Anxiety about hell and eternal torture

I confess to having similar intrusive fears. (I may have to unfollow this thread, in fact, depending on how the discussion goes, but I'll risk it for now.) I'm able to push the thoughts away much of the time, so I think it's not as crippling for me as what you've described, but sometimes the intrusive fears will crush my prayer life for months at a time.

I don't have an easy answer for you. (Universal reconciliation is my current best guess, but I wish I had more certainty there and less "guess".) I'm curious how other Christians cope with the traditional view of the afterlife.

Paulwat said:

Lately I’ve really been struggling with anxiety and OCD, especially around intrusive fears about hell. It’s been taking over my thoughts and making it hard to get through the day. Sometimes I get stuck worrying about people I care about possibly “going there,” and other times I spiral into fear about myself.

Whenever I come across posts that talk about eternal torture or damnation, it makes everything worse — it triggers the anxiety and sends me into a loop I can’t easily escape. I know these thoughts don’t reflect who I am or what I truly believe, but they still feel so real in the moment.

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We serve a merciful God and remember He is also the Perfect Judge. We also make our choices.

I'm sorry to hear you're struggling. I think when it comes to mental health, some things work from some people and not others so I'll give you what I do in the hopes that it helps. I used to have seriously bad anxiety and I realized it was mostly due to spiritual warfare with the enemy trying to cause it. So here's what I did:
1) I meditated on scripture. Meaning, I pull up the verses that talked about how I can have assurance of my salvation. I can see the fruits of the spirit grow, I can see how God has been walking with me and helping me understand scripture, I can see my life change, so that in essence helps me stay rooted to the promise that I am his.
2) When it comes to others, that was hard for me. Specially since I believe the Lord gave me a dream to share the state of my parents to me (not saved) so that I could witness to them. That hit me hard, but after probing into their beliefs, he was correct, they aren't saved. So what I did was come to accept that everyone accounts for ourselves and I can understand why God's rules are the way they are and as much as I wouldn't want my friends or family "going there", at the end of the day, it's out of my control and I wrestled with it until I came to acceptance. What are the 7 stages of grief? shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance.. Ask the Lord to help you reach to the acceptance stage.

Also remember, God is GOOD, God is PERFECT, God is RIGHTEOUS, God is FAIR and that means when he judges, he judges rightly. He isn't evil, he isn't mean, he isn't cruel and he isn't unfair. No matter what his judgements are, they are just.

Paulwat said:

Lately I’ve really been struggling with anxiety and OCD, especially around intrusive fears about hell. It’s been taking over my thoughts and making it hard to get through the day. Sometimes I get stuck worrying about people I care about possibly “going there,” and other times I spiral into fear about myself.

Whenever I come across posts that talk about eternal torture or damnation, it makes everything worse — it triggers the anxiety and sends me into a loop I can’t easily escape. I know these thoughts don’t reflect who I am or what I truly believe, but they still feel so real in the moment.

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If you have believed in Jesus for God's free gift of Eternal Life. Then you should have absolute no fears as John states.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

That is not a you may, but a Most assuredly, I say to you,

Paulwat said:

Lately I’ve really been struggling with anxiety and OCD, especially around intrusive fears about hell. It’s been taking over my thoughts and making it hard to get through the day. Sometimes I get stuck worrying about people I care about possibly “going there,” and other times I spiral into fear about myself.

Whenever I come across posts that talk about eternal torture or damnation, it makes everything worse — it triggers the anxiety and sends me into a loop I can’t easily escape. I know these thoughts don’t reflect who I am or what I truly believe, but they still feel so real in the moment.

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I used to fear and worry a lot about hell.
The Catholic faith helped me overcome the fear.
Looking back, that's just an opportunity for me to repent and live a new life.

It can be hard when you have intrusive thoughts about hell. Some months ago, I came under an attack by the devil, who insisted I abort my salvation in protest of hell, and those who would go there. At the time the attack was so strong, that I said "ok" and it sent me into a guilt spiral. Eventually I pulled my self out of it. What I have come to realise is, God is "faithful" and "just". Meaning he sticks with us even when we sin. He is also just, meaning he has provided a way for us to be saved, he is not desiring hell for us. If God's justice has reached to me, it will reach to all. I am not saying all will be saved, but rather, I am imperfect and God has saved me. Why should I then abort God's goodness, to save people who have chosen to reject his offer so they can do dark deeds.

PloverWing said:

I don't have an easy answer for you. (Universal reconciliation is my current best guess, but I wish I had more certainty there and less "guess".) I'm curious how other Christians cope with the traditional view of the afterlife.

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Personally universalism does not make sense to me, but knowing God's judgement is always faultless does. However, when you say "traditional" regarding the afterlife, I believe hell is a state of separation from God, not unending life in a literal burning fire.

The key is never to underestimate how poor human perceptions and judgements are by comparison to the Lord's.

Paulwat said:

Lately I’ve really been struggling with anxiety and OCD, especially around intrusive fears about hell. It’s been taking over my thoughts and making it hard to get through the day. Sometimes I get stuck worrying about people I care about possibly “going there,” and other times I spiral into fear about myself.

Whenever I come across posts that talk about eternal torture or damnation, it makes everything worse — it triggers the anxiety and sends me into a loop I can’t easily escape. I know these thoughts don’t reflect who I am or what I truly believe, but they still feel so real in the moment.

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You desiring to be with Jesus, your love for Him is what your salvation depends on. You do not have to have conquered every mental health struggle to get there (although you will be freed of all suffering when you are in heaven). Fear of hell will not save anyone, love and passion for Jesus will.

There are times when my PTSD gets active when I cannot do anything except sit or rock in terror and think "Jesus help me, please help me." I have learned to tell myself that it is not me being weak or immature, when that happens my brain is in a different time, and I am, at just those times, a terrified young child. I don't know if you can or could pray during your struggles, but Jesus does understand them, He knows about everything that is in your mind, and the only reason sin bothers Him is because He loves us, it is not because He enjoys the power.