Mine would probably be Rabies.
My biggest fear, given mental health issues, wondering through out life if I’m going insane, seeing things, hallucinating, etc…
I’m terrified that the moment of death, I won’t be able to tell if it’s real or not. So it will be an infinitely protracted moment, and right now, I may already be in that moment.
Radiation illness is one of them, there are certain yields that make it rather nasty. Rabies is also pretty high up the list.
Mechanically wise I remember the OSHA case of the worker getting trapped in a walk-in autoclave and literally steamed to death. because that actually takes a long time.
Prion diseases and locked-in-syndrome are also pure horror.
Anything that makes you aware that you’re slowly losing touch with reality and control of your body or causes you to mistreat the people who love you.
There are a few prion diseases that are absolutely horrible. I believe one of them causes you to be unable to sleep until you go mad.
Fatal Familial Insomnia
Mothetfuu that is scary
Edit: or the non hereditary version transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, TSE).
Rated from most painless to most painful - most painful comes in dead last, so to speak.
Well that’s one thing that’s becoming clear. It depends on what you fear, not what is objectively “worst”.
Is pain worse than the isolation and hopelessness of dying unreachable, upside-down and alone in Nutty Putty cave? Or is pain worse than dying with no emotions but fear and horror, like with rabies? Or is pain worse than the slow, inevitable fading of the self that comes with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or prion disease? Or how about being in the hands of hostile enemies whose joy is to give you a slow, gruesome death?
Where we die is irrelevant - we all die alone. Upside down in a ravine… as long as it doesn’t hurt. Death comes for all of us - I simply don’t want it to hurt.
Fire.
Leprosy. Nobody recognises how horrific it is, that nobody will ever be able to physically touch you, hug or hold your hands again. The damage happens to nerves, lungs, skin and eyes, and symptoms take upto 20 years to appear.
@TheAnonymouseJoker we’re supposed to call that Hansen’s disease now, I think.
Had no idea. TIL.
