Fear of death is a basic phobia, based on the basic question human existence, which is expressed by the expected complete opposite of everything that exists.
Nobody wants to die, but for some people a simple reluctance develops into a serious phobia
The abilities of human imagination are not enough to at least somehow imagine what awaits us after the cessation of earthly existence. As a result, two components merge in death:
A person understands that no matter what awaits him, what is “there” will no longer be there, or there will be nothing at all. The unknown creates the torment of uncertainty.
All people, without exception, are afraid of death, no matter what they say about it and no matter how they behave. In the painful version, when a phobia of death arises, the experience becomes too strong and does not allow one to live and feel the happiness of life.
This state is refracted into three main ideas...
Realizing this creates a surge of self-pity. Everyone around seems too arrogant and lacking compassion. But it is impossible to complain to anyone that death will touch you, because it will touch them too. Understanding this makes you move away from all people.
Fear of death can lead to depression
Phobia does not allow you to live calmly and experience the fear of death. This becomes more and more painful and the subconscious of the suffering person chooses one of two paths.
Thus thanatophobia, as the phobia “fear of death” is called, turns into “Thanos” - an attraction to death and everything dark and mysterious.
This phase appears rarely, but sharply. It can occur at the moment of unexpected awakening from a nightmare, simply at the moment of falling into one of the phases of sleep suitable for this. For some time the person does not understand what is happening to him. Legs and arms, the whole body can be perceived as alien and already uncontrollable.
The same thing can happen due to some real physical illness, under a certain state of intoxication with ethanol or narcotic substances. However, similar experiences are also experienced by people who, for some reason, experience derealization or depersonalization.
Some people feel as if they are already dead
These are just the basic components of fear splitting. The fear of dying is an insidious phobia. It can express itself in a variety of ways, for example, manifest itself as hypochondria or bring consciousness to an obvious mental disorder.
In the form of a complex, it manifests itself as obsessive-phobic neurosis. In this case, obsessive thoughts about death can constantly haunt on their own, sometimes in some elusive form, when a person himself does not understand what he is thinking about, but experiences a mixture of anxiety and despondency. But they can also force you to perform some ritual actions. These rituals are personal, everyone uses their own.
Difference thanatophobia from others is that it is impossible to carry out explanatory work with the patient at the level of psychotherapy. If he has fantasized about cancer, then it is still possible to convince him that there is no cancer. In the same way, it is quite possible to teach a person not to panic on the street if he has agoraphobia. Yes, the streets don’t bite, and the sky doesn’t fall on your head just like that. Even the most stubborn patient will agree with this sooner or later. But if he is afraid of death, then words that say you need to be afraid, but not so much, will not have an effect, because none of the people living on Earth knows to what extent you really need to be afraid.
Religion has much more compelling arguments on this score. A materialist psychotherapist is generally forced to play some kind of role imposed by society. The priest proceeds from faith, and this allows him to declare that there is something else to be afraid of - sin, which, if unforgiven, will send the soul to ordeal. Instead of a deconstructive fear of death as such, a purely animal one, a person can be offered a different view of himself and his experiences.
All theological schools have this power. Vajrayana Buddhists consider death to be a transition of consciousness into an intermediate state, after which part of it loses all meaning, and part is embodied in a new image. Almost all spiritual systems have a definite view on this dramatic issue. It remained not only open, but not adequately considered at all, only in science.
It is not always possible to help a person with thanatophobia with the help of psychotherapy
A small exception in practical and theoretical aspect constitutes perhaps only existential psychology. Her followers are most often ready to have frank conversations with patients about what death and life are. The fear of death arises because life is not filled with meaning. Any patient will agree with this. Almost no one shares this: here I am afraid of loneliness, here I am afraid of sex, here I am afraid of an incurable disease. If a person is touched by something serious problem, then behind it there is always the reality of his psyche, which cannot come to terms with the fact that it is finite. She also suffers from the fact that she has no idea where and how she could direct her life.
There is only one treatment here... It doesn’t really matter which method is used. Or rather, you don’t need any at all. It is enough to let us realize and experience for ourselves that life has no meaning other than what we ourselves bring to it. A non-standard personality will immediately give rise to a new conflict, and a feeling of heaviness will arise from the need to make a choice.
This means that the real task of the psychotherapist is to help the patient go through all the labyrinths of consciousness until the moment when he suddenly realizes the total plasticity of everything around him.
- I'll die.
