Are you afraid of dying?

[The Meromorph]

We're all gonna die!


Well some time, we are.

So how do you view the prospect of your own death?

I'm not looking forward to it, not waiting impatiently, but the prospect doesn't alarm me at all. I just want to finish my work here first, ya know?

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

Not really, no.  I'd rather not have it happen any time soon, but there's no use in worrying about something beyond my control.

I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to dying, but I look at things this way: no matter what I do, death will likely be a fixed quantity.  No matter how much fretting and worry I put in now, I won't be able to stop it.  So, my choices are:

1. Be all worried and miserable, and die at some point.

2. Try my best to be fulfilled and somewhat happy, and die at some point.

I like option 2 better.   

[silent_contemplation]

Dying doesn't scare me. However, I would like death to leave me alone for a little while. So far, I've gotten to live the part of life where you bust your butt; I would like to at least live to the part where I reap the benefits of busting my butt if you know what I'm saying.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I intend to live forever, or die in the attempt ...

I try not to worry at all about death - it is one of the only true democratic processes.  In that it comes to everyone, no matter what their life-station.

But, I have thought a great deal about what happens after (if anything).  I suppose that is a function of changing from a fundamentalist-theist to a sort-of-agnostic.  The process did not happen all at once, but took place over many years, and with much thought and contemplation.  And, I'm not done, yet -

But, at the heart of the changes, is the Ultimate Question: what happens next when a person dies?

And, whatever your personal view of this will affect your perception of death itself, and your eventual role in it.

[Sibling Chatty]

Death?

Natural progression.

You live, then you die. Not a big deal, really.

Yeah, it "hangs over my head" all the time. Everybody else's too, though. It's possible that we know in advance the cause of mine, but there are no sure things.

I agree with Woody Allen. I don't mind dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

(If I can go without drowning or suffocating, i'm good to go!)

[goat starer]

I had a major near miss about 6 years ago when I had a sub arrachnoid heamorage and ended up collapsing at work. At the time One of the proccedures carried out was an angiogram that involved inserting a tube into my leg all the way to my head then injecting a dye into the brain to identify the site of the bleed. I was told that this has a 1/100 chance of causing a stroke.

After being told this I had a lot of lying down time to think about dying and concluded that personally I would not mind all that much but thinking about what it would do to other people is incredibly painful.

I won't go looking to hurry the process up but as peter pan once said "To die will be an awfully big adventure".

[Griffin NoName]

I look forward to dying. It's the bit before that which terrifies me as it seems it is likely to be drawn out and painful with no support from loved ones. Though as Chatty says, who knows if it will actually be like that.

I dont believe anything happens after death so my plan to chuckle at my loved ones reactions from on high is just a fantasy. I do hope I have time and energy to arrange a funeral as I want and which will completely bemuse them. My current musical selection is a Yellow Submarine.

[ivor]

I am afraid of dying slowly and painfully.    I am looking forward to a good dirt nap.   No more stress.  No more children throwing you under the bus so they can get their way.  I am not bitter about it though. 

I don't want to be bedridden like my grandpa was.  If I get that way take me out behind the barn. 

[The Meromorph]

I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather.
Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

[Griffin NoName]

We nearly got the law changed here. But didn't. There's another campaign to bring assisted dying before Parliament again as soon as possible. Most of the public are in favour; the Lords aren't (they probably think there's an Upper House in Heaven) and the medical profession having been all for it suddenly did a U-turn.

I cannot understand why, where there is no hope at all, and extreme disablement, as in for example the last stages of motor nerone disease, we are treated worse than animals and do not have the right to make our own choice.

One argument is the relatives; well my relatives can take a running jump - they never make any decision that benefit me and they are not about to start now. If the only purpose were to be keeping me in a living hell, is to keep them happy, I would regard that as totally abusive.

[ivor]

LOL Mero!

If I could chose between someone wiping my ass, putting a new diaper on me and death I would take the latter.  Something like they did in "Soylent Green" would be great.

[Griffin NoName]

Curiously, I have no worries about any type of nursing care. It beats animals abandong dying creatures rather than seeing to their needs. Tending the incapacitated seems natural to me and we all have the same basic needs. I tend to lose any feelings I might have about modesty when feeling too ill for that to be any kind of priority.

What I dislike intensely is carers who are crual, badly trained, insensitive, and plainly in the wrong job. I also get incensed by the constant lack of care in weeding out bad and/or abusive carers and the current rise of such people in the UK at present.

[Opsa]

Love the "Peter Pan" reference, Goat. I re-read that book last year and some of the lines in it are stunning!

I would prefer not to be in a tormented situation when I go. I guess that's really just a preference for living without torment. I suspect everyone dies about the same way, as in that their bodies just stop. Whether the mind goes on without it is a possibility for adventure.

I had surgery this past week and was impressed with how peaceful it was to relinquish consciousness. I've decided that if death is like that, then it's all right with me.

[beagle]

So far I came closest when a burst appendix was misdiagnosed at 16. The thought didn't bother me much at the time. Don't know if that was stoicism or the assumption of teenagers that they're immortal.

Think I'm actually more scared of getting old, and sometimes think those of my friends who burnt out rather than rusted may have had the right idea.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I think I agree with most folks here. Not a big deal, why fear the inevitable...
I have things to do before I croak, but I'm very curious as to what happens afterward (not rushing to see it though). I want a root beer kegger or something as a wake when I move on, as it were.