How do I stop thinking about death?

[Eace]

I used to think about death all the time too. And that was when I was like 8 years old or something. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat thinking "I'm gonna die" and thoughts like that. But it passed eventually. Just don't make a big deal out of it. Personally, everytime I started thinking about these things again, I would think about a happy thought. And the thought can be anything: a clip from a merry cartoon, a memory of your friends... It worked for me.

[gmike]

Have you tried meeting death? Siting down and having a talk.

[Kuja]

Clock ticks life away~~

[foogy]

I seem to have accepted that when you die, your consciousness will become everlasting with the universe. Can't really explain it, but the thought of dying isn't scary for me, I sort of 'look forward' to it somehow, I want to be sure what really happens.

Also, the ancient egyptians, a very advanced civilization, didn't even have a word for death. They called it 'going south', like the sun sets in south. That might also help your anxiety for death.

[Iamsylar]

So why do you think about death?

[Azerox]

I lol @ death, i mean when i go i go, nothing to do about it anyway.

Im not scared of death, only hoping it wont come too soon

[Deleted]

It's pissing me off. I've been having problems not thinking about death about 5 months now. Just mentioning the word "death" makes me think of it. Saying "life" makes me think of it. Just watching pictures of Earth makes me think of death. When I think about what I want to work with in the future the thought can just pop up like that. It's not the thought "It doesn't matter, I'm going to die anyway.", it just pops up. Bam. Sometimes it just pops up randomly (can happen about 5 times per day). Everyone said it would fade over time but it hasn't, it just keep coming back to me and I can't get it off my mind. Any suggestions what to do?

I've been reading a book lately called "The brain that changes itself", by Norman Doidge, M.D.

The entire book is more or less examples of how the old view of looking at the brain as static and unchanging, i.e. if you damage a certain part your f***ed since the brain is unchangeable, is entirely wrong. It deals a lot with the constant changes that are taking place in our minds as a result of our behaviours and thinking.
In one section, the book deals with OCD (Obsessive Compulsion Disorder) and how it's possible to treat it using just the knowledge that the brain is interchangeable and alters itself depending on how you act/think. And this is the part that got me thinking about this thread, and your problem.

Basically, people with OCD will get anxious about something and subsequently try to ease this anxiety by performing these repetitive, non-rational things. Everytime they do this, they enforce that behaviour in their brains through empowering those connections. The way to treat this is to, for how ever long possible (can only be a couple of seconds) resist the urge of doing what they feel the have to do. By fighting it like this, they are creating new neural pathways in their minds that can bypass this anxiety as the same time as they are reducing the strength of the current anxiety-neurons.

So TLDR; everytime death/life/earth comes up and you find yourself thinking about death. For however long possible, just try to clear your mind and think about something else. It might even be easier if you just come up with an anti-death theme in your head that you use to resist everytime death pops-up. Something that you can use to quickly switch from thinking about death and instead think about your anti-death theme (wow? stat weights? your rotation? ponies?) and just as much as possible try to resist. After a while, hopefully you will find yourself managing to think less and less of it, even though it pops up once in a while. Think of it as a brain workout where you will see results first after a while!

Hope this helps, and if you want a good interesting read that can potentially help you with this issue, look up the book!

[Catta]

Think about death every day... makes you all the more happy to be alive...

[VenomousCarnage]

You could drop dead, you probably won't be thinking about it after that....

[Voolawl]

I honestly kind of have the same issue as op, except it's not all the time.

It's more like something that's even the slightest bit disappointing will severely bum me out to the point where I just don't want to be alive anymore. It's weird. I'll be sitting there thinking about death and how it's the most intense thing I can think of. I've considered going to the doctor and seeing about depression, but I would feel weird to tell my family.

[adeeil]

Get married and you will stop worrying about it, in fact you will probably look forward to it lol.

[Frolk]

Get help, Try to live life to the fullest 24/7 or Start smoking weed (I personally advice u to pick option nr 1)

[slime]

Accept Death as your master. There is nothing you can do about it, of course, so when it pops into remind yourself.. oh that again well there's nothing I can do about this and go on with what you are doing. Eventually your mind will stop using the thought of Death to test you. It's sorta like dreams, I've read that people with no problems and easy going lives have more nightmares and people who struggle a lot in real life have less nightmares. Your mind is trying to keep you sharp for problems. <-- just something I read have no clue if it's the case.

[Deleted]

Death never stops thinking about you, so why do you want to stop thinking about Death ? o . O

[Deleted]

Well, you can think that you're immortal:P It might not be completely wrong either. I'd assume you're young, probably under 30. When you're 60-80, technology will be advanced a lot and reversing aging doesn't seem to be that far away.

You might still die to accidents and illnesses so that's why it's good to give science a chance and be careful and keep your health as long as possible.

That or when you're 80, they could hook you up with a pair or robotic legs that stroll around like a welshman on their own while you're snoozing and dreaming of happy old people stuff:P

[terrahero]

People have thought about Death since forever. And people try and find solace in all sorts of things. Personally i believe death is simply the end,after that my body has shut down so my self-awareness, memories, pain or any kind of sensation, anything will simply cease to be. Since i will not be aware of being death, nor feel it, nor miss anything or anyone, i have no reason to fear it because i wont even know what fear is anymore.

And when you do not fear death anymore, there is no reason to worry about it anymore.

[FearGX]

Don't Worry be Happy. :>

[Scrabblet]

Just accept that it's inevitable and everything that has life will go through it.

[zRares]

M8... just live your life... stop thinking about things that you can't control if you are a sane person ... death will eventually come... we will all die someday.. that's how this world works.. just go have fun and don't regret anything