What a shame... You might think that everyone here really loves me, everyone is happy to see me here. It’s very good that I’ll die, otherwise I’d have to carry this burden forever, choose, hope...
- I won't die now.
And I'm not in a hurry. Just then a discovery was made! There is no meaning in life, which means I can come up with some for myself and live by my own rules, carry out the things of my dreams.
- But I don’t know what I want!
That’s great, as long as I’m doing something, I’ll understand that at least I’m doing it, whether I like it or not. If I don’t like it, I’ll do something else. Very good... I'll do it right choice. And the correct one comes from the word “rule”! My rule.
You need to talk about the fear of death with an experienced and professional psychotherapist.
“The people won’t allow me to do this.” They'll tear me apart!
Come on... My desires are modest, but they don’t even think about me at all.
- Well, then what about the highest ideals?
How boring you are! How did I put up with you for so many years? Whiner and alarmist. Who forbids me to pray, meditate, clear my mind of all nonsense? If I want higher ideals, God help me and a flag in my hands.
- I don’t have enough strength!
Go away! I can’t look at you without laughing anymore... How strong are you? I'm not going to do anything beyond my control. The thought never even crosses my mind...
If a psychotherapist’s patient can conduct such a dialogue with himself, then this is one of the few victories, but it will be a decisive victory for domestic psychiatry.
Thanatophobia - a self-preservation instinct?
From the very first years of his existence, a person regularly experiences a feeling of fear. Sometimes this is a healthy fear, which works as a mechanism that warns the body about danger, but sometimes the fear becomes pathological, permanent - a person is afraid of something, thinks about it every second. And such a phobia is often unconscious, arising suddenly, uncontrollable. It is impossible to fight it on your own, impossible to overcome it. For example, the fear of death, which does not allow thousands of people to live in peace. Psychologists believe that thanatophobia underlies all fears.
A common point of view is that the fear of death is a natural human feeling, representing a peculiar aspect of the instinct of self-preservation. Only in a slightly mutated, enlarged form that becomes intrusive.
Animals also have this instinct, but it manifests itself only in truly dangerous situations, and then is muted until the next terrible situation, in which the probability of death is really high. But animals cannot think about how to overcome the fear of death. The fact is that animals, unlike humans, have no concept of the future; they live exclusively in the present moment, here and now.
Exactly the same attitude is characteristic of young children who are freed from the need to plan. And as the child grows up, he begins to subject all the experience gained to analysis and isolate some truths and conclusions from what happened to them. They begin to think about whether it will exist tomorrow, what might happen, and this is where the fear of death is born, which is difficult to get rid of. In particular, this is precisely the fear of the unknown. Because people are used to thinking, “I’m afraid that something bad will happen because I don’t know the future.” All changes in life happen suddenly, it is impossible to see fate, so all these thoughts become fear, which is called thanatophobia, that is, the fear of death.
A common VSD syndrome is thanatophobia. Sick VSD man afraid of everything - new diseases, accidents, crowds, lonely old age. This is given a name – “existential fear”. The phobia is accompanied by strong panic attacks when the thought “I’m afraid” becomes paramount. Here, a rapid heartbeat and a depressed state of mind - all this is experienced by a person with VSD. The fears that arose during the period of the VSD greatly interfere with the individual’s ability to live peacefully, they poison his existence, deprive him of freedom of activity, he can do little successfully. The phobia only intensifies over time, developing self-doubt, dissatisfaction with one’s capabilities, as well as deep depression.
The fear of death among all possible fears with VSD is the most dangerous. Especially when a person experiences an attack of VSD for the first time. The mechanism of a phobia is such that, having experienced fear once, we transfer it to everyday life events. Once a patient with VSD felt ill in a store - and now he will always feel fear in the store, the thought “I’m afraid” will consume him. Thanks to everything, the fear of death will now be his faithful companion when shopping.
So what should we do here? You need to clearly tell yourself that you understand what is happening to you. That everything is to blame for everything. That this phobia is artificial. It is impossible to be afraid of death; fear is an invention. Nothing will happen to you, there is no death in sight. “I’m not afraid of death” should be paired with even breathing as a treatment for panic fear during VSD, and the phobia will go away.
Fear of death as a phobia goes through several periods throughout a person’s life; it either goes out or flares up with great force. This fear may first appear in early childhood. Children are faced with fear at an age when they cannot describe it in words, do not fully understand it, and do not know what to do, how to overcome the fear of death. They recognize death in different ways: some see a dead animal, some notice rotten leaves under their feet, some are faced with the death of relatives.
