AquaDanny,

Sometimes our fear takes a form and acts as if it were not us but something outside that is real.  Sometimes this happens while we dream.  It's easy to lose sight of the fact that it's just our own fear taking form and to believe it is something else with some other meaning.

Also, feelings like we might die, especially at your age, often reflect the fact that who we are, our identity as "children" is "dying" as our identity is changing from being a child to being an adult.  To that part of our identity that is the child it feels like death is coming, because it is.  But it is the death of that part of our identity, not the death of our body.  The problem seems to be that both the child part of our identity and the new adult identity gradually taking its place both live within the same physical body.   We experience the feelings the child part of us is going through, imminent death,  and it's easy to get confused about the true nature of that death.  Meanwhile the emerging adult identity we are becoming is still developing, still becoming that identity.  During this whole process often we experience the feelings of this emerging part of us as confusion about who were are, not really knowing who were are yet because who we are becoming is in a state of flux. 

I remember being totally surprised that I was alive on my twenty third birthday.  I had been absolutely certain I'd die before that day.   Looking back now from age 58 I see the process I was going through back then, and I chuckle.

My opinion, don't worry, be happy.  Pay attention to what you are feeling as you go through this process.  It's not the last time you'll go through a big change in your identity.  If you follow along with the process this time it gets easier to go through other ones in your lifetime without freaking out as much.

Enjoy,

Bruce

I like Bruce's reply. It's excellent gestalt psychology.

If you are still curious, now that you have a focal event, meditation may help regress to look at what caused it. Bruce's "home study" is one way to get there, other techniques for regression are available. What youre likely to find is why your feelings took this specific form, as opposed to some other. If you find something that seems to be a problem, once you resolve it USING ITS OWN TERMS, the problem will vanish. Notice that this is precisely the method used to recover "stuck souls" in general. Or there may be nothing there at all.

dave