that is why I am better than I have been in years, with the odd blip, but every time the blip comes I fight it and win now as I have that mental resolve. I am also spending more time with my parents and sister and extended family. I have only now (sadly) really started to value my time with them and want to stop making their lives miserable with my illnesses.

This article is so true. Life is very short. We don't realise it as we don't often have time to stop and consider that.

Personally, death does not scare me. What scares me is leaving the people I love too early, or having them leave me early, but the actual fear of myself dying and the process I am not scared of. I do believe and hope that I will be reunited with the loved ones I have lost. It is just another stage of life.

Very thought provoking.

[eight days a week]

A great article, many thanks for sharing it with us all.

I've long thought the fear of death is somewhere at the heart of my issues. Recently after thinking much more about it, I'm not sure that it's death itself, but rather pain and suffering beforehand, and the emotional aftermath for those left behind.

It affects me in other ways, but when I have panic attacks it's the fear 'I'm dying'. I can accept it if I die, but it's the fear of the pain of the attack - that I'm struggling for life, that death is going to be painful.

One doctor I saw for something else got onto the subject of death, and when I told him how I felt he more or less laughed at me. (He was a very rich, successful, large - and larger than life - character, a big personality, with no fears in life.) He told me that death is something 'everyone' comes to terms with in their teens (??) and just learns to accept. Well, for whatever reason I never did. I did have experiences when I was younger that most people don't that probably have something to do with it.

I'm considering psychotherapy (if I 'pass' my second assessment!) but since I read the article I have also been trying to just 'accept' death. I'm a big believer in positive affirmations, so have been telling myself 'it's very sad but it's going to happen to us all, so just make the most of life' and even 'my dad, my sister, me - we're all going to die one day - we can't change that! - so every day is precious and a gift'. It seems to be helping already

So, many thanks again looking4.

[looking4answers]

Your welcome....brings to mind last time I was in the doctors office I was having a panic attack and she said whats wrong with you and I said I was afraid and she said of what and I said of dying and she said why? You will die I will die everyone dies. Anyway your desriptionof your old doctor made me think of one of my old doctors,he was very much the way you described yours, He was very much a realist and I sure do miss him. I was living in another state and he had been my doctor for eight years.