Parents have to explain to them the concept of death and injustice - why should someone die, why can’t they live forever? It seems especially difficult to lead a child to the idea that his turn will come. Many people try to embellish reality by telling stories about angels and heaven, often this really helps to overcome the fear of death in children. However, there is no reason to do this, it only works for a while, because as the child grows up, he learns that everything is not as rosy as his parents told him, and the phobia returns to him again.
Often the fear of dying appears in children 5-8 years old. Thanatophobia is expressed individually; the manifestations of fear depend on who the child lives with, what is happening in the family, what he sees on the street and on the TV screen. It's not easy to get rid of it. Of course, the fear of death is more common in children whose loved ones died during their lifetime. Fear often torments emotional and impressionable preschoolers who do not have male protection and influence, and girls are afraid of death more often and more strongly than boys.
Interestingly, the fear of death is often absent in children whose parents are cheerful and optimistic. Sometimes parents create an artificial kind world for their child, in which he supposedly has nothing to fear. Such children never say “I’m afraid of death.” They grow up more indifferent, they don’t worry about themselves or others, they don’t have to fight fear. Also, a phobia may be absent in children whose parents are chronic alcoholics; in such preschoolers, emotionality is dulled, all deep experiences are fleeting and unstable. They will never say that I am afraid of something.
IN adolescence phobia of death and fear of death manifests itself in full. Teenagers begin to more adequately assess the world around them, thoughts and thoughts about death occupy an important role in their minds, they even think about suicide as an escape from an unbearable life, by their standards. A huge burden of adolescence falls on them, new problems arise that they must overcome. The concepts of life that they were given in childhood can no longer satisfy them. And so, she is left alone with the frightening thought “I’m afraid to die,” because no one is immortal. What if he dies tomorrow, the day after tomorrow? So what should he do? How to cope with the fear of death?
There are many options here. Some teenagers resort to drugs and alcohol to drown out the fear of death. They end up in cozy sects, where other people’s thoughts and “saving” ideas are imposed on him, and they clearly dictate to him what to do. Others prefer to deal with fear using other methods. They begin to live in the virtual world, spending all their time playing computer games and surfing the Internet, trying to hide their fear, they do not want to do anything useful. So they try to overcome death, abstracting from the real world.
Others become cynical and daring, becoming interested in violence, horror films, and bloody video games. They mock death, and the phobia almost recedes, as it seems to them. “I’m not afraid of death,” they boldly repeat to themselves, often taking reckless risks and challenging death. They climb onto roofs, look for trouble on dark streets, and cling to train cars. They can do whatever they want, but still there is a quiet, deeply hidden thought in their head: “I'm afraid to die.”
Often, under pressure from society, teenagers take the popular path of denying death. It would seem that if it doesn’t exist, then there is no need to admit that “I’m afraid of death,” there is no need to worry and be afraid. You can enjoy yourself, live life to the fullest, and pursue a career. Modern life offers us huge amount pleasures, each of which you want to experience. And the fear of death recedes.
As a rule, older people rarely talk about the fear of death itself. For them, the process of dying, from illness, from old age, alone is more terrible. They experience fear of losing control over events and their bodily functions. Studies have shown that older people are more likely to experience fear of death, but less likely than young people to openly admit it. They often say “I’m not afraid of death.”
It was revealed that patients with HIV infection and healthy people experience similar degrees of conscious fear of dying, but sick people have much more hidden fears. It seems that when faced with inevitable death, such people feel the need to consciously deny dying, so as not to lose heart completely. “I’m not afraid of death,” they assure themselves and others. Their phobia does not disappear, it only hides.
Factors such as health, worry and anxiety play a huge role in explaining the fear of dying in adults. Most often people who say “I’m afraid to die” are mentally ill, poorly educated, and female. Also, you should not discount such factors as social status, well-being, and life satisfaction.
By the way, the results of a study of the psychological mood and condition of people seriously ill with cancer are extremely interesting. The majority of respondents noted that after learning the diagnosis, they reevaluated their priorities and goals, began to spend more time with their family, learned to brush aside unnecessary things, and did what they had long wanted. The fear of death does not bother them; a phobia does not arise. Their only regret is that they did not realize such simple truths earlier, and they had to get sick incurable disease to overcome the fear of death.
