I am scared of death, please help me!

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Lucial

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Since I am 5 years of age I remember not being able to sleep because of this kind of thoughts of eternal void after death but not being able to explain what I felt with my limited vocabulary.
My anxiety returned now that I am 20 years old and I do not know what to do or who to speak with; I have the feeling of the meaningless void of becoming nonexistent, stop feeling, stop experiencing and stop being after dying, for me this takes all meaning of life away and I haven’t been able to sleep for weeks.
The bible says that life starts after we die; I fear it meaning that our good conscious actions continue through the people we have helped and loved when we lived rather than being truly conscious or alive after death.
Any kind of afterlife experience or bible passages that explain how life after death is, would help me a lot; I really am desperate and I have prayed to God to help me get peace about this topic for years.

Thank you a lot for reading me
*Sorry about my english
 
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Hi friend,

I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been suffering so much. It’s really late where I live and I have to get to bed. I don’t have the focus to give you any insights right now, but I wanted you to know that I will pray for you before I fall asleep. Just know that there is help out there. You can get over this. There are many good reasons to believe and totally trust Jesus and all the saints that life goes on after this life. God bless you!
 
Thank you so so much for your prayers ❤️ ❤️
I really apreciate it, I want to feel that trust in the afterlife to finally feel peace.
I will continue looking
 
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I think it’s normal to have fear, to be scared of death, especially when you see how beautiful and enjoyable life is. It’s part of being human to be afraid of certain things. I can say that it’s often good to have fears of something (bad things). Fears help us avoid evil and danger, I think.
The fear of death, if we think of it in a positive way, should drive us to live our life worthily. Fears of death help us to live always in accordance with god’s laws, because we believe this will bring us eternal life, meaning to say living forever.
 
‘He who loves God with all his heart does not fear death or punishment or judgment or hell,
because perfect love assures access to God. It is no wonder that he who still delights in sin fears death and judgment. It is good, however, that even if love does not as yet restrain you from evil, at least the fear of hell does. The man who casts aside the fear of God cannot continue long in goodness but will
quickly fall into the snares of the devil.’ - The Imitation of Christ
 
I can see how death is useful while we are alive to value every moment; thank you so much for your answer. ❤️
Right now my fears are making it hard to appreciate life how I would like and I really don´t know what to do about it.
 
Your Christian (Catholic) faith should help you overcome your fear of death. Jesus promises believers everlasting life if they believe in Him and, by so doing, lead a life of goodness and charity.

As a psychologist, I would also add that fear of death among young people is not so uncommon. Paradoxically, it seems that fear diminishes as one grows older. But certainly faith in G-d can provide you with much comfort.
 
If you are feeling fear or anxiety, don’t let yourself have time to brood on it. Clean your house. Go for a hike outside, if you can. Dance or do exercise. Make sure you are eating healthy food and getting fresh air.

Obviously that doesn’t make your fear go away. But it keeps your brain busy. Small acts of control over chaos can make you feel better, too. (Like cleaning.)

You can also pray Acts of Hope, or the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or other prayers like that. You can be like St. Faustina and say, “Jesus, I trust in You!”

Helping other people, or even living creatures like pets or plants, can also help you feel better.

But most of all, remember that Jesus also spent time in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood and praying for the cup to be taken away if it could be. There are Psalms talking about fear of death. Use them as your prayer.

There’s nothing wrong with being human. Wishing to keep living is a good desire that helps us stay healthy and alive. But Jesus wants you to be at peace, in His peace.
 
I feel that something may be very wrong with me; I shouldn´t feel scared of death like the fragment you wrote says.
Thank you so much for your answer 💕
 
I hope God helps me overcome it; I do have faith in Him and I feel fortunate to have faith… I fear that the Bible has other interpretations about living after death only through the people we love or actions we made while we lived, but I truly hope it means the continuation of life, feeling and being conscious after death.
I didn´t know it was a common fear because non of my friends have it and I feel alone about that topic.
Thank you 💕 💕
 
It dismays me when Catholics don’t mention spiritual warfare. Have you heard about it, or ever practiced it? There’s a nice example in that great Christian movie, War Room, when the wife is basically casting Satan out of her house.
— Use holy water, pray a Psalm out loud, and in Jesus’ name bind and rebuke (name the spirits: Fear, Terror, Fear of Death, Lies, Anxiety, Death, Witchcraft, Divination, etc.) and command them to go immediately to the foot of the Cross, “Where Our Lord will deal with you according to His will”! I use that phrasing, but you can use your own.

I was very blessed to spend a few years at a Charismatic Catholic/ecumenical Community in GA and really was impressed with the power if spiritual warfare.

I’ll share a quick experience I had:

One day I was in the car with my teenage son, and during a disagreement I noticed he was getting very angry. His anger didn’t seem appropriate for the situation - he was furious. And I told him he seemed overly angry about our discussion. Still furious, he admitted he agreed but didn’t know why.
I said I was going to do a little spiritual warfare, which made him angrier and annoyed, and he complained about me going there too often.
I started anyway; binding and rebuking spirits of Anger, Rage, Confusion, Divination, and anything else the Holy Spirit brought to mind, in Jesus’ name, etc.
Suddenly he turns to me and said, “It’s gone!”, and his whole expression was peaceful.

