He's coming for you, you know?

Yesterday I asked, are you afraid of dying? Interestingly, the response was less enthusiastic. Here are the responses I got.

Samantha: Love the blog hun! I have never been afraid of dying until recently. I'm a Christian and believe that I'll be going on to paradise. I don't know what it'll be like but i know it will be fab! I think it was a Jewish man that once said 'We have as much concept of the afterlife as an unborn baby does of the outside world' but that doesn't bother me. I don't fancy the idea of drowning but the actual moment of death i imagine to be very peaceful. HOWEVER... since having my baby boy I'm terrified of leaving him. I'm also scared that something could happen to me while my husband is at work and my baby would be screaming until he got home! It's amazing how having a child changes your outlook on life! X

Lee: I'm not afraid of dying, or death, but I do worry about those I would leave behind if I did pass on.

WWKnight: Im 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.

Karen: No I am only afraid of the way I will die as long as it is painless and with dignity I have seen so many deaths in my life and know how horrible death can be so I am hoping i go quickly and in my sleep. I also would rather die than live with dementia or alzheimers disease. 

@paolavanessa: I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of dying too soon.

Anonymous: 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.

The following conversation also took place on my blog...

Anonymous: Death 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? 

Samantha: I 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. 

Anonymous: yeah, 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.

Samantha: "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... :( 

I also posted a poll on Facebook asking if respondents were afraid of dying. My boyfriend & another friend responded. That is it. And they both said no. So what am I to gather from this response? I may just be inferring but from what I am lead to believe, most great scientific discoveries started out as mere hypotheses. I wonder if maybe people are more willing to talk about other fears. Other fears like heights, spiders, snakes and insects can be avoided. Theoretically, you could survive the rest of your life without ever climbing a ladder again. If you were lucky enough, maybe, just maybe, you would never have to come across another spider ever again. But death? I could live for another week and die or I could live for another 80 years and die. But whatever happens and however long it takes, I am going to die. You are going to die. Every single person you have ever known, or will ever know, is going to die.

He's coming for you, you know?

I know this is a morbid topic and people don't like to think about it. It is my belief that people without thanatophobia / fear of death are not void of a fear of dying. I believe they simply don't think about it.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Miss SAMawdsley xx

What are YOU afraid of?

What is your biggest fear? Apparently around one in ten people suffer from a phobia and the most common are

1. Arachnophobia (The fear of spiders)

This phobia tends to affect women more than men.

2. Ophidiophobia (The fear of snakes)

Often attributed to evolutionary causes, personal experiences, or cultural influences.

3. Acrophobia (The fear of heights)

This fear can lead to anxiety attacks and avoidance of high places.

4. Agoraphobia (The fear of situations in which escape is difficult)

This may include crowded areas, open spaces, or situations that are likely to trigger a panic attack. People will begin avoiding these trigger events, sometimes to the point that they cease leaving their home.

Approximately one third of people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia.

5. Cynophobia (The fear of dogs)

This phobia is often associated with specific personal experiences, such as being bitten by a dog during childhood.

6. Astraphobia (The fear of thunder and lightening)

Also known as Brontophobia, Tonitrophobia, or Ceraunophobia.

7. Trypanophobia (The fear of injections)

Like many phobias, this fear often goes untreated because people avoid the triggering object and situation.

8. Social Phobias (The fear of social situations)

In many cases, these phobias can become so severe that people avoid events, places, and people that are likely to trigger an anxiety attack.

9. Pteromerhanophobia (The fear of flying)

Often treated using exposure therapy, in which the client is gradually and progressively introduced to flying.

10. Mysophobia (The fear of germs or dirt)

May be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Of those, I fully understand being terrified of spiders and flying. I have always been scared of spiders. They're hairy, they run too fast, they are there on the wall when you least expect it, they have far too many legs and they just generally creep me out!! This is a fear I guess I was born with. It's also the most common fear.

Flying however, that's an acquired fear. Prior to developing my fear, I had flown to Adelaide and back and made the following journey: Brisbane - Cairns - Hong Kong - London - Trevisio - London - Shannon - London - Hong Kong - Brisbane. The day prior to developing my fear of flying, I had flown from Brisbane to Seoul and was somewhere in the air over an ocean on my way to London when it happened. To sum up the story, I heard the captain tell the entire cabin we were having "technical difficulties" and "were going to descend". As I mentioned, this was somewhere over an ocean (I suck at geography and can't be bothered looking at a map to figure out which one) so I panicked. They don't call it "The Miracle on the Hudson" because it's easy to land on water! So I told the English girls behind me we were going to die, panicked a lot and then, after every TV on the plane simultaneously went blank, I demanded an air hostess tell me what was going on. Turns out the technical difficulties requiring we "descend" were the TVs having trouble and we were actually going to "reset". Embarrassingly, I knew this as I was the one who'd complained about the TVs to begin with... But, the damage had been done and after fully believing I was going to die on this God-forsaken hunk of metal hurtling through the sky... I've avoided flying ever since!

So tell me, what is YOUR biggest phobia?

Miss SAMawdsley xx

* * * * * Click to see the responses * * * * *