Quite often, thanatophobia - the fear of death - is associated with a person’s religious views. For example, in Christianity there is the concept of the Last Judgment, when a person’s entire life is subject to evaluation and analysis, and if there were many bad deeds in his life, he will go to hell after death. And so, people remember their mistakes and misdeeds, beginning to fear that because of them, hell awaits them instead of heaven. “I’m afraid I won’t go to heaven,” they think. This is how fear develops into an obsessive phobia.
Sometimes the instinct of self-preservation kicks in, which marks thoughts of death as dangerous and instructs the brain to avoid them. Then the thought “I’m afraid to die” fades away after a couple of hours, giving way to more positive ones. The phobia may subside for a short time.
In addition, there is always a “lifeline” - the thought of the immortality of the soul, which does a good job of reducing the human “I’m afraid”. In the Bible, death is only one of the stages that is necessary to complete the earthly journey. Death must be understood. After all, this is the beginning of a new life. And to reject it, to experience fear, means closing one’s path to reincarnation, rebirth. Death kills the body, but saves the soul, so a person must be strong in spirit and tell himself clearly “I am not afraid of death,” only in this way can he prepare himself for the transition to a new stage.
Related materials:
There are no similar materials...
Psychologists and psychotherapists believe that panic fear of death is a psychological problem. It is hidden in the depths of the subconscious and is at the root of almost all fears.
Fear of death is a natural state. Every living creature has an instinct of self-preservation. But the panic fear of death, which contributes to the emergence obsessive thoughts and vegetative crises, requires the attention of a psychotherapist.
“I’m 27, I have a fear of death” - this is how patients begin their “confession” during a session with a psychologist. Such a person is haunted by the fear of dying.
What is the fear of death called? This phobia is called thanatophobia. People belonging to the thinking type suffer from it.
People who are haunted by the fear of death during VSD are mainly divided into two types: those who themselves are afraid of dying, and those who are afraid of the death of loved ones.
YOU ARE CONTROLLED BY WHAT YOU CANNOT ALLOW!
This is how we can formulate the key to understanding this problem.
A person suffering from vegetative-vascular dystonia usually has a combination of several phobias. The following fears most often appear during VSD:
Psychology says the following about the fear of death: there is certain type people prone to this phobia. People who are susceptible to thanatophobia are:
A phobia, in which a person is haunted by the fear of dying, develops according to various reasons. The main factors are given in the table.
| Cause | Description |
|---|---|
| Impressionability | An obsessive state can be caused by watching crime news. |
| Fear of the unknown | A person is tormented by the question of whether it is possible to die in a dream. Such a person may additionally suffer from OCD. |
| Religious Beliefs | There is a fear of appearing in divine judgment and being punished for one's sins. |
| Crisis age | The risk group is people 35-50 years old. The phobia develops against the background of a revaluation of values. |
| Old age | Fear of death occurs against the background of concomitant diseases. |
Common forms of the disease are presented in the table.
It is observed in very anxious and suspicious people who believe in their own exclusivity. The fear of death is closely intertwined with this phobia and keeps a person in constant tension. Sometimes OCD can develop “in the background.”
Cardiophobia is a disorder affecting children and adults. A person tries not to sleep on his left side, constantly monitors his health and considers any ailment a serious cause for concern.
The result is that he constantly lives in terrible tension.
Fear of death before childbirth accompanies a complicated pregnancy. A woman is afraid to die and leave her child orphan. There is also a fear of giving birth to a stillborn baby. If the birth ends successfully, the young mother begins to worry about every cough of the child - it seems to her that he may die.
Children's fear of death is based on personal experiences.
Thanatophobia is a complex somatic disorder. It is accompanied by the following symptoms:
A panic attack with an attack of fear or death may be accompanied by increased urination or bowel dysfunction. The person feels like he is about to die. But that's not true. The autonomic nervous system reacts to fears in this way.
In patients, thanatophobia is at its peak of development. The person falls into despair. Between attacks, which can occur at any time, he is in a gloomy, depressed state.
Sometimes the attack occurs at night. Some patients are attacked by the phobia when they are on the subway or at work. Additionally, there is a fear of losing control over oneself.
Negative emotions are accompanied by a sharp release of adrenaline into the blood. The blood vessels begin to spasm. Blood pressure“jumps” a lot and makes the person sick. If clinical picture manifests itself very clearly, it can vomit.
Sometimes there is a feeling of lack of air.
A person who is afraid of becoming dead tries to fight his obsessions on his own. Often he does it wrong, and they only get stronger.
