Among the large number of phobias known to psychologists, the fear of death is of greatest interest. The fear of the inevitable is called thanatophobia. Signs of this phobia are present in more than half of the world's population, so the question of how to get rid of the fear of death is always relevant.
Fear of death is inherent in many people
Thanatophobia is expressed by a distorted perception of one's own life. You cannot be in constant fear; you should find ways to combat thanatophobia before its manifestation leads to serious consequences.
Features of the manifestation of fear of death
Most people are afraid of death. The feeling of anxiety that arises when thinking about the inevitable is associated with the unknown of the future. It is impossible to find a rational explanation for the feelings experienced and the state after death, which is why panic attacks occur.
Despite the fact that the fear of death is natural, its active manifestation is a serious psychological disorder. The absence of fear is also unnatural. The fear of dying often arises in childhood. A child’s stressful situations may be associated with the loss of loved ones or with receiving negative information about the other world through the media, books, computer games, etc. It remains in people's subconscious.
The fear can be so strong that the feeling of anxiety can develop into a panic attack and a nervous breakdown. Obsessive fear can affect not only a person’s psyche, but also his physiological and behavioral characteristics. The patient may have difficulty sleeping at night, he may experience attacks of nausea and dizziness. Unable to overcome fear, the signs of thanatophobia can become so strong that the patient may lose interest in life and have thoughts of suicide.
Religious people are at risk. Any religion gives its own explanations for the mysterious phenomenon of death and the future that awaits people beyond it.
Manifestations of fears should be eliminated: what to do and who to turn to.
Who is more likely to suffer from fear of death?
The obsessive fear that manifests itself when remembering death can manifest itself in different ways. Some people do not suffer from panic attacks. Despite their fear, they know how to control themselves and overcome the feeling of danger and uncertainty in a timely manner. People most prone to thanatophobia are:
- impressionable;
- excitable;
- anxious;
- not self-confident;
- prone to obsessive behavior;
- obsessed with personal problems.
Such people cannot overcome thoughts of death on their own. Obsessive thoughts about death, panic attacks and other signs can be not only symptoms of phobia, but also other serious psychological disorders. Often the feeling of anxiety is so strong that it affects their behavior. They cannot work normally, communicate with loved ones and do what they love.
How to get rid of the fear of death for people with psychological disorders? Doctors are confident that independent attempts are fruitless. Professional help from a specialist is required.
Obsessive fear can only be overcome with the help of a specialist.
Features of the fight against the fear of death
How to overcome the fear of death? Don't give up. The fact is that it is normal to be afraid of dying. It's bad to suffer from this. Ways to get rid of a phobia lead to learning skills to deal with its symptoms.
When you visit a specialist, he will listen to your complaints, analyze your medical history and conduct a diagnostic study, based on the results of which your therapy will be based. Treatment of this phobia is most often carried out using the following methods:
- hypnosis;
- cognitive behavioral psychotherapy;
- taking medications.
The use of a particular method depends on various factors. The characteristics of the manifestation of fear are important, as well as the presence of serious mental disorders in the patient.
Psychotherapeutic methods
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the most widely used treatment for the disease. Correction of a phobic disorder occurs by instilling in the patient the advantages of life. Before this, it is important to understand the causes of the phobia, analyze them and correctly interpret them to the patient. The sooner a person realizes that death is a natural process in which there is nothing terrible, the faster the patient’s health will be restored.
Hypnosis is no less popular in the treatment of fear of death. It is often carried out in conjunction with conventional psychotherapy.
With a minor manifestation of the phobia, complete recovery can be achieved in a few sessions. If these methods do not give the desired effect, you may need to take medications.
Drug treatment for phobias
Drug therapy is one of the methods to combat the fear of death. You need to do as the attending physician recommends. Tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines, beta blockers and psycholeptic drugs should be taken strictly according to the indicated dosage. Any deviation from the course is dangerous.
