Death is a natural part of life, and it's normal to think about it from time to time. But it's very common for people experiencing mental illness to think about death more than usual.
Whilst death anxiety itself isn't a disorder, existential fears lie at the core of many anxiety and depressive disorders. This means that it is often linked to these kinds of mental health issues – Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in particular, which is characterised by frequent and uncontrollable worrying.
Jules Howard explains why that might be a mistake. According to data from the company Statista, just 11 per cent of us consider death in our daily lives. Most of us are clearly busy with the subject of life, perhaps only considering the subject three or four times a year.
While a fear of death sign can be a symptom of OCD, it's also a fear that affects many people from time to time, without necessarily indicating any greater mental health concern. It may also indicate other conditions, most commonly a specific phobia called thanatophobia.
Fear of Pain and Suffering
Many people fear that when they meet death, they will experience excruciating pain and suffering. This fear is common in many healthy people, as well as in patients dying of cancer or other terminal illnesses.
We get better at this as we age. A 2000 meta-analysis found that fear of death grows in the first half of life, but by the time we hit the 61-to-87 age group, it recedes to a stable, manageable level.
The studies claim that death anxiety peaks in men and women when in their 20s, but after this group, gender plays a role in the path that one takes. Either gender can experience a decline in death concerns with age, but the studies show an unexpected second spike in women during their early 50s.
As kids get older, usually between ages 5 and 10, they start to understand the fact that death is final. They realize that the person who has died is not coming back. They also may start to associate certain images with death like skeletons or coffins, and may even have nightmares about these things.
The good news is fear of death fades as a person ages. Men who experienced thanatophobia in their 20's usually overcome their fear and are less likely to feel dread towards the subject later on. Women on the other hand, have a higher chance of experiencing a re-emergence of the problem in their 50's.
They find that atheists are among those least afraid of dying...and, perhaps not surprisingly, the very religious. Religion has long been thought to be a solution to the problem of death. Notions of an afterlife are nearly universal, though there is great diversity in the details.
Death obsessions are a fear that you or someone close to you will die. You can also have obsessions about the process of dying. Death obsessions can be caused by various underlying factors such as anxiety, depression, or OCD.
People who suffer from fear of death OCD are afraid of what comes after death. It terrorizes them that they don't know if they'll exist in any form or not. They are also worried about ending up alone instead of with their loved ones. They can ponder whether heaven or hell exists and if they do where they would go.
John 11:25-26. "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.'
There are many misconceptions about death and grief that can make mourning an even more difficult experience. Our society expects people to get used to grief as they age and lose more of their loved ones. However, no matter how many times you've experienced loss, it never truly gets easier.
The literature reports that death anxiety peaks in middle age and decreases with increasing age, a finding supported by the author's study.
Key symptoms that a person may have a phobia of dying include: immediate fear or anxiety when thinking about dying or the process of dying. panic attacks that can cause dizziness, hot flushes, sweating, and a raised or irregular heart rate. avoidance of situations where thinking about death or dying may be necessary.
This could be because older people have experienced more of life, so they have less fear of missing out. Or it might be because they have more experience with witnessing and handling the death of others. 2. Religious belief increases our fear (but it's complicated).
Our minds have a negativity bias for survival reasons. As discussed above, we're more motivated to pay attention to negative things to be better prepared for worst-case scenarios. This is why people experiencing depression, anxiety, pain, and illness are likely to think that death is near.
But Jesus came to free us from sin and from the threat of death. He gave up his own life for our sake, and then he rose from the dead, so “death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Only the Lord can take away our fear of death.
Experts in palliative care believe mortality is something that's wrongly feared because the act of dying is not actually frightening. Although we all have our own beliefs, no one truly knows what happens when you enter the “afterlife” - if there is one.
If your stress response continues after the fact, and if it goes unmanaged (i.e., becomes chronic), it can lead to mental and physical health problems, including anxiety and depression, heart disease, and even death.