He cannot relax, which leads to exhaustion nervous system. There is a deterioration in blood circulation.
A patient, obsessed with worries about the inevitability of death, encounters the following symptoms:
Ulcers may appear on the mucous membranes.
Against the background of severe anxiety, the production of gastric juice. This adversely affects the condition of its walls.
Appetite decreases and a person may lose weight dramatically. Often these symptoms contribute to the fact that a person becomes ingrained in the idea that he is terminally ill.
Getting rid of the fear of death is a rather long process. This phobia is difficult to cure.
When the disease is in initial stage, a specialist conducts differential diagnosis. After this, the severity of the disorder is established.
Then the patient is sent for consultation to a pathopsychologist. The following points are explored:
If the clinical picture is very pronounced, the patient is prescribed hypnotics and tranquilizers. The goal of therapy is to relieve insomnia and reduce stress levels.
Cognitive techniques help control negative emotions and help change incorrect thinking. This helps reduce premature fear, which develops into panic attacks.
These techniques help a person who has thoughts of death learn to control their condition and change the fatal perception of panic. The duration of the attack is shortened, and its impact on the general emotional state decreases.
During the consultation, the patient is given an individual task plan. The prognosis depends on how actively he performs them. This technique is called “learning.” A person learns to resist bad emotions.
If the panic fear of death cannot be controlled, the patient is prescribed potent drugs. The most effective hypnotics are presented in the table.
Treatment of fear of death should be combined with independent work. It lies in the fact that a person must understand the following:
A person must understand that everything in nature has a clear cycle. First we are born, then we are given a certain period. This ends in death. This is a natural process; no one has ever been able to avoid it.
“Man is not only mortal, he is sometimes suddenly mortal,” says a famous literary character. This thought scares a lot of people. There is nothing that can be done here. Even despite the precautions taken, no one is immune from death during accidents.
A person continues to live in the memories of his family and friends. The kinder and more attentive he treats them, the warmer their memories will be. One of the reasons for fear is the “uselessness” of a person. Therefore, you need to try to do as many good deeds as possible.
A change of environment and type of activity has a beneficial effect on a person. He may not notice how he stopped being afraid, and the painful thoughts left him alone.
Obsessing over your experiences is a vicious circle.
The strong fear of death will subside if you stop being afraid of life. It is recommended to get out of your comfort zone and do something new. If possible, you need to change your job or improve your qualifications, which will allow you to apply for a promotion in the future.
You need to try to realize your abilities. It is recommended to constantly seek new experiences. If it is not possible to go on a trip, you should go for a bike ride at least once a week. The route should be different each time. You can ride alone or with someone else.
Thoughts tend to materialize. If a person constantly sets himself up for negativity, then the “program” embedded in the body can “target” self-destruction.
A positive outlook is not euphoria and delight. Positive attitudes are inherent in many self-confident people, politicians, and businessmen.
By learning to have a positive outlook, a person will be able to change his life attitudes and fully experience the joy of life. Thanatophobia will recede, and the person will part with these thoughts forever.
Relying on materialism or on one or another religious doctrine allows you to have a clear position and has a calming effect. As a result, a person develops a special opinion regarding death.
If materialism is close to him, he begins to understand the biological nature of the living, learns what happens in the process of dying and learns to take it for granted. Faith helps to understand the mystical meaning of death. All beliefs claim that nothing ends with the death of the physical shell. Man already exists in some “other dimension”.
The instinct of self-preservation and the fear of death are almost identical concepts. If a person does not feel the fear of death, this is not normal. This deviation is typical for:
Such people lack satisfaction when communicating both with their own species and with wildlife. Often their threshold for the perception of painful sensations is reduced. Also, the fear of death is reduced or absent in individuals prone to sadism and other criminal tendencies.
Thanatophobia is psychological disorder, treatable. In minors, it is diagnosed and treated easier and faster.
Various fears are a fairly common problem faced by a huge number of people of different genders and ages. Such disorders are obsessive in nature, they are difficult to explain, much less analyze and eliminate. However, such disorders can be corrected with competent cooperation between the patient and the doctor. Just such problems include the fear of death, the causes of which let's discuss on the website and the main symptoms, and also answer the question of what to do when it appears and how to get rid of it.
By fear of death, psychiatrists usually mean a disease such as thanatophobia. It is believed that such an inexplicable and obsessive fear is one of the most common among modern people.
Fear of death, afraid of death - reasons
To date, experts do not know exactly what factors provoke the appearance of thanatophobia. Among the reasons for its development are genetic predisposition, heredity and social influence.