The main purpose of taking medications when diagnosing fear of death is to relieve the disturbing symptoms of a phobia.
- The correct selection of drugs allows you to get rid of the following symptoms:
- labored breathing;
- cardiopalmus;
- trembling in the body;
- insomnia;
- increased sweating;
feeling of weakness.
The person himself does not need to do anything. It is enough to take sedatives, tranquilizers or antidepressants according to the regimen prescribed by your doctor. Taking medications can relieve the symptoms of panic by gently affecting the nervous system. The number of attacks and their duration are reduced.
Medicines can only be taken in strictly limited quantities
- How to overcome the fear of death? You can find answers to your pressing question in the advice of psychologists. Experts are confident that mild thanatophobia can be treated without taking medications or using professional psychotherapy. With the systematic manifestation of panic attacks, it is important to learn to relax and switch your thoughts to something pleasant and positive. How to overcome the fear of death:
- You should share your problems with loved ones or seek help from a psychologist. Keeping your fears inside is dangerous.
- You need to change your values. Try to live and enjoy every moment.
- Find new hobbies that will bring you pleasure: creativity, sports, yoga and meditation. It is easier for a patient who diversifies his life with new impressions to determine the advantages of his existence, concentrating his attention only on positive thoughts.
- Avoid worries associated with thoughts of death. You should avoid watching films, TV shows and news that show scenes of murder, suicide, etc.
Learn to stop all attempts by fear to take control of the patient’s emotional state. You can get rid of panic attacks by avoiding them.
Living and thinking that this will never affect me is wrong. Any tragic event can cause an emotional breakdown, the consequences of which can be unpredictable.
You need to be prepared for anything, using various psychological techniques. This will strengthen mental health and relieve a person from the risk of thanatophobia and other fears.
Conclusion
Fear of death is a common phenomenon for modern people. Some people are so worried about the unknown that they panic. This manifestation of fear is dangerous for a person’s mental health. It is important to learn to confront your own phobia.
Modern psychotherapy can offer the patient several methods for getting rid of thanatophobia. The most popular are cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnosis. The patient himself must rethink his attitude towards life, share his experiences with loved ones and begin to correctly perceive death as a natural, inevitable process.
A person constantly experiences anxieties of a very different nature: fear of death, loss of loved ones, phobias of various diseases, horror of death from an accident, etc. The characteristics of any phobia are expressed in a distorted perception of the world and can be a kind of signal to change your life for the better for your own comfort.
Where does the panicky fear of death come from?
Every person has experienced the death of loved ones or strangers. Memories of this will forever remain in the memory, but unprocessed and misunderstood experiences and impressions can cause something like a phobia. Only the person himself can decide: whether to face his problems and look for ways to get rid of them in order to start living happily, to please himself and his loved ones, or to follow the lead of his inner monsters and forget forever about future, your desires and aspirations.
The anxiety of death is always the main and basic instinct of an individual.
No one can answer the question: is there anything after death?
Human life ends, and it is the fear of the “other” side, the unknown, that is the fundamental reason for the fear of death.
All people are afraid to stop living, and this is understandable, because the end comes against our wishes. Some are afraid of dying due to old age, others are afraid of incurable diseases, people are afraid of the death of loved ones and the pain of loss associated with this.
The media play an important role in creating the expectation of death. People begin to think about the cessation of the existence of the individual and what will follow. They begin to come up with various options, which leads to mental anguish. But if a person’s phobias are so strong that they interfere with adequate perception of everyday life and interfere with life activities, then this indicates the occurrence of mental illness.
How does a person feel when experiencing a panicky fear of death?
Everyone goes through coming to terms with thoughts of the inevitable differently. Ideally, we develop an understanding of the finitude of all living things when we are still children, and in adolescence we develop our own attitude towards this.
