r/thanatophobia

When I was in my second year of high school, I became really depressed, and for some reason, I thought that I wouldn't finish high school and would die. Now I live in Sweden, and I am in no danger. I've never tried to hurt myself, but I just had this belief that I was going to die, and for some reason, it was comforting. It's been almost 4 years after finishing high school, and I still haven't recovered from the shock of still being alive. I just can't believe it. Why am I still here? I haven't done anything but slepping and being tierd and now I finished my system development deplomia something that I don't like, and it just increases my feeling that I should have died and not finished high school (not that I liked it ; I'd rather have died than go back there).

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Out of nowhere the sudden fear of death has been triggered. It’s all I think about and it terrifies me. Specially, I am afraid of what happens after death (or lack thereof) and being murdered. I’ve never been religious because it wasn’t how I was raised, and I don’t have any proof of an afterlife to guide me. But, the thought of nothingness scares me too. Honestly, it petrifies me. My major doesn’t help my fears either, I’m a freshman going into forensics. My roommate is also dropping out before classes start making me freak out even more. I feel that I’m more of a target now. I don’t know what to do.

The thought of time slipping by me so fast now as I age doesn't let me sleep at all. I've been averaging like an hour or 2 at night i sometimes drink to try and fight the fear away, but it doesn't leave. I'm so fearful of my body aging. I can't live like this. I keep having panic attacks. How are people so okay with death I don't understand at all. Lately the days have been zooming so fast wdym it's August already i'm going to blink and it's September...i wish I could stop time so bad

So I was talking to my dad on the phone and i was crying and he was complaining about how I cry at everything 24/7 and then I said “then i wish you made my mom abort me or something” then he gave me a whole lecture about how humans creating babies is the biggest accomplishment one can have and how it is the most beautiful thing over paintings, art, etc. and how it is the most natural thing to have so there was no reason for me to say that because humans have no other choice but to have kids and I got mad

Because my parents decision to have me gave me one thing that is certain. A death sentence. They will die one day, my soul dog will die, everyone I love will be gone and one day it will be me. Maybe before everyone maybe after everyone. But I will be gone that is 100% and I am TERRIFIED I spent my years on having panic attacks, taking heavy medication, therapy and many more just because I am terrified of dying and I always say to myself I wish I was never born so I wouldn’t know what being alive is

I wanted to shout at my dad that he gave me a death sentence and because of him and my mom I will experience being gone forever and that I do not want to go through that but I have no other choice because of them

I am terrified of what comes after If it was 100% proven that there was something beyond “You will cease to exist! Gone forever! No senses at all! Just being nothing!” I would be living my best life but nothing about afterlife is proven and probably wont be proven and just the idea of it being “gone forever and never wake up or live again” is terrifying If I could I would live forever because I find it super unfair that the idea is we get one life and no matter how good or bad it is it will be taken away from us because “thats the circle of life!” I did not consent to being born and I do not consent to dying

So my biggest question from this post is why do people have kids knowing they will be dead and gone and all that life they had will not matter?

there’s nothing you can do to prevent it , i’m going to die one day , my relationships with people are always going to end or fizzle out . nothing lasts forever . all roads lead to rome

24 here.

