Death Anxiety

Hello Greg, welcome!
I am pretty new here myself but I can say there are alot of supportive people here for you. I too know how you feel, any small change or discomfort I experience immediately means I am dieing, I am in the process if upping my med dose, hopefully we will both begin to fell better soon!! At the very top of the forum posts is a big list of helpful things to help you with coping.

Yes for sure keeping a positive outlook is important and I'm glad to see you have that already ( I know it's hard sometimes) but keep us updated on how the Celexa works out I will keep my fingers crossed for you that you wake up some day very soon feeling better!

Hello and welcome!

We are glad you've joined us, although sorry to hear of your anxiety and health/death related fears. We understand how this feels...and are here to support!

I commend you in seeking help in the form of therapy. Many people find the combination of an Rx and working with a therapist to be a winning one! Well done, and may your start up in both treatments go well for you!

For now...have a look inside our Resources at the top of the main forum page. You'll find links specifically for self help with health anxiety...as well as book recommendations. One book has a chapter dedicated to the fear of death/dying, that you may want to consider checking out. (let me know if you need direct links and I'll be happy to post them.for you.)

Keep posting with us. We are here to listen and encourage anytime.:)

Scaredy Cat

Thanks guys. It means a lot. I will continue to update you all on how things are going. Today was rough. I had therapy, which helped a little bit, but I also had serious anxiety issues revolving around death. I am doing better tonight now that i have shut those thoughts out, but I am hoping that things turn out better soon.

keep strong.

thats a part of anxiety and your mind , i remember i was such in a dark place , thats all i thought about , i would cry and pray and i really thought my life was over , the feeling is unreal .... it took a long time for me to get to this point where iam and while i still struggle .... im in a better place then i was 3 years ago , i came here for lots of support and i got help as well ...maybe you need to talk to someone .. you will be fine try to get a hobbie that will help your mind relax

Hi Greg,

I'm sorry you have to deal with this. You're taking the right steps with seeking help w therapy and medication. Just know that the root of this is just an obsessive thought. An obsessive thought cannot hurt you. It can feel terrible, for sure, but you will not die thinking about dying. The only thing that anxiety does is take the joy out of living.

Trying not to think the thought is not practical. If someone tells you to not think about a purple elephant...what's the first thing you'll think about?? It's the response to the thought that's the problem. You have the thought that you're dying...so you respond by thinking it's true and you must be dying. It's simply not true. You can have the thought that you're dying, accept it and say, ok, that's a scary thought and let it go. I know it's easier said than done. But you CAN just accept the scary thought and choose to do nothing with it.

Have you heard of mindfulness? There is info in the resources page. But when you have your scary thought (and we all have them, see all the posts about health anxiety, family members dying, mine was dying when i had panic attacks, yep still alive 25 years later and then a crushing fear of relationships) take a slow breath, don't fight the thought (fighting it will feed it and increase the anxiety) accept that the thought is there and simply do something else.

If anxiety is new to you, it totally makes sense that it's terrifying. Eventually you can get to a place where you're simply bored with it and let it go. Boredom and anxiety cannot exist in the same place.

I wish you calmness.

Hi Greg, I hear you! I am sorry you are going through this.

Yes, health anxiety can turn your life into a molten core of torment, in which you lose all interest in living your life and enjoying things you used to do. Yet, many people tend to make fun of this horrible condition and even doctors don't take it too seriously :/

Hang in there! Give your medication some time to kick in, which is around 4 -6 weeks. But then I promise, you will start feeling differences.
It's fantastic that you are getting therapy help. In my opinion, therapy helps a lot with health anxiety, much more than meds do.
The golden rule about death related fears is (I experience the same from time to time) keeping yourself occupied. During therapy, your P.doc is going to show you different ways to deal with it.

Please post your worries here in forums when you feel down, don't hesitate. We will read and give support!

Hope you feel better soon <3

G.,

Great news!!

That does sound like really good progress.:)

Keep up the great work on all the positive things you've been working for your recovery.

Also, keep updating so we can keep you cheered on along your journey.

May your improvement continue!

S.C.

Being able to articulate the anxiety is hugely freeing I think. Just remember that people who go crazy don't think about going crazy, so the fact that you think about it is a good sign :)

Also, yes, the mind is incredible. I read a theory that people create anxiety and worry as a way to protect themselves. Anxiety is "supposed" to be a good thing and keep us safe, but if we have nothing to worry about, we creative types will just find things :) Darn brains!

OH! and another thought, for a whole 2 days (so clearly I'm an expert ;) I've been reading about "Pure-O"OCD, it's where you have obsessive thoughts (like about dying) but without the compulsions (or at least without visible ones).

One of the treatments is ERP (exposure response prevention), where the therapist has you experience your fear, so in your case, you'd sit and "try" to make your heart stop (which you logically know is impossible). The theory is, the more you did this and had the experience of nothing happening, the less the anxiety would have power and naturally decrease. Just an idea.

And as for CBT, that is a thing that i have heard about and it is something that certainly could be helpful. I just don't want to mess around with mentally trying to make my heart stop or mentally trying to kill myself, because even if those things are impossible, it is still terrifying to think of what would happen if I was proven right :(