In an adult, whether he is suspicious or callous, scared or brave, pessimist or optimist, the fear of dying consists of a set of emotions, beliefs and attitudes:
- For many, the desire to be treated and train the body becomes a way to get rid of fears
death and illness. If a person is afraid of dying from an illness, he will monitor his health and exercise; - The desire to forget about the end. We overcome the panic of the end and the unknown by being busy and thinking about everyday problems, in the worst case - with the help of alcohol and drugs;
- The desire to constantly be close to your spouse, child, mother, etc. is actually the fear of losing loved ones.
The fight against the fear of death is a fight against instincts. No one can eradicate primal instincts. Therefore, the fight against a phobia lies in the awareness of the onset of a natural end.
Many try to unconsciously deny this, fence themselves off from encountering this in every possible way, and stop visiting cemeteries and sick and dying relatives. However, irreversible processes of cessation of life activity will still occur in everyone sooner or later. There is a life cycle, and man cannot change its end.
How to get rid of the obsessive fear of death?
Imagine that you have gained eternal life. What are you going to do? Most likely, the fear of dying will leave you the minute you realize that you will live forever. But you should ask yourself the question: is this good? Of course, first of all, you will rush to test the possibility of not dying in all sorts of dangerous ways: extreme sports, entertainment.
But soon you will get tired of it, and euphoria will be replaced by thoughts about the future. What will I do for many thousands of years? How to survive all children and close relatives? On the one hand, immortality gives prospects, but on the other, it devalues life. After all, it is valuable in its fleetingness.
First of all, you need to live the way you want. Appreciate life and understand its significance. You need to find the strength to look into the future differently and find small joys in every day if you are afraid to think about tomorrow. Don't worry about the future, it's better to start living in the present. Savor moments spent with family, spend free time on self-education and cultural enlightenment.
Also try to reflect on the following points:
- "Know Thyself". We need to try to rethink the very structure of this phenomenon. We all once did not exist before we were born. You can't say it was bad or painful. The same thing will happen after death;
- There is a lot of evidence that people, having experienced clinical death, get rid of phobias and begin "breathe deeply". Most of us have experienced this before. Losing consciousness is a mini-death, but it's nothing more than unpleasant;
- Isn't it better to imitate children? Kids are sure that every person is special and everyone has higher powers that protect them. One has only to imagine that somewhere above there is a patron who guides and protects a person, one’s soul becomes lighter;
- One can consider the first cause to be absolute reason, to which everyone returns as if home;
- One of the ways you can get rid of the fear of death of loved ones is to learn to dream. For example, learn Chinese or skydive. Only all these dreams must gradually come true;
- "Good conquers evil". You need to think positively, want to change yourself for the better. Try to give yourself to your loved ones, and then all phobias will fade into the background.
You need to live a rich and interesting life, then you can get rid of panic about future losses. Do not carry the fear of the past with you, live in the present, but with firm faith in the future.
It is greatest in 90% of the planet. This is not surprising - for most of us, death is associated with the inevitable end, with the end of life and the transition to a new incomprehensible and frightening state. In this article we will talk about whether it is possible to get rid of such fear in principle, and how to stop being afraid of death.
We sing an ode to life
Imagine spring. Flowering trees, fresh greenery, birds returning from the south. This is the time when even the most gloomy pessimists feel ready for any feats and submit to the general good mood. Now imagine the end of November. If you do not live in warm regions, then the picture is not the most rosy. Bare trees, puddles and mud, slush, rain and wind. The sun sets early, and the night is uncomfortable and uncomfortable. It is clear that in such weather the mood is, as they say, lousy - but in any case, we know that autumn will pass, then a snowy winter will come with a bunch of holidays, and then nature will come to life again and we will be genuinely happy and excited about life.
If only the understanding of life and death were so easy and clear! But it was not there. We don't know, and the unknown fills us with fear. of death? Read this article. You will receive easy-to-follow recommendations that will relieve you of far-fetched fears.
What causes fear?
Before answering the question of death, let’s look at what it comes from.