I don't know what happened. I don't know what caused this panic. Sometimes I fall asleep without meaning earlier at night, and I wake up in a complete sweat extremely hyper aware. So much time has passed and now all of a sudden it's this early hour and I didn't do my before bed routine and process that I'm getting in and falling asleep. So it feels like I blinked and went forward in time. I can feel my body laying down, every time I see my hands or feel anything, my mind jumps years forward and I become a wrinkled version of myself standing in the mirror thinking of all the time I had in my youth that I no longer have. It feels like every second is slipping away and nothing matters. Taking a drink of water doesn't matter, watching a movie doesn't matter, engaging in hobbies doesn't matter. All the things that became routine suddenly stop as time goes by. The thought that I won't do the same things forever horrifies me to my core. If it helps I'm autistic so I like having my routines uninterrupted. I like going to the same stores and ordering the same foods. I also collect and watch some of the same things from when I was younger. I am a fully capable mature 24 year old man, but I get uncomfortable thinking about how long it's been since I was just a happy oblivious kid. So I surround myself with what I know is familiar and have been known to comfort in the past. Back then, I believed I couldn't grow old as unrealistic as that is. I thought my skin could never wrinkle, my body would never start to slowly shut down. Maybe I had been chosen by some higher power and I'd live on this earth forever like the characters in books I got too attached to. (Totally delusional I know but I was a special child who was always scared of growing up, changing, and losing himself.) It didn't really help that my mom did not allow me to be in the know of my grandmother's passing so I was not exposed to the topic of death growing up. I don't personally believe in religion or afterlife due to the way my brain works it refuses to think beyond "the consciousness is a brain product we are organic beings and therefore are like all other animals". (Putting that in quotes because I don't want to present it as fact because consciousness is nearly impossible to study at the current level. There isn't an actual study to either prove or disprove this.) But I find religious beliefs absolutely beautiful and fully respect them all so this isn't meant to knock down anyone. We all just think differently.

Everyone in the past is gone. They were living their lives just like us with the same basic human instincts. At this moment thousands or millions of years ago there was someone, or something probably standing where you are in the exact moment looking up at the stars, at the vastness of the universe wondering the same terrifying things we are. I look at other people and unwillingly picture them as old, I picture how buildings would look crumbling down because one day they will be. Once great cities in ancient times have been long forgotten.

Even if a city like New York survives until the end of the human race, nothing would matter, the sun will eat everyone and everything in its path. The here and now will always be gone, I can't live in the now. Every second of the show I'm watching is now gone. The thing I built in Minecraft is now complete. I took a bite and filled my senses for a moment, but then it's gone. but I won't remember anything when I die so watching it in the first place won't matter. Nothing in my brain matters memories don't matter because they will be gone. Sorry this was so long I'm going through a terrible crisis and ended up writing out a lot of things that did actually help a bit. Maybe someone's going through this too I would absolutely love to connect with those who might be feeling similar. I've never been more terrified in my life because a fear like getting hit by a car or, I don't know, quick sand can be calmed down by "you can take steps to protect yourself." When it comes to death, you cannot protect yourself. It all comes down to non existence being scary. I don't want to not exist and not know what this massive universe has for whatever explores it.

Hi i’m a 16F and i’ve been scared of death for as long i can remember. When i started school at 3, i would cry before going into class because i thought that my mom would die while i was at school. At 8, i started crying at nights, scared of losing my mom and my grandma. But the worst it that it keeps going. That fear of losing a loved one became the fear of dying, stop existing, being sick, etc.

My graduation was at june and a few days before i started having this really bad panic attacks. My mom told me that it was because it was a big moment in my life and that feeling just came along with it. I thought the same too, because right after my graduation, it stopped.

But at july, it came back and worse than ever. July 17 i had to go to the hospital because i was having a big anxiety/panic attack and i couldn’t stop spiralling. It hasn’t stop since then, one days i feel better, other days worse but it doesn’t fully stop.

This month of august i’ve been also dealing with desrealization, i feel like everything it’s fake and it just makes me go crazier. It happens always at night. But last night it happened heavy, i was almost sleeping when i suddenly woke up by the sound of the door. Then i realised that i was really calm, like a good calm feeling, and i started thinking that it was because i was going to die. I stood up and my legs were trembling, when i touched my fingers, i felt them weird. I started crying heavily and woke up my mom. I ended up relaxing but still afraid of sleeping. I just stop feeling scared when the sun had already rise. Then, i slept and woke up 2-3 times, and then going back to sleep. It thought that was the end of it, but when i woke up, i had the same feeling as last night.

I’m scared of dying while sleeping or having an illness which i’m not aware of. I have an appointment in 30 minutes to tell all of this to the doctor, but i feel like i’m still in the danger zone and that i could die tonight or tomorrow or soon, even if it’s not true.

Please help me because it’s been keeping me away from doing a lot of things i love. (Sorry for any mistakes or typos, english isn’t my first language)

I find it a bit funny that i come up to this conclusion ,but oh well, sometimes this is how it is in life arent it?

