Are YOU afraid of dying?

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 blade

Robert: that this is all i shall be

Matthew: Quick spontaneous Polls....

Matthew: Agggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Nikki: Good point Sarah, ill add losing someone you love to my list!

Simon: Buried alive...

Brad: Not finding out who Ted marries

Nikki: haaaaaave you met Ted?

Mandy: Geckos and heights...in that order!

Karen: Spiders and snakes in no particular order

Samantha: Phobia of posting letters (?!) and fear of something happening to my baby

Kimberley: Entomophobia (fear of insects). Especially when the damn things are within breathing space of me

Rebecca: 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...

Where would you rather be?

* * * * * More to come tomorrow * * * * *