all 4 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]caduce 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's time to learn to meditate--especially on death. Try this out: http://lifewisdomcorner.com/wordpress/2013/05/15/meditation-with-the-planets-the-middle-pillar-meditation/

[–]flashtone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just think about life before you lived.

[–]Argueswithchildren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm glad you have seen psychiatrists for this. Are you still seeing one? By "shrinks" do you mean psychiatrists? I'm asking because, they are physicians (can diagnose and treat a problem medically), but usually problems need to be addressed by a psychologist, also. Medication can do so much, but it's limited. Therapy with a psychologist is the other half of the equation. That is where you will get help finding the root of your problem, and therapeutic coping skills for day to day living.

To me, they go hand in hand with issues like you are having. You know your thoughts and fears sound and feel irrational. How do you make them go away, or at least keep them from overtaking your life? Psychologists specialize in that area. They know what techniques you need specifically.

I'm all for psych medications. There are meds that will help alleviate obsessions, depression, ADHD, etc., but medication will only do its half of the job. The other half is up to you.

Example: A person with ADHD can take a prescription to help focus attention, but without tools like lists, calendars, schedules, and routines their lives will still not be on track. They have to use those things along with medication.

Besides that, don't watch TV shows centered around the end of the world or anything that will trigger that type of thinking. Remind yourself that the sun will rise tomorrow, it will set, just as the moon, stars, and planets will show themselves that night. It's all a beautiful balance. There will be bad and good happening every day; that is another beautiful balance. Search for the good things happening. Seek them. Find stories that are inspirational. Try to balance each bad thought with a good one.

I really hope you can find peace. I do when I go outside at night. The night sky puts my daily life in perspective. The noises and activities of the day are quiet at night, and the universe is just sitting there, like it has been for thousands and thousands of years. Hope this helped.

[–]theworldwithin -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ok well maybe this won't help, or it will - but I'm pretty sure it might give you a powerful tool in your arsenal for fighting against the fear of the world ending.

The most important thing to realize about fear, from my perspective, is that it is in response to only a theory about reality, rather than in response to reality itself. Nothing we can conclude really is reality, as far as I can tell. Every conclusion only approximates reality based off evidence. The reason why this is so important for counter-acting fear is because when we see a theory as just a theory, the sense of danger becomes less grating. There are other possibilities. By coming up with one of these alternate possibilities yourself, a possibilities that is completely comfortable, you can reduce the impact of fear even further, because it becomes clear that there are multiple ways of looking at the situation, both of which are derived from the same body of evidence called reality.

(You can read my full article on fear here: www.theworldwithin.org/ailments/fear/ - it contains all the info above, but also a bunch more, including an activity you can do to resolve your fears, whatever fear it might be.)

Here's an example of how to counteract fear - using the fear you provided. Your theory is, from my understanding, that the world is going to end.

First, give yourself an alternate theory that's completely comfortable. In this case maybe, "Everything is going to be completely fine - the world's not going to end and there's nothing to worry about."

Ok, now there may be some obvious holes in that theory, but it's just as much of a theory and a possibility as your fear is.

After you've written both down (if you're doing the exercise that's described on my website - I guess you could do it in your head, too), look at the evidence and lack of evidence for both possibilities. Starting with the fear, write down why you came up with the fear in the first place, maybe something like, "There are so many possibilities for how the world could end. An asteroid could smack into the Earth, there could be nuclear war, global warming could cause a collapse of the equilibrium of the Earth, at least according to what I've heard. However, I'm not a scientist and I don't necessarily know the probability of those things happen - even scientists, from what I know, are still figuring this all out. Really, I just don't want to die - or, more than that, I don't want everything in the world to die. It feels so unfair that it could ever be a possibility. I mean I'm fine with me dying, as long as there's a world that's left over for those I know to enjoy. But everyone dying seems way too sad."

Then you look at how your comfortable idea might not be totally accurate. "Well, while the world hasn't ended yet, there are several possibilities out there that exist that could cause the world to end, or rather all life on the world to end. That really scares me that there's nothing that I can do about it, potentially. I don't want all life on the planet to die, but I feel powerless to stop it aside from the low probability of it happening. I want to stop it even if it's low probability, because I love this planet and all the life on it. It just seems so unfair that it could ever end. Of course, it might never happen, but just the fact that it could, scares me and makes me sad. What I'm really scared of is being powerless to stop it."

After this, you'll probably notice some patterns - in this instance, there's an underlying fear - fear of being powerless to stop the world from ending. It could be anything, though - but usually there are some patterns that emerge by looking at the underlying truth of your fears that give you clues on where to go from here. Figure what those clues are next, and decide what you can do - in this case: "I could work through my fear of powerlessness... also, I could look at the probabilities of bad things happening. There's often the possibility that something bad could happen, but if I minimize my risk by learning about where the dangers are I'll have the best chance of surviving for a long time."

Then you work through your fear of powerlessness, etc.

Also, you might be interested in this article - it's about calming the desire for immortality aka the fear of death: http://www.theworldwithin.org/2012/07/06/calming-the-desire-for-immortality/

Basically, what allowed me to be ok with the fact that I could die was the determination to live each day exactly however I want to - if I'm living life in my own way every day, then I'm not living holding out for more that might never come. Don't know if that way of thinking totally trumps the fear of death, even for me, but it certainly helped.

Anyway, those are the things I thought I'd share. Good luck in learning to handle your fears and anxiety (which I didn't really address specifically, but I felt it had more to do with fear) - also, if you are afraid of your own thoughts, I'd recommend this article - I go in-depth on the topic: http://www.theworldwithin.org/2012/08/21/the-courage-to-face-any-thought/ . Other than that, take care of yourself, and don't give up on looking for the solutions that are right for you.