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Hello, I'm 18 years old and I am having a panic attack. I don't have anyone to discuss this with so I did what any normal person would do. I googled. I googled religion and philosophy forums and came straight here. I apologize if this post contains immaturity and it may even have no point. But here's the scoop.
(Before you read this know that I don't fully believe in any religion or theory. Nothing has been completely proved or disproved to me in any fashion and until it does I refuse to take a stance due to the possibility of my soul's damnation)
So I'm sitting here thinking. I don't rightly remember how it got started but somehow my mind ended up trying to comprehend existence in its entirety. Basically what I came upon was that existence is an eternity and eternity is a LONG Moderator cut: inappropriate language TIME. A never ending time to be exact. To think that the thoughts in my head are never going to cease for a never ending amount of time freaks me the hell out. I mean, if the bible is correct we're either spending and eternity with God or an eternity with the devil. Either way our existence is never ending! I don't know why it freaks me out so much but it does! It all seems so pointless to me! Not to commit blasphemy or anything but even God's existence seems pointless!. But the point of existence is not the point of this thread.
Even if all religion is completely wrong it just seems impossible that my soul and mind could possibly cease to exist! Or at least my process of thought! Someone help me please I feel horrible.
I guess the main thing is that my mind (by some kind of stupid mental reflex) is trying to comprehend eternity and since that's impossible it's going nuts. I can't possibly explain this to anyone in full detail where you would understand but I've done my best. Hopefully fate will throw me a bone here
Last edited by june 7th; 03-17-2011 at 10:08 AM..
Reason: Polishing
I'm not sure what your problem is here. If you can stand being alive before death, then you can stand being alive after death. I suppose. Perhaps existing for eternity can be a frightening thought.
I'm wondering whether what's happening to you is boggle at trying tho think the incomprehensible, like imagining an infinite universe or, if it ends somewhere, what's beyond it. One can get a sort of feeling or vertigo.
So I'm not sure what I can say to help. I don't actually believe in an afterlife and if there is one I can't imagine what I'd do for eternity that wouldn't become a bit tedious eventually. Since there's nothing much I can do (since I don't believe that reading any particular Holy Book will make an atom of difference) I don't worry about it. But if you do, I can only suggest keep discussing it with anyone who is willing and just chewing it over may help to lessen the panic.
What you are trying to ponder has befuddled many more than you for much much longer.
If it might help you immediately to calm down, visualize yourself in relation to your environment.
Right at the moment YOU are the largest thing in it.
Get a picture in your head of even just the Earth and place yourself in it.
Perspective....
Then realize you probably have loads of time( the odds say) to figure out what you'll be comfortable with believing
If that's not working, go outside and look around and do it......give yourself a larger physical area to help
Thanks people. All of your answers helped quite a bit. I have an urge to individually discuss each reply with all of you but I'm going to let that pass. Truth is I can't stop my mind from thinking. Well I guess that's obvious though. But I can't even guide it. So when it goes somewhere like that I simply don't know what to do and I get stuck in a loop of thought that gets me nowhere except where it's at. And I freak. creds to old cold your post made a lot of sense and helped the most to calm, and I also believe would've helped in many past situations and most likely will help in the future. So an extra thanks to you for that. Oh and I dig your sig. funny.
Last edited by Polymathic Hunt; 06-25-2010 at 04:39 AM..
I'm glad it helped.
In very simplistic terms, all you did was 'change subjects'.....'thought of something else'
If you were just told to stop thinking about it you probably would have replied "I can't! That's why I'm here"
But you can and you did.
Panic causes it's own distinctive physical reactions in your body.....a snowball effect that causes more anxiety and less control.
If you prepare for it and short circuit the process early, you can learn to control it. Counted, controlled breathing is one simple way that can be done anywhere at any time.
Learn the early symptoms and have a process at hand (mentally) to maintain control.
Hello, I'm 18 years old and I am having a panic attack. I don't have anyone to discuss this with so I did what any normal person would do. I googled. I googled religion and philosophy forums and came straight here. I apologize if this post contains immaturity and it may even have no point. But here's the scoop.
