• Replies 13 replies
  • Subscribers 87 subscribers
  • Views 653 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Trigger warning: Fear of death / oblivion / Existential Crisis

Jax

I wanted to know if anyone has extreme issues with this that have been helped in any way by anything

I had a psychiatric episode recently in relation to this and its been getting worse over the years

TBC I am not asking for medical advice and I am being seen and looked after by medical teams 

I just want to know (without triggering detail) if anyone has gotten through the same and what helped them

Parents

  • I think this is a really valuable topic to open up so thank you for posting. I’m sorry to hear about the extreme distress that reflecting on death is causing.

    In the past I have had existential dread that was more disturbing on a day to basis than I felt it should be. My theory is that some autistic people are more prone to more extreme existential issues. I’m definitely someone who has to work on the distress created by the existential givens of life. Here is an AI summary;

    Existential Givens;

    Death: The awareness of our own mortality and the inevitability of death for ourselves and others is a central existential concern. 

    Isolation:  our connections with others, each person ultimately exists in profound isolation, experiencing a fundamental separateness from others. 

    Freedom and Responsibility: Human are fundamentally free to make choices, but this freedom comes with the ultimate responsibility for those choices, which can be a source of anxiety. 

    Meaninglessness: Life does not come with inherent meaning; individuals are tasked with creating their own meaning in a vast and seemingly indifferent universe. 

    For me being autistic touches directly on how I experience all of these givens but particularly isolation and freedom and responsibility - I could write a lot more about that but I have a tendency to write too much so I will stop. 

    With death anxiety I have, I think, found a way to harness it to cease (editing this as that was a Freudian slip typo for sure - should read SEIZE not cease!!) life while I can. 

    I really like Irvin Yalom writings on death, which helped me a lot personally. 

    This is a link to the first chapter of his book “staring at the sun”

    https://www.yalom.com/staring-at-the-sun-excerpt

    It’s also a lovely audiobook. 

  • in reply to Cheese_and_Biscuits

    Thanks for the link to the book, It is deep stuff and I would need to take time to study it in detail. I am very interested in Mesopotamia so I need to re-read several translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh, along with expert commentary, prior to further study of “Staring at the Sun”. I hope I won’t feel the need to do this with the Greek philosophers and everyone else who comes after Gilgamesh.

Reply
  • in reply to Cheese_and_Biscuits

    Thanks for the link to the book, It is deep stuff and I would need to take time to study it in detail. I am very interested in Mesopotamia so I need to re-read several translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh, along with expert commentary, prior to further study of “Staring at the Sun”. I hope I won’t feel the need to do this with the Greek philosophers and everyone else who comes after Gilgamesh.

Children
No Data