1. It's human nature to assume the worst. Imagine that a loved one does not come home at the appointed time, and does not pick up the phone and does not answer messages. Nine out of ten people will assume the worst - something bad happened, since he can’t even answer the phone.
And when a loved one finally appears and explains that he was busy and the phone died, we throw out a lot of emotions on him. How could he make us so worried and nervous? Common situation? The fact is that people most often assume the worst in order to then breathe a sigh of relief or accept the inevitable already doomed and prepared. Death is no exception. We don’t know what she’s talking about, but we’re already prepared for the worst outcome.
2. Fear of the unknown. What we don't know scares us. Our brain is to blame for this, or rather, the way it works. When we repeat the same action day after day, a stable chain of neural connections is built in the brain. For example, you go to work the same way every day. One day you need to take a different path for some reason - and you will experience discomfort, even if the new path is shorter and more convenient. It’s not a matter of preference, it’s just that the structure of our brain also frightens us for this reason - we haven’t experienced it, we don’t know what will happen next, and this word is alien to the brain and causes rejection. Even people who don't believe in hell feel uncomfortable when they hear about death.
3. Ideas about hell and heaven. If you grew up in a religious family, then you probably have your own opinion about the structure of the afterlife. The most widespread religions today promise heaven to the righteous and hellish torment to those who lead a life displeasing to God. Given the modern realities of life, it is very difficult to be righteous, especially as required by strict religious canons. As a result, every believer understands that, perhaps, after death he will not see the gates of heaven. And boiling cauldrons hardly inspire enthusiasm to quickly find out what lies beyond the threshold of death.
Don't think about the white monkey
Next we will talk about several proven ways to stop being afraid of death and start living. The first step is to accept the fact that you are mortal. This is inevitable, and as they say, no one has ever left here alive. However, fortunately, we do not know when our departure will happen.
This could happen tomorrow, in a month or many decades. Is it worth worrying in advance about what will happen unknown when? They are not afraid of death, simply accepting the fact of its inevitability - this is the first answer to the question of how to stop being afraid of death.
Religion is not the answer
A common misconception is that religion provides comfort to the living and eliminates the fear of death. Of course, it saves, but in a completely irrational way. Since no one in the world knows what will happen after the end of life, there are many versions of this. Religious ideas about hell and heaven are also a version, a popular one, but is it reliable? If you have been honoring your God since childhood (it doesn’t matter what religion you profess), then it is difficult for you to accept the idea that not a single clergyman knows what will happen to you after death. Why? Because no one has ever left here alive and no one has ever returned from there.
Hell in our imagination is depicted as a completely inhospitable place, and therefore death can be frightening for this reason. We are not asking you to give up your faith, but no faith should inspire fear. Therefore, there is another answer to the question of how to stop thinking about death. Give up the belief, you will face an inevitable choice between hell and heaven!
Often people are afraid not so much of death as of what can lead to it - for example, diseases. This is the same senseless fear as the horror of death, but it can be effectively combated. As you know, a healthy mind lives in a healthy body, which means that as soon as you feel healthy, irrational fears will leave you. Go in for sports, but not through “I don’t want to”, but with pleasure. It may not be such a boring departure as a favorite pastime - dancing, swimming, cycling. Start watching what you eat and stop drinking or smoking. As soon as you feel confidently standing on your feet, in good health, you will stop thinking about illness, and therefore about death.
Live the day
There is a saying: “Tomorrow never comes. You wait for the evening, it comes, but it comes now. Went to bed, woke up - now. A new day has come - and now again.”
No matter how much you fear the future, in the general sense of the word it will never come - you will always be in the “now” moment. So is it worth allowing your thoughts to take you far away, while you are always here and now?
Why not?
Nowadays it is fashionable to get tattoos in the form of life-affirming inscriptions, and young people often choose the Latin expression “carpe diem”. Literally it stands for “Live for the day” or “Live for the moment.” Don't let negative thoughts take you away from life - this is the answer to the question of how to stop being afraid of death.
