Death anxiety

Death anxiety 

Death anxiety is considered a type of anxiety caused by thoughts related to death. Death anxiety is  defined as the feeling of fear or terror when thinking about  death, death anxiety is also known as death phobia.

The components of death anxiety:

 Jack Shoron identified three components of death anxiety:

 Fear of dying out.

Thinking of what will happen after death.

 Fear that life will stop.

 Causes of death anxiety:

 There are several reasons that may cause a person to have the death phobia, including:

 Fear of the unknown: because the desire and curiosity to know every event around us, and fear of everything that we do not understand or can prove, are of human nature.

 Fear of losing control: the method of death and everything related to the moment of death is beyond our control.

 Fear of pain: The fear of the circumstances surrounding the moment of death from pain and disease

 Anxiety for relatives after death.

 Exposure to trauma: It is possible that an individual has gone through an accident of the death of a loved one in his childhood, whether he remembers it or not, and it caused him a psychological trauma.

 Symptoms of death anxiety:

 Death anxiety is associated with the following symptoms:

 Extreme fear of dead bodies.

 Constant thinking about death.

 Panic attacks and other anxiety-related behaviors that appear when death is mentioned.

 Reluctance to leave the house due to an irrational fear of death.

 The need to constantly seek reassurance of health and to be examined by doctors.

 Because the patient always feels fear, the phobia of death can turn into other types of phobias and extreme behaviors, such as refusal to leave the house due to the increased danger in the outside world.

 Constant fear that exposure to coughing or sneezing, and belief that it may pose a threat to his life.

 When thinking of death some symptoms occur such as depression, anxiety, rapid heart rate, nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite.

 Measuring death anxiety:

There are many ways to measure death anxiety. Kattenbaum and Einsberg (1972) developed three proposals for this measurement, hence ideologies were able to record the characteristics of death anxiety, through methods such as visualization, filling in simple questionnaires, and stress tests such as the Stroop test.  Whether the person is under stress due to death anxiety or has PTSD.

 The death scale (Lister) was developed in 1966, but it was not published until 1991 until it was proven correct. This scale works by measuring the general attitude towards death, and then assigning scores to the participants.

 Treating death anxiety:

Among the effective strategies for eliminating death anxiety are:

Increasing religious principles, as Muslims we believe that Allah is the most merciful and as long as you believe in Allah and his Messenger and you follow his guidance and command, nothing will bad will happen. One should also believe that Death is part of life, and after death we are going to the Heaven by the mercy of Allah, we are going to a far better place called is Paradise, where there is no more pain or death.

 Relaxation training, as it helps the patient to control the physiological arousal when negative thoughts dominate him, and to restore a state of calm.

 Trying to get rid of negative thoughts related to death and replace them with positive thoughts that enable him to enjoy his time with his family members and those close to him.

 Fill time with positive activities.

 Changing the patient's view of life and setting future goals that he seeks to achieve.

 Training the patient to accept the idea of death and increase his awareness of fate, both good and bad.

 Exercising in certain hobbies such as drawing, playing sports or horseback riding, according to the patient's interests.

 Training the patient in the method of solving life problems in flexible ways, as the latter enables him to give alternative solutions to all problems that may hinder his life and hinder his happiness.

 In cases that require drug treatment along with psychotherapy, so we must not overlook it.

At the end, the individual’s anxiety about his future or the future of one of his loved ones is a natural thing, and while the individual can live in the moment and enjoy life in the present time, he can think about death and worry about it, but if this anxiety turns into a state of panic or if it is from  It is very difficult for a person to deal with himself and this is where he must seek help.