Quite often the trigger for the emergence of such fear is personal experience, in which a person is faced with the death of someone close. There is also a common point of view that thanatophobia can be provoked by the so-called hypnotization of death. After all, exposure to negative information through television, the Internet and newspapers can cause continuous thoughts about the inevitability of death.
In some cases, the irrational fear of death is caused by attempts to understand oneself, in which the individual wants to understand the meaning of life and the purpose of death.
Sometimes unexpected thanatophobia occurs between the ages of thirty-five and fifty, during a period of crisis mature age. At this time, people tend to critically reassess life priorities, principles and goals, and part with unfulfilled dreams and plans. Such an artificially created stressful environment is an ideal breeding ground for the emergence of pathological anxiety.
Sometimes the fear of death arises from certain religious beliefs. It can also be explained by a panicky fear of the unknown or a desire to control everything.
How does the fear of death manifest itself? What symptoms do they indicate?
With thanatophobia, a person in most cases has a specific object of fear; he is afraid not just of abstract death, but of a certain concrete fictitious act of his own death. For example, if you are fixated on death due to a plane crash, a person will constantly avoid flying. And if he is certain of death from cancer, the patient will constantly visit medical institutions. With such obsessive behavior, patients with thanatophobia constantly complain of problems with sleep, their body weight decreases, their appetite disappears, sexual function deteriorates, and painful sensations neurotic character.
People with thanatophobia are often characterized by increased impressionability, suspiciousness, excitability, self-doubt, and a tendency to become fixated. Most of these patients can be classified as creative people and thinkers. With this phobia, patients are also stubborn and selfish; they do not accept criticism and are highly motivated.
In the absence of timely correction, thanatophobia eventually causes a reduction in the number of social contacts. Patients with this problem have difficulty performing their daily activities and have difficulty performing professional activities. Constant stress leads to impairments in functioning functional systems, and the predominance of negative emotions becomes the reason for the development irreversible changes in the cortex cerebral hemispheres, which in turn causes psychosomatic illnesses. Thanatophobia is often accompanied by alcoholism, drug addiction.
How to pacify your fear of death, how to get rid of unpleasant thoughts?
Adequate correction of the fear of death is possible only with the help of a qualified psychotherapist. The main method of treatment is cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. The psychotherapist helps the patient understand the reasons for his fears, analyze his psychological state, and also understand and accept the inevitability of future death and not perceive it as something terrible.
Many patients with thanatophobia benefit from hypnosis. If such a disorder is not very advanced, then in just a few sessions you can find out the causes of fears and eliminate them. To consolidate hypnotherapy, several psychotherapeutic sessions are carried out. But the advisability of hypnosis is determined only by the doctor.
If the fear of death is accompanied by the appearance of panic attacks with corresponding somatic manifestations, the doctor can select remedies for drug treatment. These include primarily antidepressants, sedatives, and in some cases tranquilizers, etc. Of course, medications are selected on an individual basis, and the course of therapy should be short-term to prevent addiction.
To quickly get rid of an obsessive phobia, the patient needs to communicate more with different positive people, try to find some kind of cheerful hobby. Traveling, self-realization in professional activity.
We talked about such a psychological state of a person as the fear of death, what to do with yourself... Finally, let me remind you that if you have a fear of death, you need to avoid communicating with other thanatophobes, who can worsen the condition and aggravate irrational fear.
Ekaterina, www.site
P.S. The text uses some forms characteristic of oral speech.
Knock on coffins and ask the dead if they want to be resurrected, and they will shake their heads.
A. Schopenhauer “The World as Will and Representation”
The fear of death is the most logical and the most “ultimate” of all human fears. In fact, most objects that cause a phobia, as a result of a collision with them, can lead to fatal outcome. The fear of death is the basis. Every thinking person thinks about how it will all end, and it is, of course, normal to feel nervous about the unknown. When obsessive anxiety turns into a panicky fear of death, and does not allow you to live peacefully and enjoy your existence, you should turn to specialists.
Despite the fact that the presence of instincts in humans is a very controversial topic, nevertheless, the concept of “instinct of self-preservation” pops up in both biological and sociological sciences. Therefore, the fear of death cannot be something unnatural; it is inherent in nature.
