I don't fear what comes after death at all; it's just nothingness, rest. I do fear HOW I'm going to die though. There are some awful ways to go out there!

I don't have a choice.

It's going to happen.

And then it'll just be like the eternity before I existed, which didn't bother me because I didn't exist to be bothered.

My view is that I am guaranteed this life. It might be a blip in time, but my blip is an intense timeline of emotion, experiences, actions to help others, actions to contribute to society to help it perpetuate forward, either though my family or in the community.

I fear how I will die but I can't say I fear death. I was religious so the idea of heaven was comforting for me. I used to believe in an afterlife (or hoped for one) even after I deconverted. But overtime, I realised it was just distracting me from the present, my actual life and lived experience. There could be an afterlife, noone truly knows. I guess I've come to terms with my agnosticism on that belief. I don't know if there is an afterlife. If there is, great.

It's something you need to reconcile on your own but I encourage you to practice a recount of things you are happy about, things that ground you to the present and goals you want to achieve. It's not all for nothing. It's a flow on effect to the next generation, and if not, you know you're living a happy and fulfilling life.

If there is an afterlife, great. If not, that's ok, you won't know.

I’ve had issues with this lately and what gives me great comfort is surrendering the idea of control. Dude, we have zero control over when our time ends just like we didn’t choose to be born. There’s lots of peace to be found in that. Make sure you are honest with people, explain how you feel immediately, at least well enough before you don’t get another chance to. Clear your conscience of regrets by only doing good for yourself and others. Remember and hold tightly to the idea that if today is the day, what a good ride it’s been, damn I was lucky to do all this stuff, now on to the great beyond whatever that might be. The other great thing to keep in mind are constants. Loss is a constant in human experience, so you are not alone in your fears about death, nor your experiences related to death. Everyone is rationalizing one way or another about how to cope with it, so you are in good company. Talk about it, or don’t. Write down something that will leave your mark, or don’t. Maybe do something, small, to help you feel your life has had some measure of pure joy and happiness, it could be as small as a kind comment to a stranger in a dark place who needs a little gentle nudge toward calm. Find a mantra, anything you can say to calm yourself too. It’s gonna be ok, even if it’s not known what comes next after this life, it’s still gonna be ok. (That’s mine) I hope this helps, and if you’re finding yourself unable to live your best life, please do seek therapy from a professional, you may need medication or a treatment to help with anxiety.

Work on things that will outlive you.

Volunteer to teach a child (or and adult!) to read. You will live forever whenever they read a book or even instructions.

Coach a youth sport, and include life lessons in your coaching. Helping to raise good adults will live on beyond your physical life.

Raise your own children with love, patience and integrity. I hear my adult children repeat things I've said to them when they were younger. These lessons will be passed on to their own children, giving them a piece of you to always carry with them.

Write a memoir, even if it is just for your family to read.

Random acts of kindness. You may never know how you affected a stranger, but some will likely post on Reddit what a nice thing someone did for them.

Know that, even when your physical body wears out, what you do for other people lives on, and in ways you may never expect.

what did you feel before you were born? Nothing. That is exactly how it will feel after you die. It will not be boring or painful. You won't feel like it is forever. You won't feel anything at all.

I am terrified of death. It scares me a lot. I don’t get what you meant to “accept death” you don’t have a choice it’s just how reality works. There are things which grow and inevitably fall. I don’t really like the idea of an afterlife I think it sounds like a way to comprehend death which is completely fine if it helps you. I will never comprehend death so why should I try to.

I think it's important to look around you and get back into nature. Humans are too worried about their limited time here. Nature is cyclical. Just because "me" as an set unit won't last forever doesn't make life anyless beautiful. I fear pain and I fear leaving loved ones, but everthing else I am will just return to the ground. I hope to continue after I pass as a good memory, as a good ancestor, someone who made the world better.

The parts I fear about death is that some people are creating absolute hell in this life for others. When I see a child come into a life where they are utterly despised and unwanted. When someone has to be on the streets because of their lack of resources or help. When everyone has to live under wage-slavery or actual slavery just to scrap by while billionaires want to go to space. That's what makes me ragefull that life is temporary. 

We should make life as beautiful for everyone here now! Whether or not there is something after this, we know we have this now. Religions only want to keep the idea that life is suffering as the norm so most of us never question the whole damn system. 

If you haven't read "His Dark Materials". It actually really helped with my worries around death.

It’s a shared experience we must all go through at some point. That’s how I deal with it, anyway. Part of the human experience.

I accept that for 13+ billion years I did not exist. Then I emerged to last for a moment in cosmic time. Nothing lasts forever.

Alan Watts has a great piece on death. Check it out > https://youtu.be/0QLsEjdogqU?si=J9a35-k5XdLaeEzc

He has many other videos on YouTube about death too - just search around a little

Have you seen the Netflix series Midnight Mass? There's a great scene where an atheist and a Catholic talk about what happens after you die. The atheist's point of view is explained in such a poetic and beautiful way. I don't know if it will help you deal with the thoughts of your eventual loss of consciousness, but it's worth a watch.

