Hello

[anberry]

My name is Andrew and I go to a Christian college in California. I recently have left the faith, but I am unable to move schools until possibly next fall. I deal with anxiety regarding the concept of hell as the doctrine horribly depressed me as a Christian and was a main reason why I left the faith. Although I no longer believe, it is taking a while to let go of all this fear I have built up from being a Christian and believing in hell and being required to go to chapel and take Christian classes doesn't help me let go. Also, I have a strong fear of dying (as in the process of dying, not being dead) and I read about heart problems in young people such as sudden cardiac arrest and I irrationally feel sometimes like I might all of sudden pass out or have a heart attack even though I have never had heart problems before and don't feel any pain or warning signs. I cite these two things as my biggest fears, but honestly I feel like I don't even know why I am scared anymore. My panic attacks started from those two fears, but I think my body may just be in the habit of having panic attacks because sometimes I just get them for no reason. I have attempted to work through my fears and the fear of hell is getting weaker as I learn more and more about religion and my fear of death is kind of helped by reading stories of people who have near death experiences (which I think might be hallucinations, but at least people can feel peaceful while they're body is dying). I think I am just so used to having anxiety problems that my adrenaline is used to getting pumping at the slightest things.

I apologize for being such a sad sack! I'm usually a pretty fun guy but this anxiety shit is killin' me :(

[JohnC]

Hi anberry,welcome to the forum. Anxiety has many triggers and i am not really in the position to speak on your faith as that is a personal decision although i found that it is a big issue for a lot of folks. As for the health part of your post i can speak from experience. I have had health anxiety for many years and i try very hard not to let it bother me and just let it be but it's tough really tough. There is a good stickie in the general section of this forum called HEALTH ANXIETY EXPOSED it may help you and its a good one. Take some time and go through the whole thing, it may help you some.

[anberry]

Thanks for the response! I took a look at the thread and there is some good stuff there

[Ryker]

Hi,

I have a t-shirt that reads : "Christianity: Because you're so evil, your God had to kill himself."

Christianity does do a very good job of telling people they're weak, sinful, flawed, and Hellbound. Thats got to take some recovering from.

Don't worry. If there is a god and hell, I'm well ahead of you on the smite list.

Just keep reading the helpful posts here, learn about anxiety and its causes and practice mindfulness and you're on your way.

R.

( apologies to any devout Christian readers. Please feel free to pray for me ;) )