Humans, unlike most animals, are able to modify their behavior based on personal experience, but some things remain unchanged. The complete absence of fear of death most likely indicates pathology. But phobia, in contrast to the logical fear and melancholy caused by a person’s knowledge of his finitude, completely destroys a comfortable existence. It is irrational, it only takes up time and mental strength, because absolutely nothing will change as a result of our fear and endless thinking about it.
Most other phobias allow a person to control anxiety through his actions, for example, an aerophobe may not fly on an airplane and avoid bodies of water, while an amatophobe may endlessly vacuum and clean houses. And in in this case, any of our actions will not affect the outcome in any way, we will not come up with a medicine to become immortal, and any of our caution, healthy image life and so on - will not change the result in any way.
One of the reasons for fear is complete absence power over the event, this unsettles people who are accustomed to managing all aspects of their lives, not going with the flow, and not “trusting in God.”
Often, obsessive fear begins to manifest itself after experiencing the death of a close relative or friend. Such a traumatic event automatically triggers the mechanism of replaying one’s own death. The first close encounter sometimes knocks a person out of his usual rhythm of life for a long time. The same applies to an elderly spouse who is left without a partner.
It is also difficult to get rid of the fear of death because modern society, no matter how strange it may sound, life is given great value. If we compare what happened 100-200 years ago with our days, then some kind of cognitive dissonance may even arise.
Now it is difficult to imagine that young people 20-30 years old would easily put their lives on the line in the name of protecting their honor and dignity. Today is the era of individualism, every person counts. We often encounter calls to help save an only child from illness, and we understand that this is a tragedy for parents.
More recently, the attitude towards death was completely different. There were many children, and some of them did not survive, and this was treated with some acceptance. This is not due to the fact that before everyone was heartless, but we are so sincere, no. This is evolution, these are trends of time, this is the work of the media. Our perceptions are shaped by many factors.
Probably the most difficult thing to deal with the fear of inevitable finitude is for those people who experience a feeling of an unlived or unlived life. Nikolai Ostrovsky wrote in his novel: “The most precious thing a person has is life. It is given to him once, and he must live it in such a way that there is no excruciating pain for the years spent aimlessly. And the main feeling is that it’s too late, although in fact, as long as you’re alive, nothing is too late.
Thanks to the fact that people are beginning to realize this, we find information on the Internet or meet in person people who jump with a parachute at 70 years old, sign up for salsa in retirement, or completely turn their lives around at 80 years old. It is much easier to die knowing that you had time, did, and decided.
The term thanatophobia (ancient gr. Θάνατος - death and φόβος - fear) was introduced into use by Sigmund Freud to designate fear-anxiety before death. Thanatos is a symbol of death in ancient Greek mythology, the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. In Freud's psychoanalytic concept, the classical dualistic theory of drives had two directions: towards life and love - Eros and towards death and destruction - Thanatos. It did not gain widespread popularity in psychological theory, however, many neo-Freudians developed the concept of the death drive.
This attraction included different types behavior, such as suicide itself, as well as its forms: local, chronic and organic. Self-harm is classified as local, antisocial behavior is classified as chronic, and somatic diseases are classified as organic. IN modern culture The theme of freedom through self-destruction is often raised, for example in the works of Chuck Palahniuk. Thus, the death drive and thanatophobia are two sides of the same coin.
Thanatophobia is a nonspecific phobia and, in fact, often manifests itself in the absence of a visible or imaginary threat to life. The main symptom is obsessive existential anxiety, accompanied by terrible thoughts and images that cannot leave the head. All this in itself is a problem, but often this condition is aggravated somatic disorders: bad dream or absolute insomnia, poor appetite and weight loss, palpitations and heart pain, asthenia.
Symptoms like these lead doctors to make a diagnosis vegetative-vascular dystonia. VSD is a highly controversial term due to its wide range of symptoms and pathogenesis.
Some thanatophobes experience such strong emotions when experiencing fear that their hands become cowardly, they lose consciousness, and exhibit nervous and aggressive behavior. These people are characterized by fixation, impressionability, and excitability. However, thanatophobia can also manifest itself depressive states. It can begin at any age, but most often it starts during crisis periods: 30, 40, 50 years.
The video talks about what the fear of death is, what the symptoms of this disorder are and how this illness can be treated.
In psychotherapeutic practice, there is such a direction as existential therapy, which helps to get rid of the fear of death. As you understand, the causes of thanatophobia are often the “inability” to live, fear of life, and lack of a conscious meaning of one’s existence. So, existential psychotherapy, and especially Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, is based on an analysis of the meanings of existence and on their individual search.
