Make no mistake, we are animals, we are flawed, and we live in a world that eliminates the weak. For people, our "great" society itself has a way of breaking our will to live through the repercussions of our failure to thrive. Life can be a totally miserable existence, with no upper limit to the pain it can inflict while you live.
That being said, death is worse. Death is the ultimate end, the absence of experience, whence your existence ceases entirely. Why would I consider not feeling pain (post-death) to be worse than feeling pain (living)?
It's a simple choice, I have decided to keep attempting to thrive, and if attempting leads me no where - at least I tried.
I do not fear death, rather I revel in it. From the Earth we came and thus to the earth we return. It is the Cycle of life. With life comes death and with death comes life. It is not something anyone should fear. It comes for us all one way or another and being afraid of it will only shorten what life you have. Embrace death(I dont mean kill yourself embrace!) and you shall live a relativley happy life.