Yesterday I asked, what is your biggest phobia? Here are the answers I received on my Facebook.
Samantha Mawdsley: is doing a quick poll. Dear friends, what is your biggest fear/phobia?
Nikki: Probably death, oh and spiders :-/Sarah: Snakes and losing another baby/child.Tea Man: Bears that can roller bladeRobert: that this is all i shall beMatthew: Quick spontaneous Polls....Matthew: AgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhNikki: Good point Sarah, ill add losing someone you love to my list!Simon: Buried alive...Brad: Not finding out who Ted marriesNikki: haaaaaave you met Ted?Mandy: Geckos and heights...in that order!Karen: Spiders and snakes in no particular orderSamantha: Phobia of posting letters (?!) and fear of something happening to my babyKimberley: Entomophobia (fear of insects). Especially when the damn things are within breathing space of meRebecca: my parents dying. .Sharyn: That all my kiddies will forget me (including the adopted ones)David: Stagnation, irrelevancy, spiders.Kate: the dark, losing the people close to me and the future
Twitter gave me the following responses.
@iVerbalise: #foreveralone@lycanlife: People knowing my fears & taking advantage of them.
This quick poll taught me a few things. Firstly, I have some funny, funny friends. Matt & Brad crack me up! Also, some people don't take fear and phobias seriously. This is something I have learned already. Few people understand my fears and while I admit my story about why I'm scared of flying is quite amusing, my resulting fear is not a laughing matter. I am terrified.
Interestingly, spiders pretty much top the list, closely followed by snakes. Many of the things on this list can kill you - with the obvious exceptions of geckos and posting letters. The other common fears also relate to death. There are six responses directly involving death but only one person actually lists death as their biggest fear. If I am to believe my unprofessional and pretty non-scientific poll, one in 19 people is actually afraid of dying? This brings me to my next question and this is going to be hard for me, but in the interests of "scientific" research, I need to ask. Please comment and share your thoughts and feelings on the subject.
Are you afraid of dying?
Miss SAMawdsley xx
PS: I once heard that more people are afraid of public speaking than dying. Which means that at a funeral, most people would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy...
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| Where would you rather be? |
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As terrified as I am of public speaking, I would choose that over the coffin only because the thought of my kids without me breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteDeath doesn't worry me - why spend your life worrying about death. I don't believe in after life's, heaven and pet cementaries so there isn't motivation to end up in the fluffy clouds or worry about burning my toast in hell. Death isn't something I contemplate or consider the ramifications of. Those who fear death - in what way does this fear impact on your living?
ReplyDeleteI am afraid of death. Well, I am afraid of ceasing to exist. The impacts for me are huge. I have suffered panic attacks since I was 11 and have been in and out of therapy since then. Nothing has helped. Most recently, I was in hospital with a burn and while on pain killers, lost complete control and started screaming, I mean really hysterically screaming because I thought about the fact I am going to die. So it definitely impacts on my living.
ReplyDeleteyeah, death itself doesnt phase me, I wont know about it when I'm gone. Losing someone else close (children, husband etc, not parents cos I see that as the natural order of things)and experiencing that pain again is enough to put me into a state of manic terror.
ReplyDelete"I won't know about it when I'm gone". It is exactly that thought that terrifies to the point that I can't breathe... Literally being unable to think, feel, love... oh God... :(
ReplyDeleteI have the exact same thoughts and the only thing that helps me is trying to think about something else - which can be near impossible sometimes. It helps me to have someone to talk to about something else - like what our plans are for the next day. I wish that I could cure the root of the problem instead of distracting myself, but I haven't found a way of thinking about not existing that puts me at peace. I know that when I don't exist it won't bother me any more, but that really doesn't provide much comfort.
DeleteIm afraid of living an insignificant life, and thus I am afraid of dying without having achieved anything. But I am not actually afraid of the dying itself.
ReplyDeleteHave you done any of the Buddhist studies on the topic of reincarnation? Chenrezig Buddhist Institute at Eudlo often runs them, and has online study modules that you could tackle with the help of a friend.
ReplyDeleteIt might help?
Thanks for the input guys. xx
ReplyDelete@ TheLakeHouseWriter, I haven't looked at those studies yet. Thanks for the tip about the online studies. My local temple runs classes at a time that I am unavailable so that would be well worth me looking into. Thanks! xx