And at the same time remember death
While exploring the life of authentic Indian tribes that live in Latin America, historians were surprised to discover that the Indians honor death and remember it every day, almost every minute. However, this is not because of fear of it, but on the contrary because of the desire to live fully and consciously. What does it mean?
As we said above, thoughts often take us from the now to the past or future. We know about death, we are often afraid of it, but on a subconscious level we do not believe in its reality for us. That is, this is something that will happen someday. Indians, on the contrary, understand that death can come at any moment, and therefore live with maximum efficiency right now.
How to get rid of the fear of death? Just remember her. Don’t wait with fear, but just keep somewhere in your subconscious that it can come at any time, which means you don’t need to put off important things for later. How not to be afraid of death? Pay attention to your family and friends, your hobby, go in for sports, change your hateful job, develop a business that is close to your spirit. By going about your life, you will stop thinking about death with fear.
Sometimes we worry not so much about ourselves, but about those who are dear to us. Parents are especially familiar with such experiences - as soon as their beloved child lingers on an evening walk or stops answering his mother’s calls, the most terrible thoughts creep into his head. You can cope with your fear - if you want, of course.
You will not be able to take care of your child forever, and nothing good comes from your worries. But you yourself suffer, shaking your nervous system with far-fetched fears.
Accept the fact that things will happen as usual. Be calm, don't worry in vain. And remember that thinking about bad things is a favorite pastime of the brain, but not yours.
Fear of death (thanatophobia) is an anxiety disorder that manifests itself in an uncontrollable and obsessive experience of the unknown or the painful process associated with death. Moreover, these fears have an inexplicable nature for the client himself and often have no real reasons (diagnosable disease, military action, etc.). But most often people are interested in thanatophobia in the context of how to get rid of the fear of death. Let's try to figure this out.
In general, the fear of death is inherent in all mentally healthy people. It is determined, on the one hand, by the unknown and uncertainty that death itself brings. On the other hand, it is the inherent desire of any living organism to survive.
However, not everyone develops thanatophobia. Ordinary experiences are always associated with conscious “trigger points”: a car passed nearby or you celebrated another birthday as a “sad holiday” of approaching retirement. But, plunging into the whirlpool of daily affairs, such thoughts fade into the background.
In the case of a pathological disorder, there is a constant fear of death and obsessive anxiety. Moreover, it is not connected with specific events, it is connected with very delayed events, or this connection is not realized. That is, a person can wake up with a feeling of anxiety that is not caused by anything. A tragic event can provoke a return to the topic of fear of death for many years, or the client cannot clearly remember at all: when and why he had the first attack of strong anxiety.
As for the fear of death with VSD, the manifestations will be somewhat different and more likely resemble a panic attack, which is also accompanied by external manifestations: trembling, numbness of the limbs, shortness of breath, dizziness, loss of coordination of movements, increased heart rate.
Manifestations
The first experiences of the fear of death and thoughts of how to overcome it appear at the age of three to five years and are associated with the formation and development of a small personality and the discovery of the finitude of biological existence. But, in the overwhelming majority, overcoming the fear of death occurs after communicating with close, significant adults (mom, dad or guardian). The baby has not yet fully emerged psychologically from the care of stronger individuals, and he is helped by the option when “he will definitely be protected, even from death.”
In the case of true thanatophobia, fear of illness and death can manifest itself in the form of:
Although, some patients, especially at the first appointment, cannot indicate a specific manifestation, and thanatophobia manifests itself in them in the form of an emotional outburst and poorly verbalized sensations. That is why you cannot be left alone with this problem.
A psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist, before raising the question of how to get rid of the fear of death and anxiety, will help to express it in words, and, therefore, translate an abstract concept into something real. This means something that has a reason and is specifically worth working with.