(Before you read this know that I don't fully believe in any religion or theory. Nothing has been completely proved or disproved to me in any fashion and until it does I refuse to take a stance due to the possibility of my soul's damnation)
So I'm sitting here thinking. I don't rightly remember how it got started but somehow my mind ended up trying to comprehend existence in its entirety. Basically what I came upon was that existence is an eternity and eternity is a LONG ****ING TIME. A never ending time to be exact. To think that the thoughts in my head are never going to cease for a never ending amount of time freaks me the hell out. I mean, if the bible is correct we're either spending and eternity with God or an eternity with the devil. Either way our existence is never ending! I don't know why it freaks me out so much but it does! It all seems so pointless to me! Not to commit blasphemy or anything but even God's existence seems pointless!. But the point of existence is not the point of this thread.
Even if all religion is completely wrong it just seems impossible that my soul and mind could possibly cease to exist! Or at least my process of thought! Someone help me please I feel horrible.
I guess the main thing is that my mind (by some kind of stupid mental reflex) is trying to comprehend eternity and since that's impossible it's going nuts. I can't possibly explain this to anyone in full detail where you would understand but I've done my best. Hopefully fate will throw me a bone here
I don't know if this is where you're going or not but many people feel anxiety when contemplating death. However this is usually a fear of notbeing around an eternity. I am one such person. I have an anxiety triggered by the notion that I will simply cease to exist upon my death. Such an anxiety requires that I do not believe in an afterlife, which I don't. I also don't believe in God despite the fact that I really want to. But unfortunately I need evidence. I'm one of those people who simple cannot out-of-hand believe in something without logical justification.
Anyway, we may be suffering from the same anxiety dysfunction only with an opposite kind of presentation.
I'm afraid I'm not too helpful in this realm. I am quite comfortable believing that life is over at death. I like the concept of returning back to the earth as part of circle of life, the continuing evolution of the planet. When I first left the church, this was not so comforting. In fact, I was freaked out as well. I found some comfort in the Baha'i belief that our souls leave this physical world and move on to a spiritual world and from there move on again, learning (evolving, if you will) at each level. I probably WAY oversimplified the Baha'is beliefs, but I think you get the point. The more I read about evolution and nature, the more comfortable I become with my own death. Instead of looking to god to explain cancer or death from hunger or a car accident, I see it for what it is - mutated cells; lack of food due to economic, political, or geographical conditions; and a drunk driving (or a host of other things). I breathe a sigh of relief now because life seems so much more simplistic to me without religion. You know what I say: keep reading!
Even if all religion is completely wrong it just seems impossible that my soul and mind could possibly cease to exist! Or at least my process of thought!
Theres no way you could handle eternity with your current train of thought.
Imagine a nice sunny day,how long would it take you to get tired of everyday being a nice sunny day?A year? a hundred years?a thousand? a million? Sooner or later your perfect lifestyle by current mental standards is going to become a boring torture akin to a repetitive mental prison.
Trust in the idea that your current mind will change dramatically when you pass into the realm of eternity,God will probably be there to explain.
OP, you bring up a very interesting question as the subject of eternity perplexes me as well and I'm a Christian. Existence is an interest of mine but I believe we part ways in what truly bothers us. While I can't possibly wrap my mind around infinity what truly bothers me is the idea of our existence ending. For some reason, to me, the idea of annihilation is even more frightening than hell even though I realize how ridiculous that will seem to some.
I'm coming from a Christian point of view so it may or may not help you but what sets my mind at ease is that although eternal life in and of itself is a scary thought, it's made possible and is spent with an infinitely creative and infinitely powerful God. I believe he created our minds/souls after his own image and would know if we could or could not handle an eternity. I don't believe for a second that we'll be floating on clouds with harps and Muslims I've talked to don't really believe in the literal 72 virgins either.
Humans are inquisitive creatures, and this can be seen in people from the ages of 5 to 95. IMO this won't go away ever and I'm comforted by this. The universe is unimaginably large and although it's not infinite there's no reason God won't create new universes/races of beings that we can't be involved with. This is all conjecture of course.
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