Psychology Are all fears connected to the fear of death?

I think most are. Like fear of spiders, fear of heights or even fear of dogs. But my point is, that I think most of them are somehow connected to the fear of death.

 

I agree.
I terrified of heights because I'm afraid that I'm going to fall off and die.

 

No.

Personally speaking, I don't exactly fear death as most do, because I know it's not something in my control and could come any second ready or not, hence it is a waste of energy to worry about it. I could be side-swiped by a car on my walk to the gym later today, or a jet engine could fall off a plane and crush me as I sleep, or a gamma ray burst could annihilate us all. It could come as I type this message, or it could be 80 years from now. So why fear something that is
-Inevitable
-Out of my control
-Unalterable
-Unpredictable
?

What I do fear is being unloved and unwanted. This is not connected to death because I know full well that I can be self sufficent for as long as I need to be.

 

I think that Neph managed to hit the nail on the head there!

Unless your a loner by nature then i think that nearly everyone's fear is to be unoticed, unloved and forgotten about. While most most fears i'd say are a fear of death, there are other thing's that can make you fear them. For enstance i know that spider's in this country are not poisonius, but that still doesn't stop me fearing them. In this case the sight of the creature just put's fear in me.
So not all fears are associated with death.

 

absolutely! and what about that good old fear of being hurt?

 

No.
Clearly.
I am not afraid of death at all. Yes I am worried about my death, but simply what will happen to the people I know after i die.
I am afraid of clowns, but not crazily, i really dont think they are going to kill me...

 

Youre all right, not all fears are, but some. Neph, (can I call you Neph?) you convinced me that not all are. Definetly not all, but aren't there still some? Youre also right that death IS inevitable, and I think nothing happens by accident and there is always a reason to everything. Thats what I believe. Ofcourse there are fears that aren't in any way linked to the fear of death.

 

nope. i agree with neph. i am not afraid of death. i AM afraid of extreme pain, and panicking. fear scares me more than anyhing. i hate being afraid more than i hate pain. in situations like having a black widow on my arm and stuff like that, i get afraid that it will scare me, and it just builds unless i manage to control it. weird, huh? i am getting to where i can stop it, though.

 

But I still question...

Why do we fear the things that are inevitable?
Or, why do we even get scared?

 

Great arguments. But Takamatsu, what do you fear about the black widdow on your arm? And Vicious has a point. Why do we fear the inevitable?

 

A thing about the inevitable, such as death, is that one can delay it, if the means of such happened. Safety delays death. Being able to survive delays death, and so on. Yes, it is inevitable, but it won't happen at exactly one time - one cannot really say when exactly he will die, because fate, or whatever you believe in, cannot be seen in that context. Thus, it is not a fear of inevitability, but a fear of that inevitability coming at a time that does not favor your instinct or your mind. (Growing up too quickly, dying too early, seeing another die too early, etc.)

 

One reason would be because that we don't know what may happen next. As i've said before in another thread, i fear death because i don't know what will happen next, i don't want to lie in the ground until the end of the world. Even if it is envitable.

 

Oh of course some fears are connected to death, but the question was whether or not ALL fears were.

 

Just to throw my little input into the thing, moreso about fearing the inevitable and the death thing... on top of what Valant Rapitor said (which is probably the best point), I think it could also be chalked up to us truly not knowing WHAT lies beyond. I mean, it might just be me, but from what it seems the people that are comfortable with death have a bit more of a solid foundation on what they believe is after death, whether it be oblivious, some kind of Heaven/Hell system, or a reincarnation based upon karma. Of course, some people might also say the fear of dying also has to do with the new-found goal that some humans are trying to accomplish of immortality, though I think it's more of we're trying to find a way to immortality because we fear death. That's just my opinion.

Back moreso on topic... No, I don't really think all fears come back to death. I mean, sure, you could probably link SOME back to death.. and if you were really absurd, you could probably link ALL of them back to death. But, no, I don't think they all are connected with it.

 

the pain of a bite. i know it hurts like hell, and that scares me, and i know it scares me, so i fear the pain, and the fear then. like i said, i am getting to where i can control it. being afraid of fear is pretty useless.

 

Maybe it shouldnt be whether all fears connected to death but rather whether the fears are connected to something that can be harmful to you.

 

Wow, this is a thinker. But I don't think the things we fear are always connected to death. Someone once said "Fear is what we do not know." Therefore, I think sometimes we are afraid of something because we don't what it will do to us- it's completely unpredictable. Maybe some people fear the dark because they don't know whats around them. Fear is really quite unexplainable. For some it may just be the sight of something they fear (ex. a clown, that's a common fear,) because as C.Banana said, she didn't think it would hurt her. It's just a creepy thing to look at.
I don't think we register death with the things we dear because of my greatest fears. One of mine is a person. I know that person would never hurt me, but it still scares me.
On second thought, one of my other greatest fears is the Tornado. 0.o When I see/ hear of one, I automatically think death and destruction. I've seen what they can do, and I think I'm so scared of them because of their deadly power.
So, to conclude, I'll say Yes and No. Nobody will ever know how people's minds work.

 

I dunno, I'm not really worrying about death. Death is a liberation, don't forget that. What I'm more afraid of is pain.
Second, I'm also scared of clowns. There used to be a Dutch TV show about two circusfolks, one was a clown. He was funny (for my age) and I wasn't scared of him.
Until one day my babysitter gave me a clown puppet for my birthday. It had a big grin on his face and loads of pockets on him. I was scared he had a crocodile in one of those pockets which would bite my hands off...
And now, I still think clowns are scary..
Haha, okay why am I even telling this XD

 

Very true, but is death not unknown to us? Oh man, I'm getting off topic.... Well, perhaps pain is scarier than death. I mean death is just being (or not). Like an eternal sleep without waking up...

 

The fact that death is not unknown makes it scary. We KNOW it'll happen, it's inevitable. Plus there's the always sneaking suspicion of just whether death is painful or not... I mean, people tell us certain deaths aren't.. but, then, you have to take into account... those are people who are still alive. XD