Causes
In general, the fear of death can have different reasons. Many scientists talk about genetic predisposition; sociologists - about the influence of society; gynecologists and obstetricians note the relationship with hormonal changes in the body; but psychologists and psychiatrists are inclined to believe that the fear of death is a psychological problem.
The first of the often cited reasons is personal negative experience of contact with death. In this case, personal fears, like the fear of death of loved ones, are an adequate temporary response of the psyche to a traumatic situation. But for the development of thanatophobia in this case, an additional predisposition is still necessary: increased personal anxiety, accompanying phobias. And, if in the first case, time heals. Then, in the case of pathology, time will further aggravate the experiences, transfer them into the area of debilitating, obsessive anxiety.
You can best notice the difference after a few months. In its usual manifestation, grief provokes compensatory actions: a person begins to actively try to resist, gets involved in work, rearranges plans and revises his share of responsibility, thus internally “protesting” against the inevitable. In the case of thanatophobia, there is an even greater decrease in performance, constant worries, a depressed state, and changes in sleep. And this is a reason to definitely contact a specialist.
Russian scientists and sociologists from different countries have recently increasingly pointed to the influence of society in the formation of phobias. Even the concept of “hypnotization by death” was introduced. The point of this approach is that the media constantly dump information on a person about someone’s deaths, tragedies and disasters, forcing a person to think about the possibility of ending up in the same situation himself. For some, this turns into the overwhelming burden of the topic “how will I die.” Outbursts of such mass hysteria are observed at moments of supposed general apocalypse: the millennium, the end of the Mayan calendar and similar things.
It is worth saying that in the case under consideration, those individuals who spend a lot of time listening to this information on TV or finding it on the Internet are most susceptible to influence: housewives, elderly people, teenagers. Therefore, you should be attentive to situations when your parents, wife or children try to start a conversation on such topics and be sure to consult a psychologist.
A number of psychotherapists talk about the possibility of developing thanatophobia in parallel with a personal crisis, especially a midlife crisis. Life begins to seem like “running in a vicious circle,” and “existential anxiety” or the idea of “a threatening and imminent non-existence” arises. As a result, everything in this world loses its attractiveness and meaning.
Also noted is the possibility of developing a fear of death, as a fear of punishment in the event of a sinful life in religious people, or as a fear of not being able to control the situation in people who are overly pedantic, overly responsible and disciplined, striving for control and planning, as well as in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thanatophobia may be a component of a large phobia of the unknown, of everything new and unusual.
Separately, it is worth mentioning thanatophobia and the fear of death of a loved one (child) during the prenatal and postpartum period in women. It develops, according to doctors, against the background of hormonal changes in the body. And it is most pronounced in women who have toxicosis or problems with pregnancy. Psychological factors are called concomitant factors: quarrels with husband, parents, unsettled life and many other personal shocks. A striking example of such a disease was described in the novel Anna Karenina, where the main character constantly had obsessive dreams about her death during childbirth.
Also, 99.5% of the women surveyed whose pregnancy was desired expressed anxiety about the possibility of the baby’s death in the first months of life: women periodically listened to the child’s breathing. For many, this also developed into stronger and more debilitating phobias: they worried about the possible end of the world and the impossibility of saving their baby; his personal death and leaving the child “to the mercy of fate”, “without the opportunity to make his way in life.”
How to get rid
How to get rid of the fear of death of loved ones and your own in this case? Of course, it’s complex. Since we are talking about variations here, consultation with both a gynecologist and a psychologist specializing in such topics is necessary. If such thoughts arise at the beginning of labor, then you should definitely choose such specialists! In this case, they will accompany the woman throughout her pregnancy and help her during the postpartum period. Perhaps the expectant mother will be given mild sedative medications that do not affect the fetus. And you shouldn't be afraid of this. But self-medication with all sorts of “grandmother’s decoctions” and folk tinctures can lead to unexpected and sad consequences, for which none of the “good advisers” will then be held responsible.
