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Other theories on death anxiety were introduced in the late part of the twentieth century. Humans develop meanings and associate them with objects and events in their environment, provoking certain emotions within an individual.
Thanatophobia, or fear of death, is a relatively complicated phobia. Many, if not most, people are afraid of dying. Some people fear being dead. The fear of death and dying is quite common, and most people fear death to varying degrees. To what extent that fear occurs and what it.
People tend to develop personal meanings of death which could accordingly be negative or positive for the individual. If they are positive, then the consequences of those meanings can be comforting for example, ideas of a rippling effect [24] left on those still alive.
If negative they can cause emotional turmoil. Depending on the certain meaning one has associated with death, the consequences will vary accordingly whether they are negative or positive meanings. The thought of death may cause different degrees of anxiety [ citation needed ] for different individuals, depending on many factors. A study involving Christian and Muslim college -students from the US, Turkey, and Malaysia found that their religiosity correlated positively with an increased fear of death.
Other studies have found that a strong sense of religion in a person's life can relate to a lower sense of anxiety towards death. A study asked one hundred and sixty-five church participants to fill out the "Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale, the Revised Death Anxiety Scale" and the results were analyzed using factor analyses, Pearson correlation, and linear and quadratic regression. All found an inverse relationship between intrinsic religious motivation and death anxiety. This suggested that the more religious a person is, the less anxious they may be about death, possibly associating it with an expected afterlife.
A review of the literature found that in the US, both the very religious and the not-at-all religious enjoy a lower level of death anxiety and that a reduction is common with old age. The earliest documentation of the fear of death has been found in children as young as age 5. Recent studies that assess fear of death in children use questionnaire rating scales. One of these categories is death and danger. A study of 90 children, aged 4—8, done by Virginia Slaughter and Maya Griffiths showed that a more mature understanding of the biological concept of death was correlated to a decreased fear of death.
This may suggest that it is helpful to teach children about death in a biological sense , in order to alleviate the fear. There has been much literature that supports the existence of a correlation between one's state of coping skills, mental health, emotions and cognitive reactions to stressful events, and one's ability to regulate affect concerning one's death anxiety. A series of tests determined that significantly high levels of death anxiety tend to occur in close relationships with an intimate partner more so amongst females than males.
The connection between death anxiety and one's sex appears to be strong. Studies show that females tend to have more death anxiety than males. Thorson and Powell did a study to investigate this connection, and they sampled men and women from 16 years of age to over The Death Anxiety Scale showed higher mean scores for women than for men.
Moreover, researchers believe that age and culture could be major influences in why women score higher on death anxiety scales than men. Through the evolutionary period, a basic method was created to deal with death anxiety and also as a means of dealing with loss. It is during the years of young adulthood 20 to 40 years of age that death anxiety most often begins to become prevalent. However, during the next phase of life, the middle age adult years 40—64 years of age , death anxiety peaks at its highest levels when in comparison to all other age ranges throughout the lifespan.
Surprisingly, levels of death anxiety then slump off in the old age years of adulthood 65 years of age and older. There are many ways to measure death anxiety and fear.
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See also: Meaning-making. National Health Service UK. Open Nurs. Archived from the original PDF on Updated in University of Washington. Retrieved June Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. DSM Library 5th ed. American Psychiatric Association. May Three Forms of Death Anxiety. Political Psychology. Death Anxiety and Clinical Practice. London: Karnac Books; Langs, R. Death imagery and death anxiety. Journal of Clinical Psychology.
December Identity and Death Anxiety M. The Truth about Death and Dying. Infobase Publishing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Concepts of Death: A key to our adjustment. Those with high self-esteem, good health, and a belief that they have led a fulfilling life are less likely to have a fear of death than some others. A doctor may recommend that a person with thanatophobia receive treatment for an anxiety disorder, phobia, or for a specific underlying cause of their fear.
Treatment involves a form of behavioral or talking therapy. This therapy tries to teach the individual to refocus their fears and to work through them by talking about their concerns. Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT works by gently altering a person's behavioral patterns so that they can form new behaviors and ways of thinking.
A doctor will help a person to come up with practical solutions to overcome their feelings of anxiety. They may work to develop strategies that allow them to be calm and unafraid when talking or thinking about death. Psychotherapies, or talking therapies, involve talking through anxieties and fears with a psychologist or psychotherapist. These professionals will help someone find out the cause of their fear, and come up with strategies to cope with anxieties that occur during the day.
Sometimes, even just talking about the anxiety can help a person to feel more in control of their fear. Exposure therapy works by helping a person face their fears. Instead of burying how they feel about death or not acknowledging their concerns, they are encouraged to be exposed to their fears. A therapist will carry out exposure therapy by very gradually exposing a person to their fear, in a safe environment, until the anxiety response reduces, and a person can confront their thoughts, objects, or feelings without fear.
If doctors diagnose a person with a specific mental health condition, such as generalized anxiety disorder GAD or PTSD, they may prescribe anti-anxiety medication. This may include beta-blockers or antidepressant medication. While medication can be beneficial by relieving feelings of panic and stress in the short term, long-term use of such medication may not be the ideal solution.
Instead, working through fears in therapy is more likely to provide long-term relief. Practicing self-care can be powerful for boosting overall mental health, including helping a person feel more able to cope with their anxieties. Avoiding alcohol and caffeine, getting a good night's sleep, and eating a nutritious diet are some ways to practice self-care. When a person is experiencing anxiety, specific relaxation techniques can help clear their mind and de-escalate their fears. These may include:. While it is natural to have concerns about the future and the future of loved ones, if the anxiety around death persists for more than 6 months or hinders daily life, it may be worth someone speaking to a doctor.
There are many ways that a person can overcome their fear of death, and a mental health professional will be able to offer guidance and reassurance during this process.
Article last reviewed by Fri 25 May All references are available in the References tab. Finch, E. Terror mismanagement: Evidence that mortality salience exacerbates attentional bias in social anxiety. Cognition and Emotion , 30 7 , — Iverach, L. Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct.
Clinical Psychology Review , 34 7 , — Milosevic, I. Phobias: The psychology of irrational fear. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Missler, M. Exploring death anxiety among elderly people: A literature review and empirical investigation [Abstract]. Panic disorder: When fear overwhelms.