Fear of death (thanatophobia) is a human phobia, expressed in an obsessive, uncontrollable fear of suddenly dying or a reflection of experiences of the unknown, something incomprehensible and uncertain. Many people admit to themselves that they are afraid of death, but such an admission does not mean that they are afraid of life or in any way this fear prevents them from living happily. Often educated, inquisitive people are susceptible to thanatophobia, which is caused by the desire to control their life in everything. But with death, as with birth, people cannot do anything. So what’s the point of thinking about it, being afraid of it, if a person cannot change anything.
Is the fear of non-existence appropriate or inappropriate?
The fear of death is inherent in almost every person on an instinctive level. It gives us prudence, caution, and helps us assess the risks of the current situation. Thanks to this, extreme behavior is limited and danger is recognized. In response, an adequate reaction is born. This behavior allows a person to save life.
If concerns about survival are completely absent, it becomes a problem. Underestimating the emanating danger, a person is drawn into threatening situations, often with a tragic outcome.
Thus, the fear of death is a natural phenomenon, a feeling formed in the process of evolution, responsible for the preservation of life and the human race. It is formed on a subconscious level and occurs in critical situations that pose a threat to life.
There are threats to which a defensive reaction is formed in childhood: pain, darkness, aggression. Others become frightening as they get older. A small child initially does not see a threat from a car flying at full speed. Fear is formed later, under the suggestion of parents.
Each people and individual have their own ideas about the cessation of their existence. Someone approaches this issue from a philosophical point of view, believing that the end is inevitable and should not be afraid of it, thanking the Universe for the fact that they were lucky enough to be born.
Others are afraid of leaving, preferring to ignore the topic.
But it happens that there is no reason to worry about one’s existence, but the individual still experiences anxiety. An obsessive fear of dying haunts him constantly. In this case, they talk about the development of a phobia - a pathological fear for life.
Interesting fact
It was said above that the fear of death is a completely normal phenomenon. But some people don't have it. And this is a pathology. These people include:
- those who lack empathy;
- those who do not know how to empathize at all;
- those who have clearly expressed misanthropy (hatred of others);
- persons who lack the instinct of self-preservation have a greatly reduced sense of danger;
- persons with a tendency toward sadism or criminal tendencies.
Such individuals do not enjoy communication. They also often have reduced sensitivity to pain.
How is thanatophobia formed?
How to distinguish between natural and pathological fear of dying? When a person, before crossing the road, looks left, then right, and only after that moves away, this is quite normal. In this situation, natural fears for one’s existence are appropriate. An individual performs such actions instinctively, without thinking. If a person, in principle, does not cross the road, fearing for his life, confident that he will be hit by a car, this is unnatural. In this case, fear is irrational and indicates the presence of an anxiety-phobic disorder.
Thanatophobia is based on an acquired fear of leaving for another world. Such fear is formed in the process of being on the basis of cause-and-effect relationships. That is, a person, having once experienced a frightening impulse, is henceforth perceived as a potential threat.
For example, an individual learned that viral pneumonia is more severe than bacterial pneumonia and the likelihood of death from it is much higher. Based on this, he decided to be more attentive to his health, pay more attention to ARVI, flu, and not carry them on his feet. In this case, fear for life is justified by such a decision.
Cause-and-effect relationships provide a great service to people by allowing them to recognize possible dangers. However, it happens that they fail. In this case, the fear of death is formed without foundation, acquiring a pathological character. The same individual, knowing about a potentially dangerous infection, stops shaking hands with acquaintances, because he fears that through a handshake he may become infected with a fatal infection and die.
Under such conditions, thanatophobia is formed. Usually it is expressed by a state of increased anxiety at any mention of death, a symbolic image, or at the occurrence of thoughts on this topic, which often visit the patient. They can come suddenly as a result of watching a program on TV or reading a book. Any external stimulus can make the patient think about death.
As with other phobias, thanatophobia is overtaken by panic attacks with pronounced physiological symptoms. At the moment of an attack, control over thoughts and behavior, a sense of reality is lost, and behavior becomes inadequate. A person strives to quickly get away from conversations on a frightening topic, to get out of a situation that inspires horror.
Often the fear of death is formed within the framework of another phobia: fear of heights, darkness, spiders. The patient is frightened by any circumstance that can lead to death. His arguments are sometimes inadequate: a monster will jump out of the darkness, attack and kill, a poisonous spider will bite you in the park, he will not have time to ask for help and will die.
A common fear of thanatophobes is the fear of elevators and cars. A person is afraid to cross the road, give injections, and much more. He believes that a threat to life can lurk anywhere. Danger can appear suddenly; you never know at what moment the threat will attack. Therefore, patients are constantly afraid.
A person with thanatophobia is characterized by increased anxiety. Irritable, emotionally unstable, overly impressionable. Most of the time he is in a depressed mood, pessimistic, unsure of himself, and questions everything. Thanatophobia is characterized by a tendency to self-flagellation. The patient is fixated on the negative.
Among people susceptible to this disorder, the main part are creative individuals who are prone to philosophizing and soul-searching. They are categorical and ignore other people's opinions.