Watch The Good Place?

It’s a fact that we have a limited life. What we do lives on beyond us. We may have 110 years, or 1 day. Just live your life so you are happy with it.

Death was never scary to me. I fear pain to a degree, and so many ways of dying, but I do not fear death itself.

Why would an afterlife be better? Would burning in Hell for all eternity be better than just not existing? I don't think so.

I do not believe in an after life but who can truly know? But considering you can't know and can't do anything then why not just wait and see? Don't focus on what you can't control and instead refocus onto what you can control. If there is no life after death then you need to make the most out of the life you've been given so start thinking about how you're going to do that.

I highly recommend watching Angelos's video on death.

In my opinion, I fear suffering because it makes life feel unbearable, and I want to avoid that. So, I strive to make the most out of my experiences and avoid actions that would lead to regret, as that can feel like a form of suffering. Now, imagine if you did not make the most out of your life; you would likely feel regret about it until the end. Do you want that?

I used to worry about the idea of nothingness, but I have learned to accept it because I can't change that reality. I would truly regret it if I didn't find peace with it.

What I'm trying to say is that if you focus on the fear of death and don't pursue the best life you can have, you will likely end up feeling regret. This may be our only life, so I suggest making the most of it.

When my father died I had a period of anxiety regarding death and my health. I have never feared death, and I don't fear it - but I just don't want to die. So I started focusing on trying to get into better shape to live longer and living a full life in old age.

But talking about it is good. There is nothing wrong with being anxious about death - I think it is actually "life anxiety".

Like, what am I doing with my life?

Ignoring death and the ticking clock lets us waste our time. What is something that would make us less anxious about death? A better life, I would think.

So, I am not anxious about death anymore, but that's more the concept that I just accept.

So my working hypothesis is that to deal with death you have to talk about it and realize that your anxiety is valid. Then you have to live.

Connect with friends and family. Be honest. Take your life and yourself seriously. Have fun.

I don't know if this clicks with you, but these are my thoughts.

We eventually break down.

Hello all!

Have you ever considered the possibility it might be a heaven

funny thing about humans, when we endure stress or anxiety over something and nothing happens or nothing presents itself as a solution, eventually your body stops producing the hormones associated with stress and anxiety when the thought enters your mind because it's unproductive. that's why we always have to find different new things to be anxious about. i think that's what happened to me. i was stressed over death but my body found it unproductive over time so i stopped thinking about it because I couldn't find a good solution to every possible way i could die while also preserving something that resembles a life. Obviously this probably won't help if you have some sort of anxiety or stress disorder.

I too have this fear, it werid one because i do think well i kinda know what it was like, it was what it was like before i was born.

But i do see time passing me by, i cant belive im 44 now, very likly half way though my life, if not more the way i look after myself. I really feel that im nor doing enough with it.

But i think it is better to think this is it, to make the most of it. Rather than just preying and hoping for something very likly not there.

Through God

Objectively. It's a natural thing that happens to all living heings- it us an objective truth that we all die. A successful death is more likely then a successful birth.

So its ok.

Its okay that we die. . . Because its natural.

Anything after that doesn't matter.

It is perfectly reasonable to fear death and to believe that there might be something after. That's the whole reason religions exist. Unfortunately,there is no religion on the planet than can guarantee they are correct, and plenty of evidence to say they are wrong. That doesn't mean there is nothing after death, it just means we can't know for sure. I suggest you study different philosophies including, but not limited to, religion. The study alone may help you to reduce your anxiety, and you may find an epiphany, and change your life in a major way.

Death is my calling, always has been. I’m a hospice nurse. Since my agency takes a large number of patients from a very prominent hospital in our area we have only about half geriatric patients, the rest are adults and children. My gift is to shepard them to their end in they way they most want. Now I have seen many people die rough, holding on for reasons, those are the though ones. But most of what I see is a gathering of love and life, a recollection of a life well lived, a gratitude. We encourage life celebrations before death instead of funerals so the dying person can receive the love and gratitude before they leave, and everyone gets to say goodbye. And in the quiet alone hours, where im just holding a hand and humming to their favorite music I often see a peaceful look settle, maybe even a tiny half smile. Death can be peaceful, it can be kind. Death can be a celebration. Make what we have on this side count, no matter what may be on the other side 🖤

For sure not like this (and I don’t buy the story): https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/17/us/atheist-hospice-deathbed-visions-faith-cec

I won’t know when I’m dead since my brain would have stop functioning. I worry about who I may leave behind and getting old… but not too much, and I know I won’t worry when I’m dead.

I don’t fear death itself. I fear having to suffer for an extensive period of time without a dignified way of exiting existence on my own terms.

