Death Anxiety

A Death Anxiety is an Anxiety from thoughts of one's own death.

• AKA: Thanatophobia.
• See: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Palliative Care, Grim Reaper, Necrophobia, The Denial of Death.

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References

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_anxiety Retrieved:2023-7-9.
  • Death anxiety is anxiety caused by thoughts of one's own death, and is also referred to as thanatophobia (fear of death). Individuals affected by this kind of anxiety experience challenges and adversities in many aspects of their lives. Death anxiety is different from necrophobia, which refers to an irrational or disproportionate fear of dead bodies or of anything associated with death. Death anxiety has been found to affect people of differing demographic groups as well, such as men versus women, young versus old, etc. Psychotherapist Robert Langs proposed three different causes of death anxiety: predatory, predator, and existential. In addition to his research, many theorists such as Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Ernest Becker have examined death anxiety and its impact on cognitive processing. Anxiety caused by recent thought-content about death is sometimes classified by a psychiatrist in a clinical setting as morbid or abnormal, or a combination of the two. This classification pre-necessitates a degree of anxiety which is persistent and interferes with everyday functioning. This high level of death anxiety in the elderly (who perceive themselves as close to death) can cause lower ego integrity, more physical problems as well as an increase in psychological problems. Death anxiety has also been linked to causing a person to become extremely timid or distressed when discussing anything to do with death and several mental health conditions. One meta-analysis of psychological interventions targeting death anxiety showed that death anxiety can be reduced using cognitive behavioral therapy.

2015

• (Jenkinson, 2015) ⇒ S. Jenkinson. (2015). “Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul.” North Atlantic Books. ISBN:9781583949740

1973

• (Becker, 1973) ⇒ Ernest Becker. (1973). “The Denial of Death.”

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