Advice from a psychologist: effective ways to get rid of the fear of dying
It’s great if a person comes to a consultation and says: “I’m afraid of death, what should I do?” In this case, he receives many recommendations on how to independently cope with obsessive thoughts and even panic attacks. All the tips are quite simple, but at the same time effective.
The first thing you need to do if you are afraid of death is to analyze and understand how this disorder is expressed. Finding out the cause will allow you to choose the right treatment method. The following tips will also help:
- communicate more often with positive, cheerful people;
- find yourself a hobby, try to devote more time to it;
- limit traumatic contacts with other people who experience fear of death;
- do not choose horror films to watch, and detective stories and science fiction to read;
- travel, try to spend time with family and loved ones;
- strive to maximize your career opportunities;
- learn to rejoice here and now, look for joy in the little things;
- try not to think about the past and future, especially in a negative way, and if such thoughts arise, switch your attention;
- if panic attacks occur, carry ammonia with you, its pungent smell quickly helps you return to normal.
And if you still have questions or you think that you won’t be able to cope with the problem on your own, make an appointment with a professional for a consultation, for example, with the psychologist-hypnologist Nikita Valerievich Baturin.
What is the basis of thanatophobia?
Marlene Dietrich once said: you need to have a wild imagination to be afraid of death. Patients do come up with many excuses for their disorder.
The main reason that makes people experience a pathological feeling of fear is the unknown. No one can tell what happens to a person after leaving for another world. This lack of awareness is scary. The stories of people who returned from the “other world” give people confidence in the existence of an afterlife, although this is devoid of scientific justification. Religious motives also lead people to believe that there is life after death.
When fantasizing, thanatophobe imagines unpleasant circumstances of the afterlife, which plunges him into horror. He begins to be catastrophically afraid of finding himself on his deathbed.
Of particular note is the religious fear of death, which is difficult to correct. Believing patients doubt whether they are living their lives with dignity, whether they will go to heaven after death, or whether they are destined for hellish torment. The fear of death among such thanatophobes is especially persistent and pronounced.
Another reason for fear is fear for loved ones. A person is afraid that there will be no one to take care of his relatives after his death. Typically, a similar situation occurs among parents with small children or among children with elderly parents. The patient may also be painfully afraid that one of his beloved relatives may pass on to another world.
A phobia can form if a person witnesses the death of a stranger or relative. The patient begins to devote a lot of time to thinking about death, asking questions about life and death. The departure of a loved one becomes a tragedy for a thanatophobe, leaving an imprint on the psyche, which may well transform into a phobia.
A special role belongs to the media, which feed people’s imagination with stories about death, often tragic and terrible. In addition, the media through films supports the idea of immortality. Suggestible individuals quickly pick up this myth. To which their consciousness reacts with fear that they may not achieve this immortality.
A prosperous life also provokes the development of thanatophobia. In this case, the patient is afraid, in the event of death, to lose all the benefits “kindly provided” by fate. It turns out that the fear of death is born not only in a gloomy environment, but also in a situation of complete abundance.
People who strive for total control over their own and other people’s lives, unfortunately, are deprived of the ability to control the coming of death. Naturally, the thought that there is something beyond their control is frightening.
Often a phobia overtakes a person who is terrified of being left alone on his deathbed. The thought that no one will share the last minutes of his life with him is frightening. Fear is especially relevant when the patient has loved ones with whom he is in a quarrel. Perhaps undeservedly offended by him. Thanatophobe fears that before leaving for another world he will not have time to ask for forgiveness from them.
The disorder may be a consequence of sadness about the passing of youth or a panicky reluctance to grow old. Indeed, in the human mind, death is more often associated with old age. Such a patient is terribly afraid of death, because, approaching old age, he loses vital energy.
Age is a special reason for the formation of a phobia. It can manifest itself both in childhood and in adulthood. The fact is that this is a time of age-related crises, when a person consciously begins to think about the meaning of life, rethinks his existence, looks back, assessing the path traveled. Thoughts about what has been done and what remains to be done begin to visit him. Philosophical thoughts suggest that life is not endless, and there is still so much to do.
If, in addition, a person is accompanied by depression against the background of an age crisis, then the appearance of various phobias is quite likely.
Forms of manifestation of the disease
Thanatophobia can manifest itself in several ways.
- fear of the burial process itself;
- fear of cremation;
- painful anticipation of death itself;
- Tantophobia is the fear of violent death. In this case, a major role belongs to the media, systematically informing the population about cases of violent death.
In the modern world, panic fear of one's death occurs among older people.
And the point here is not at all about lofty matters, fear of an unknown afterlife or religious motives. Panic rejection of one's death comes from trivial things: older people are afraid that their accumulated funds will not be enough for burial. The disorder is accompanied by a fear of the dead, tombstones, even ghosts.
There are certain age periods that are critical for the formation of a phobia. In this age range, the likelihood of thanatophobia is especially high. For children, these are periods of 4–6 years, 10–12. For adults – 17–24 and 35–50 years old.