You will be in the same state dead as the state u were in before u were born.. before u were born u were content, u will be content when ur dead..

religion

I'm not worried about nonexistence because I will not experience it. I do fear the deaths of people I love, or what will happem to them once I'm gone. And I want to not die because I enjoy my life. But i remind myself of the impermanence of the universe, that nothing lasts forever, and that the passage of time and the constant state of change is what allows us to experience anything new in the first place. If time didnt pass we couldn't grow and change and try new things. Someday even the sun will burn out. That's scary, yes, but there are new stars forming even now. And someday maybe they'll give life to beings who can experience the universe the way we do.

I can understand why that may not be comforting, but it's what works for me right now.

When caught in circular ruminations, esp anxious or death-related, I find it helpful to remember the universality of death, and the inevitability. That doesn’t sound helpful, but when thinking of my life in the knowledge that it will end and it could be at any moment, I am inspired to try to (as much as possible) be the person I want to be and live on my own terms. Thinking of the immeasurability of space juxtaposed with my own insignificance is comforting. If we are lucky, it will be a moment of fear or pain and then sleep. If not, well, I don’t go cave-diving alone, and avoid crowded old buildings with insufficient exits… Anxiety thought-blocking exercises & meditation are helpful though, if distraction and rationalization doesn’t do the trick.

In a sense wouldn't you fear NOT DYING?

What's to fear, as you won't be lonely or sad or resting or in pain, you just won't be. Kind of like a hundred years before you were born. As in non-existence.

Well atheist or Christian, a good person will likely go to heaven, so death in Christianity is only the beginning of eternity with love and Grace. So the nothingness is actually the absence of love, and when I was an atheist I made peace ✌️ with it, temporary mote of dust blowing in an endless sea of darkness, no love or joy or peace. As a Christian, I realized that I had only made peace with Satan and hell, as that's what nothingness is. So you don't have to accept death, because Jesus defeated death, we are all eternal in God's eyes

how do u even now its “nothing” or “darkness” . u will never be able to move on this dilemma since its an instinctive thing to fear death,what makes the difference between u and me is the faith in an afterlife were i will be judged on what i did in my few days on earth.

I have stage 4 breast cancer with an average statistic of 3-5 years to live, and this is year 5 since my diagnosis. Surreal. There is no cure, and I've been told to take the word "remission" out of my vocabulary.

I accept death as a part of nature. Everything is temporary. I'm agnostic, so I don't claim to know "death is nothing" or not. This is unknowable. "I don't know" what comes next. "I don't know" may be the healthiest response of all. For me. I can't tell anyone else what to believe or not to believe, but I don't think there's any way for us to know what comes next in consciousness when we don't even all agree on what consciousness even is.

There's this worry I have that whatever we expect to happen is what happens, and someone like me, uncertain as can be, nothing but confusion will happen? I hope not. LOL, but whatever the case, it's just nature at play.

So when I get afraid, I redirect those thoughts with mindfulness and gratitude, I make lists of people and things for which I'm grateful. Practicing mindfulness is important for when things like cancer come calling. Fear could wash me away like a flood if I let it.

Fear of death doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It means you’re paying attention. Most people distract themselves out of thinking about it; you’re just not looking away.

The problem isn’t death itself; it’s the story your brain is telling about it. “Nothingness forever” sounds terrifying because you’re imagining yourself inside that nothingness. But that’s not how it works.

You don’t experience nothingness. You don’t sit in the dark. You don’t wait. You don’t miss life. You’re not there to feel loss or fear or regret. Consciousness stops, and the capacity for fear stops with it. Terror is a property of life, not death.

Here’s the part that actually helps: Death is inevitable, but the timeline between now and then is not fixed. You have control over the shape of your life. You have control over how you spend your time, what you build, what you love, what you protect. Death doesn’t erase that. It defines the boundary that gives life urgency.

You don’t have to “accept” death as some enlightened final state. Acceptance can just mean: “I can’t control the fact that I’ll die, but I can control what I do while I’m not dead.” The fear usually fades when you stop trying to stare into the void and start paying attention to the part you actually get to influence.

You don’t have to be grateful for mortality. You just have to stop treating it like a problem you’re supposed to solve.

With a smile!

With accepting that life, and happiness, are an endless dance of want, recieve, fulfillment, dopamine, and temperance and gratitude to keep it tame or face misery while simultaneously harming others.

With taking an 8×11 sheet of paper, writing "MY LIFE" on it, and writing everything more important than it above, and everything less important below.

With knowing that I wont feel a thing whether its in a coffin or an urn.

With knowing that I did more help than harm and knowing that I gave more time, money, and literally blood to other human beings than kings and tyrants.

Shift concern to the future of posterity rather than any selfish motive for living a full life that hopefully ameliorates our demise and the lives of those who follow.

How do I accept death? Just accept it. There is nothing I can do to stop death, and I do not care what happens after I die, because dead is just dead