I always deeply feared death, and the fear only got worst in recent years, i tried to aproach it somehow and honestly i come to the conclusion most coping mechanisms are in my opinion mostly preachy bullshit that is unhelpfull and something that is dissmisive of ,,hard" emotions one might feel about death. What most of them do, try to ,,paint" death as something far less terryfing than actually is, and make you accept it- it may be something that work for some but not for me. I see it as dishonest, like you would take a pile of shit and try to put shiny rocks on its and say its oh so beatyfull. If anything, trying to ,,accept" death done more harm than good to me, i decided i wont try anymore. Now what i try to do is learn how not to think about it randomly and not linger on it. Do anyone had same experiences as me?

it’s to blame for everything , even scarier to realize we will all run out of it one day .

don’t really wanna be here anymore. don’t think my life is worth it. the only thing holding me back is being afraid of death. what’s on the other side? I’m not in pain. I feel numb. All emotions are gone.

Hello, I’m a 21F and I’ve always kind of had a hyper awareness to the fact that I’m going to die one day. Now, I wasn’t really entirely focused on the feeling in my youth since I often participated in a LOT of maladaptive daydreaming to survive my very dysfunctional household. I often would daydream about being older and getting away and being an adult and being loved. Now that I’m at the age where I daydreamed of, I feel like I lost my life due to the toxicity at home and I feel stunted. What do you mean I’m never going to be young? What do you mean I will become the age of my older peers and won’t have anyone to comfort me and guide me?

I noticed this fear got worse earlier this year after I went to the hospital due to severe depression which was spiked by the wrong medication. I lost control of myself which made me fear sleep and nighttime since it occurred in that time frame. I was severely depressed for months and contemplated taking my life, and I feel a bit better now however the idea never fully leaves me or my day to day life. That experience also brought up a lot of repressed feelings such as a death of someone close to me which really re-wired how I view aging and death.

I really need help and I don’t know what to do. How do I stop feeling like life is pointless? How do I stop fearing sleeping and nighttime? How do I stop being hyper aware that I’m getting older and will die and everything is pointless and I’m going to live a miserable life

i’ve always felt some sort of deep sadness since a child. it’s honestly quite an off putting feeling to live with and i mostly try my best to rid myself of it. i’ve done work to love myself , to find god and i have faith in something greater than me truly i do. I don’t even think it’s right for me to think this way but i really don’t think i want to be alive. i don’t want to hurt those around me by any means but my family is falling apart and even when it was together my mother has been completely emotionally absent towards me and sometimes says really hurtful things about me. i used to cut myself and often been thinking about relapsing , when my household family found out and i asked for a therapist they kind of just blew me off and called me crazy . I just don’t think i really understand the point of it all. the only thing that resonates with me is love , i love my friends i love my family but i hate the way society functions . there’s so much hate in the world so many problems i can’t even fathom fixing. i hate capitalism i wish i could just live , breathe air, soak in the sun, and dance but then id be poor and struggling which would likely stress me out and bring me right back to horrible thoughts. i’ve had times where i dont think about death but it never lasts. i wonder if i should just do it ?

hi, it's basically what the title says. i'm 16, dealing with depression and anxiety. i've always dealt with some kind of fear of death (even as a child, but i've been an edgy kid and i coped by telling myself that death is necessary, cause eternity would be boring). my anxiety got worse 1.5 years ago, since my sister nearly died (shes fine now). i've never had any experience with death back then and since then fear of death completely consumes my life (with breaks ofc).

i told my therapist about it many times and i dont think she knows exactly how to help me. everytime i talk about it she tries to find some "hidden meanings" beneath my fear. ik its a normal thing in cbt therapy, but most of it just sounds like bullshit to me (like telling me that my thanatophobia is actually caused by my sel-hatred??) and it doesnt help me overcome that fear. last week we talked about my thanatophobia again and she just told me its a common thing to be scared of death and how i shouldnt worry about it. it made me feel misunderstood so badly.

i cant find any help, am i just going to live in fear my whole life? does it get better?