I learned to use this if I felt “overly” anything: Anxious, Fearful, Angry, etc…

It’s a powerful tool that God gave us, and we too often forget too. But if you’ve never used it before, I highly recommend Googling “the power of the name if Jesus” and reading people’s testimonies about it, because without the belief in the power of His Name, it may make you feel more anxious😉

Praise God Every Day:heavy_heart_exclamation::heavy_heart_exclamation::heavy_heart_exclamation:
God bless! It’s going to get better. God has got this!
 
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Do you have any psychiatric illness history in your family? Insomnia is a serious illness usually treated by medication. I’m sorry if I am writing in an unusual way, very non-religious sounding, but you said you hadn’t slept for months.

No matter what happens between now and next week, you might want to get checked out for sleeping issues.

But you may also want to read page 35 and on in the free ebook spiritual combat. It elaborates about what happens at our time of death.

http://stjudetheapostleparish.org/pdf/books/spiritual_combat.pdf#page35
 
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Joh

When we die our souls go to hell, purigatory or heaven. There is no void.
Here is a verse
Luke 23:39-43
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.”40The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation?41And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.”42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”[43He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.
 
Actually, living through the people we love and our good actions is a very Jewish theme. We say in Judaism about the deceased loved one “Of blessed memory.” Not that Jews don’t believe in an afterlife although some do not; but the good we leave behind is very important. I don’t know if this is a Catholic theme as well.

Yes, fear of death is more common among young people of your age than other age groups, including the elderly. Still, if this is ALL you think about, then you might want to consider speaking to a mental health practitioner.
 
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I don’t know if you have struggled with anxiety (or maybe even Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) all this time; if so that could be an underlying reason why you have this fear and can’t stop thinking about it. If that is the case then like others suggested, I would try to seek the help of a doctor and a good therapist. I don’t know if this applies to you but sometimes we can have trouble trusting in God or other people if we had some kind of trauma in our early life. I don’t know if you are scrupulous or not but it reminds me of scrupulosity–where we just have trouble trusting in God or we are always thinking we are in sin or, as in your case, that there’s no life after death.

I don’t know what Bible verses you may have read that seem to refer to us living on only through our loved ones and not actually in a real life after death. But as meltzer boy said, it is a common Jewish theme and the OT was written, after all, by Jewish people. However, we have to remember that as Christians, we are to read the OT in light of what was revealed in the New Testament and by Jesus who we believe is the Messiah. So rest assured once Jesus comes he makes it clear that there is a life after death. All the saints also attest to this. Even in the 20th century Padre Pio and St. Faustina, for instance, both had experiences with souls who had died and presumably were in purgatory being purified of their sins.

But the interesting thing is that life after death is also hinted at by the millions of people who’ve had near-death experiences. It seems that you might benefit from spending some time reviewing the evidences of life after death. Faith is sure needed in our Christian journey but oftentimes our faith can be greatly increased through study and further understanding.

I would recommend a book by Fr. Robert Spitzer called The Soul’s Upward Yearning: Clues to Our Transcendent Nature from Experience and Reason. I don’t know if you’re a philosophy type of person, but first let me say that there are also solid philosophical reasons to believe in a soul that exists after death. However, I am not a philosophy oriented person so I will leave that to people like Fr. Spitzer. Anyway, in this book, he digs into the details of things like near-death experiences. I had read a lot about this phenomenon many years ago and it is quite fascinating.

In these events, oftentimes people who are clinically dead for a few moments say that they saw themselves lying on the hospital bed or wherever. They relate that they saw every detail clearly even though their bodies were lying motionless on the table. In these cases, it is clear that something is viewing their bodies and surroundings–something that is separate from their bodies.

Here is how one researcher, Sam Parnia, explains it:

“…What is clear is that something profound is happening. The mind—the thing that is ‘you’—your ‘soul’ if you will—carries on after conventional science says it should have drifted into nothingness.”

continued…
 
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continued…

Another doctor and researcher of near death experiences, Jeffrey Long, has said regarding the existence of an immortal soul that exists after death: “We’re finding verification, if you will, for what so many religions have been saying.”

One fascinating aspect of these experiences is that many people who have them relate that they had contact with a “being of light.” Almost all the people who experience this “being” say that it is a “personal being”. It has a definite personality and they feel an immense attraction to the being. Very often, people have gone through a “life review” with this being, in which the being presents the person’s whole life before them and begins to ask them questions about their life and the things that they did and didn’t do.

Obviously, this seems very close to what we as Christians believe about our judgment after death with Jesus Christ. Many people who have had these experiences have said that they believed the being was Christ, although not all do. But regardless, this is an interesting clue that there is something in us that continues after we are clinically dead. It is not perfect proof but it is a clue.

I hope this helps!
 
I do try to keep myself busy, and i am a very energetic person but for the same reason at night when I am left with my thoughts alone is when I begin to suffer from my fears.
I will pray Acts of Hope you suggest 🙂 thank you so much.
 
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