How do you deal with Thanatophobia

[JACEM5]

Lately I have been having problems with weird feelings during the day,I think it's medication related,but because of these feelings I have become overwhelmed with fearing death.I'm only 39yrs old and I'm afraid to sleep thinking I won't wake up.The fear of death everytime I have a weird feeling almost causing myself to have a panic attack.I have medication for panic attacks,but don't like to take them unless I have to,but they still don't get me past thinking about death.Is there anything out there that would help me overcome or at least help me cope with it.Thanks.

[Logic2212]

I believe I also have thanatophobia, I'm a 18 year old male and I've had countless sleepless nights because of panic attacks some worse then others and not always at night, once I got one on my train ride to school 3-4 years ago and it was after a bad fight with my girlfriend. My biological dad died when I was about 11-12 and I believe I have the panic attacks because of that. My fear starts with me thinking of the eternal nothingness loosing all 5 senses and brand activity I wonder is anything left? If there is when will that die? Everything we know has a start and an end so even the nothingness must end right? The uncertainty gets to me, I feel the need to plan so I can prevent death but with that being impossible I feel so small 'metaphorically'. Another fear of mine is there is no going back in life, I wish I could pause life but I can't what happens when your old and you know the next step is death but all you want To do is start from a child again. What makes it worse is I don't know what I want specifically meaning if I was given the choice of eternal life in any way would I take it, I not sure if you could chose your path of eternal life what would it be.
I seem to be the only one in my emmediate family who has these panic attacks. I've had no therapy nor medication I always just tried to face my fear but as I've learnt you can run but not hide the fear comes back when I was young I would prey lots, I still do & yet I've found that the occupying trick would help me aswell, I would for hours sit in the toilet in my house and tear the toilet paper off one piece at a time and stack them on the floor as neatly as I could untill I was so tired I would fall on my bed and sleep right away.
It's great to know others relate and in the time it has taken me to write this I have calmed down because I only searched this page up because I was shaking with fear.

[Snhoj]

I'm 16 years old in the middle of exams, the more revision I do it lessens, but if you have free time then I find writing stories to preoccupy the time but, literally just do anything.

[MilliX]

I'm 14 and constantly have these fears, I also agree with what your saying about when u have a lot on your mind or a busy day ahead i loose these fears, I spoke to my mum about getting therapy but she doesnt understand it and thinks im being morbid, I fear it will get worse and soon start having panic attacks, it used to happen only at night when my mind was trying to rest, i constantly used to have to sleep in my parents bed, but as im older i try not to do this now, but suddenly its happening during the day, it's something i want to get rid of but it never goes away unless im close to either my parents or sister. Should I speak to her about therapy again???

[bugsy012]

Hi everyone, I also have thanatophobia and it has got to the point now that it is really ruining my life. I am only 22 years old but I think about dying day and night and this fear has now caused me to have extreme health anxiety. I am constantly worrying about getting cancer, having a stroke, blood clot, heart attack you name it I have thought I have it and spent hours googling it. I am constantly at the doctors getting tested and reassurance that I don't have diseases and things but I am just convinced that I am going to die young and I am so terrified of dying that I feel like incase I do have an illness, I need to try and get it quickly to act upon it. Like a lot of you it is the nothingness after death that terrifies me. Ever since I was a child I would lie in bed and think what happens after you die, does life just go on and on and then the world ends and then the universe just exists for all eternity? So this is literally no end ever? When I start to really think about life I get myself so worked up and often have panic attacks over it. I am so worried that I am never going to get over this because there is nothing anyone can say to me that can convince me otherwise since there is no proof. I wish I was like others who just accept death as a natural part of life and just get on with it but I am living in constant fear and the fact that it is going to happen absolutely terrifies me. Sometimes I wish I had never been born so I didn't have to go through this. I have started seeing a therapist but I don't really think she is helping me much and I am now thinking maybe hypnotherapy might help. please if there is anyone who knows any methods or any way of getting over this fear can they let me know as I don't feel like I am living my life at the moment, I am living inside my thoughts and it is really getting me down. I feel like anything fun I do is always shrouded in this constant fear in the back of my mind and I want to enjoy life and not be like this. I don't know anyone else with this fear like me so it gives me comfort to know I am not alone although i wouldn't wish this on anyone else. I wish you all luck in getting over this horrible fear xx

[ScaredRaven7]

It's really scary. I can't sleep at night and I have panic attacks because of my thanatophobia. I can't do anything without thinking about if it will kill me first. It's so scary, it honestly makes me cry. To think that lots of other people suffer the same, it really breaks my heart. No one should have to go through what we have to go through. No matter what I do, it's always on my mind, haunting me. I've tried everything, from trying to enjoy life to seeing a therapist. I'm really scared, more scared than you may think. Every second of everyday I'm scared, and I want it to stop. I want it all to go away, to just leave me alone. I need help. Please, can anyone help me?

[Britty15]

You described what I'm going through to a T. I've been thinking about getting on medication even though I really don't want to. Along with the Thanatophobia, I have general/social anxiety, and Postpartum Depression right now. The panic attacks happens mainly when I'm alone or when I try to sleep when the thoughts creep in. Despite my religious beliefs, I also fear the unknown of what will happen after death. The act of dying doesn't matter. It has an end. Afterwards doesn't. I keep telling myself things will be fine, that it's inevitable, and that we may not know like we are asleep (kind of like the "dead" sleeps where it's all black and you don't know you were asleep until you wake up; only we will never know). It's kind of comforting cuz that way we won't have any worries about anything; just content. I don't want to be separated from my son, so that's another thing. But, I fear not being alive in a sense; no experiences, etc. I know that according to science, energy can not be created or destroyed. It simply transforms. Maybe that's what we will do too. Transform into something unlike what we know now; so we would in fact still be living in a sense. I also believe in spirits, angels, demons, etc. If they exist, there is no reason to not believe we go somewhere afterwards. We will just be..different. Those thoughts help me the most. Only problem is, it keeps coming back; like something we have to battle. Some fights we win, others we lose. I'm just sick of losing.