I don't think I will get any answer which will comfort,or any answer at all but I still wanna say I am so afraid and my fear might seem pretty stupid...Death,I am afraid to be alive like being concious and afraid to die too...I don't want to lose anyone,I just want to stay with everyone forever...I am so afraid,and helpless...

you could be doing anything and it could happen , this is genuinely something horrible to think about . not being able to say goodbye or anything just being gone , having flashbacks of your life and being in regret before the final few moments of death feels like something from my worst nightmares . if i was to die i would want it to happen in my sleep . it would be peaceful that way .

i was born in a muslim family, now im an atheist, im a moroccan, half arab half berber. my thanatophobia has been extremely severe for 5 months now, ive been battling my self. my mind, everything, it comes to a halt now. ill accept the dark truth. there is no god, there is hell. which is this world, is there heaven? no. we are born into a life where we get to suffer for practically nothing. and we die. at any moment. its so unfair how life is. super unfair. u can be perfectly fine and die in your sleep, god does not exist. there is practically 0 evidence that theres some afterlife. i was helpless for years, god did not listen to my wish or anything. i dont care anymore. i could be suffering of a sickness, instead of getting medicine. i would get prayed, to a god that probably doesnt exist., thats not the state im in right now. but alot of people experienced that. life is totally unfair. and so is death, were only born into hell, get to die. and thats it. my 12 year old brain used to cope with it that we'd make self revival guns, but no. that is currently impossible, and i feel like we'd destroy our own civilization before we get to make something like that. its sad to see, really. no one can actually help me. the truth is that, we die. and there is nothing. our brain is wired into thinking that nothingness is scary because we never truly experienced it. before you were born. you were.. basically nothing. thats how death would feel like. dreaded nothingness. life is meaningless the more i look at humans, we probably created religions so we can have morals. no, just because islam is the most logical religion out there doesn't mean its actually the truth, there is no evidence the moon was splitten anyway. funny enough, at 6:15 am yesterday i was considering about becoming an atheist or not. now its 6:15 AM again, and i am one. huh, the truth is really harsh. some people say to themselves they can feel some god in their "heart", the real translation is "my brain is manipulating me to feel something strong in my heart to keep me from goign insane", well. life has failed me anyway. were born alone and were gonna die alone. there. thats how our lives end, welp. ill try to maybe make the most out of it. i probably wont though.

Hoy 10/08/2026

Sentí un fuerte deseo de suicidarme

Lanzarme por las escaleras de emergencia de un 3er piso, atravesarle cuando una camioneta va muy rápido por la avenida, tomarme todas las pastillas que encuentre, ignorar mis necesidades básicas hasta no poder levantarme.

Es depresión, ansiedad, estrés, drama, fantasía, ilusión, esperanza?

No puedo, debo esperar a que mi mamá muera. No puedo causarle ese dolor.

Luego puedo desaparecer. Irme a acampar, a la playa o a caminar y nunca volver.

Esperaré a que mi hijo sea grande, autosuficiente. Puedo dejarle un fondo de ahorros para que no deba trabajar durante el duelo de mi muerte. Un seguro, tal vez, y lo hago parecer un accidente.

Hoy me quiero morir, y mañana tendré que levantarme, sonreír y contar para callar mi mente

Olvidar mis deseos momentáneamente.

Hoy me quiero morir, o solo quiero apagar mi mente?

Pero cómo si no puedo dormir.

Volvió a darme miedo la oscuridad. Esa sensación de que algo me asecha.

Soy yo, será la muerte o mi propia mente?

Cuánto dolor causaría si muero.

O peor, cuánto dolor causaría si me suicido. Si, suicidio. Eso quiero, quiero morir como yo quiera, cuando yo quiera. O solo quiero algo de control? Poder tomar una verdadera decisión. Aunque sea solo mi decisión, todos los días, lo único que me impide hacerlo es mi empatía por los que amo, y a veces me preguntó dónde queda mi empatía por mi. Quizá querer morir es gracias a esa empatía. Suelo sentir que no soporto el mundo. El mundo no me hace cosas, sigue su curso, todos existen, yo soy la sensible. Intento no demostrarlo. Soy fuerte, valiente, puedo con todo, inteligente, rápida, resuelvo, aprendo, yo puedo, digo, yo puedo. Puedo, pero quiero? Que quiero?