FEAR of Dying

by Thomas Sim, 27 October, 2002

The thought of death is a fearful and awesome one. You won't understand it until you are face to face with accident or some serious illness.

This article is about the stages of emotion experienced during the threat of death due to illness. Why do I have to write about this topic? This is because accident can cause death but the mental frame of fear is short lived. On the other hand, illness created fear is of greater significance. The rest is up to your imagination.

Most psychologists and psychiatrists would tell you that there are steps of mental progression to depression due to the disease. There are elements of denial, depression, suicidal thoughts, anger and FEAR, associated with the diagnosis of a chronic and difficult to treat diseases. I am writing to show you the meaning of those conditions.

Denial is the time you have just heard the bad news. Why me? Can't be true! I don't deserve this! And the answers are: Yes, its you! It's true and the sad part is that you never truly know why you deserve it, especially when it is genetic or due to accident contamination. The answer is with He Who is the Greatest!

Depression is a serious mental illness by itself. The body is consumed by the depressed mood that nothing seems to matter anymore. You don't want to do anything at all. Life is worthless to you. All the bad things are happening to you and you begin to accept them. You can't get anything right. You have no aims in life, no hope and no reason to carry on. There comes a stage that you think eating is meaningless to you. You don't even feel hungry!

Suicidal thoughts are quite remote until you are pretty matured with the idea of what the illness is how it is debilitating you. At this moment, you gave up anything and everything to live for. Money is nothing; love and friendship are worthless too! Nothing has meaning and there is no point continuing… You have even convinced yourself that committing suicide is bravery. It is the solution to the whole agony. There are even plans and strategies of how to die, by when, how and what are needed. Then, the thoughts eventually convinced you to die. At this stage, there is usually no fear to die, pain is not felt and breathing is just left to spontaneous reflexes.

Fear is the ultimate of all. The suicidal stage doesn't present with much fear until the last moment when the act of suicide has occurred. Fear is FEAR of uncertainty. Fear is hopelessness and fear is what human is unable to control during the ultimate encounter of what spiritual dimension is all about. It is the fear of GOD.

Talking about GOD, I must clarify that I am not religiously qualified to mention about HIM. Nevertheless, I ask the question that if GOD is aware of the suffering that a diseased person is undergoing, why doesn't GOD shoulder some responsibility and ease the pain? After all, GOD is the one who is loving and caring… For instance, some cancer children are suffering the pain that even an adult can't tolerate! What sins do they have?

If you could answer this question, probably you are very near to GOD…