Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For a protracted among of time, not just like a near miss traffic accident or something like that...
I'd say for me two times, or rather a few times for the second reason.
This is a little private - but not explicit...when I was just 13 one of my testicles was growing a lot faster than the other (it was double the size) and I, even at that age, feared I had testicular cancer. For a weeks I felt rather ill, didn't eat/sleepy much, at the idea of cancer and thought it might be the end of me. Oddly, it didn't occur to me that even in the unlikely event I DID have it at that age it would probably not be fatal. Anyway I had an X-ray and they didn't find any tumorous tissue, and the other one eventually caught up.
In 2011 I had my first full-blown panic attack when I first went to America. I didn't sleep the night before the 20 hour flight (including transit/lay-over) from Perth to LA, and left around 5am. I couldn't sleep the first two nights there, and thought there might be something wrong with me. Every time I was about to drift into sleep I felt a surge of adrenaline, I suppose, and thought I was having an 'adrenaline attack' or would not be able to sleep. I was also worried because despite the lack of sleep I didn't feel sleepy, just couldn't get to sleep. After the 3rd night of not sleeping (and also an unsuccessful attempt at sleeping pills) I remember thinking my heart was going into overdrive and that my chest felt a little tense and I couldn't breathe. It was about 7am in the morning, and I was sharing a hotel room with my friend. I woke him up, panicked, saying, 'I think I can't breathe' and then we informed hotel reception. At that stage, I was hyperventilating, and began feeling faint. I passed out briefly on the bed, merely adding to my fears. After after 5 minutes the fire department came (I guess they were the ones available at the time? I dunno). They didn't help, I was in a panicked state and they called me a 'dick' just because I kept saying I might be having a heart attack etc. At this stage it got worse, I was also getting paralysed, and felt my chest literally caving into my lungs. We called for a taxi and rushed to hospital. At this stage I really thought I was having a heart attack. Anyway during the taxi to the hospital (Cedar-Sinai in Beverly Hills, where Michael Jackson went to and where Liz Taylor died) I remember feeling like my lungs were being crushed and I would suffocate. It was a weird sensation, it started in like my solar plexus, and it was like my abdominal muscles were tensing and couldn't relax. I had to push up against it to prevent from it sort of crushing my chest, at least that's what it felt like, like they were in a vice. A lot of my muscles were literally paralysed, my hand was like a claw, and my face was numb. I remember exclaiming hysterically, 'i'm going to die, i'm going to die, quick, hurry up!' And also, 'I can't speak, can't feel my face!' with my poor friend beside me.
Anyway we reach the hospital and I'm still like this, also saying, 'I'm having an adrenaline attack, can an adrenaline attack kill you?' After an excruciating wait of about 5 minutes, whereby I did calm down a bit and the feeling subsided. I finally did see a doc, and he diagnosed a panic attack. It was my sheer anxiety that had caused those symptoms. He prescribed me ativan once a day or when needed. I took one and returned to the hotel. I managed to calm down, the symptoms went away, and I managed to sleep.
I took one a day in the morning for the rest of the trip until NYC when my supply ran out. I increasingly became more worried and more paranoid. After a few days of not taking it in the middle of Times Square in NYC at night I 'swallowed strangely' and thought I'd someone dislocated my tongue/throat, or the muscles were seizing up, because I also felt i couldn't open my jaw! I could, but it felt like it took a lot of effort. Anyway I thought my muscles were seizing up and I wouldn't be able to breathe, so I desperate went to the nearest hospital...that's another story, but it ended up with me spending 2 weeks in a psych ward, literally thinking I was at death's door.
During those two and other incidents, I felt panic - as if I was staring down the cliff at eternity, eternal nothingness. Where was my already weak faith in heaven when I needed it? It didn't even cross my mind. That visceral panic has occasionally come back to haunt me, albeit not as strongly, since then. Although maybe I didn't nearly die, I felt psychologically I know what it feels like to truly fear for your life, and be almost convinced you will die.
I was talking to my cousin and she said "Nobody knows when they are going to die" and I immediately had the thought pop into my head, "But I do, I will drive a car off a cliff on my 31st birthday".
No, I didn't die on my 31st birthday, but the cousin I was talking to, it was her 31st birthday the next day and her car went off a steep deep cliff as she was driving home from her birthday party.
No, she didn't die. She was driving one of those old round VW bugs and it just rolled down the cliff like a soccer ball. Her only injuries were scratches from the brush as she climbed back up the cliff.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,453,787 times
Reputation: 6670
Have you ever been convinced or fairly sure you were going to die?
Oh man, that sounds scary! Closest comparable experience was a major anxiety attack way back in the "experimental" phase of my "wild, misspent youth" (…lol), when I once took some very unpleasant LSD! Mucho sense of panic, but fortunately a friend was savvy enough to give me some niacinamide (b3-vitamin) to 'bring me down'.
Only other "near death" experience was ironically much more 'tranquil", when I once fell overboard off a friend's sailboat in Puget Sound. Immediately started sinking from the combination of very cold water, being a poor swimmer, and foolishly not letting go of my buddy's expensive (and very heavy) camera. And that feeling of resignation and just sorta 'surrendering' to it, is true… until luckily right at the last moment, one of the crew, a strong swimmer, dove in and fished me out!
Guess the 'gods', angels, whatever have been looking out for us (so far)!
Not like the op...but...
In Boston...on the subway...the train came to a stop....flames everywhere...
The car in front of us...was like Eyewitness News...filling with smoke...people panicking...
Kicking out the windows... strong young black men being first to jump out....no platforms
So a BIG drop down...BIG onto gravel...
I thought the flames and smoke were spreading to our car...wow....the adrenaline.
I lived...and was embarrassed inside myself I didn't have more control spiritually...it was the
Late 70s.
Last Summer after being operated on for 6 hours they couldn't stop me from having internal bleeding.
I've got one problem for years they've been watching that it don't turn into aggressive Cancer, if it does, most I have is two years.
I have problem with chronic Blood Clots.
I was run over by a Car.
Almost drowned to the point I was unconscious.
I'm sure there is many other things but I'm sure one of these days I will die in this body.
brushrunner
Wow. Do you think these experiences have made you more prepared for death, like getting a taste of it, or or more fearful of it/traumatised?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Have you ever been convinced or fairly sure you were going to die?