Thanatophobia can be triggered by an existential vacuum. Frankl believed that the fear of death can only be overcome through the process of searching and determining for oneself the meaning of life. Moreover, like no one else, he knows what he is talking about. His horrifying biography - surviving a concentration camp - taught him to find meaning even in suffering.
The famous psychoanalyst and existential therapist Irwin Yalom in his books cites many cases when his patients experience an awakening experience and radically change their attitude towards life. Unfortunately, for many, this experience was a terminal illness. Only when the end is tangibly close do people begin to live the way they wanted for many years before.
“How many times have I heard sorrowful exclamations: “What a pity that I had to wait until cancer took over my body to learn to live,” writes Yalom. This is one of the main problems, because thanatophobia occurs much less often if a person is satisfied with every minute of his life.
In another book, Yalom expresses another interesting idea, which is confirmed by many Eastern philosophies and religious movements. “The more attachments a person has, the more burdensome life is for him and the more he suffers when he has to part with it.” Such reasoning may be close to someone, because the consumer society in which we live has influenced us so much that it is unbearable for a modern person to even imagine the asceticism of a Tibetan or Orthodox monk.
At the same time, attachments to people can play a positive role in overcoming the fear of death. What Yalom calls the “ripple effect” is one of the most effective ideas in working with thanatophobia. It implies the possibility of “continuing” yourself, your life in other people, in memories, in the influence that you had on them. The idea that pieces of your wisdom, experience, knowledge will be passed on to other people is priceless. Your personality will no longer be like a pebble thrown into water, and the circles on the surface will continue to expand.
You can defeat thanatophobia by listening to the thoughts expressed thousands of years ago by the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. He quite naturally compared non-existence after death with the same state before our birth. We fear the first, but treat the second as a given. Epicurus found pleasure and the absence of fear to be the highest meaning.
Oddly enough, behind the fear of the death of loved ones there can be both an as yet unrecognized fear of one’s own death and “problems” in relationships with loved ones. In this case, by problems we mean codependent relationships, or lack of separation from parents. Worst dream child - death of mother. And what younger child, the more terrible this event is for him. This does not mean that with age we stop loving our mother and become hard-hearted. No. We continue to love her, and will be madly sad when she is gone, but our lives do not depend on her as much as they did when we were 2 years old.
Very often people experiencing constant fear before the death of their relatives, they show self-centeredness because they suffer for fear of losing what this person gave them. And it can be anything: love, support, well-being, confidence in the future. It is important to analyze what scares us most if a loved one dies, and come to terms with the idea that they have the right to do so.
Sooner or later, the child begins to notice that everything living has a beginning and an end. In order for the baby to understand this in the best possible way, it is necessary to pay large number time to communicate with him. Moreover, in no case should a frightening topic be hushed up or taboo; he must be sure that he can tell his parents about everything that worries him. And they, in turn, will always calm you down, give you affection and protection.
In children preschool age may arise anxiety disorders after the first contact with the limb, it doesn’t matter whether the grandfather died or the cat that lived with the child in the house since birth. Parents need to behave in such a way as not to provoke anxiety in the child. For example, a child may develop a fear of illness and death as a result of being told by adults that someone died of illness.
But no matter what anyone says, best treatment for a child - healthy family. When everything is fine in the parents’ heads, it is much easier for the baby to live, explore the world, and cope with fears. Distract your child with active activities and expand his range of interests. When little man there is a problem in the head, and all the adults are busy with their own more important matters, then the consequences can be very unpleasant.
A child, unlike an adult, is able to independently withstand and process a much smaller amount of energy, emotions, experiences, and stress. Parents' love, warmth and affection will help the baby find peace. If the fear is constant and panicky, then it is recommended to consult a specialist, both the child and the parents, to jointly solve the problem.
Human psychology is very interesting and understanding its laws using your own example is always useful. For some, fear begins after a stroke or other life-threatening illness, someone has an inexplicable fear sudden death covers the mind every night before going to bed. Some suffer from panic attacks, some have bouts of depression, and some turn to alcoholism in order to forget themselves and escape from obsessive thoughts.
The main thing is to understand that life without fear is possible, and it doesn’t matter whether you visit a psychotherapist, calm yourself with prayer or read the works of philosophers - the result is important. Accepting your own death allows you to take responsibility for your life. I would like to end with the words of Irvin Yalom again: “Shedding tears because life is not eternal, that there is no meaning in it or a once and for all established order is donkey ingratitude.”