We should also not forget that such constant and debilitating phobic experiences often become the cause of breakups and family dramas. A woman is not able to fully appreciate her condition and cannot agree with a harsh assessment of her “strange” behavior, considering herself deprived of support. In turn, the wife’s constant “decadent mood” begins to irritate her husband, causing a desire to “listen less to this nonsense,” which further aggravates the situation and can lead to extreme and dangerous forms of disorder. For example, the fear of possible death can be so frightening that patients resort to a completely illogical solution to the situation - suicide attempts, thus getting rid of the “expectation of death” by death itself.
Touching on this topic, I would also like to note that the fear of death can change somewhat. In the case of women in labor, it can transform into a fear of childbirth (since this is a life-threatening event); in the case of adolescents and children - fear of tombstones, cemeteries, graves. For many, fear transforms into fear of the dead or even the sight of their own blood. However, let us once again pay attention to the fact that only obsessive experiences are still pathological. For example, a person begins to be afraid to even go outside, so as not to encounter a situation where he might bleed to death.
So, you realized that you or a loved one have a fear of death. What to do, if:
- there is a decrease in social contacts;
- unable to carry out daily activities;
- sleep changes, apathy haunts;
- additional diseases caused by stress are added;
- Is there a desire to “drown out” all this with alcohol, drugs or pills?
Psychotherapy
There is only one answer - immediately contact a specialist. Start visiting a psychotherapist, psychologist or psychiatrist: depending on your level of trust in a particular specialist. If necessary, he will schedule additional consultations with other doctors. And only they will consider the possibility of parallel drug support. Just don't self-medicate!
As can be seen from the article, the root causes and manifestations of such a phobia will be different for each person. Therefore, what helped your friend or neighbor will not necessarily help you! This is especially true for any medications. There are often cases when, “on advice,” women began to take pills that are strictly contraindicated in the first trimester of pregnancy, unaware of their condition. Another example: one patient (73 years old) took pills “for fear of dying” for more than a month, which were recommended to her by a friend, while they were actually used in the treatment of hypertension. It turns out that this same friend had an attack of “fear of death” against the background of a sharp increase in blood pressure. Naturally, the described patient also ended up in the hospital a month later, having reduced her blood pressure to critical levels.
As for non-drug therapy, the already mentioned psychologist or psychotherapist will definitely tell you how to deal with the fear of death. There are a number of approaches to this problem and you will be offered the option that will help you. Methods based on a rational approach put at the center the verbalization of experiences, understanding what will happen in the event of death itself and comparing this with what life without fear can give.
Some methods are built, on the contrary, on the possibility of internal, sensory processing of experiences. For example, the patient is brought to a tiny piece of paper called “death point”, asked to stand on it and describe his feelings. The “path” is carried out in such a way that in the end, at the very point, the patient is surprised to feel only calm, thus achieving a kind of insight. There are also options for using associative maps and other techniques that allow you to access abstract images, identifying root causes and working out ways out of the current situation.
Comparing different approaches on how to get rid of the fear of death during VSD, the first thing mentioned is the need not to suppress the physiological manifestations of a panic attack: if a person begins to tremble, then it is worth deliberately trembling more strongly. In addition, mentally thank your body for “such sensitive reactions for self-preservation.” He will also go to a specialist for more detailed work.
Instructions
The first step towards getting rid of the fear of death is recognizing the problem. Awareness of the fear of death should lead a person to perceive death as the natural end of life, as something obligatory and irreparable. Such a perception of death is necessary for a person to exist intelligently. After all, if people were not afraid of death, there would be many more victims of car accidents, extreme sports, reckless acts and deaths in various everyday situations.
Another important aspect is to openly express your thoughts. You need to discuss the fear inside you with a friend, relative or psychological specialist - with any person around whom you can be yourself. This way you can identify the main reasons for this fear and choose rational ways to overcome the current situation. If the cause of a strong fear of death is an illness, you can talk to people who were able to overcome the same illness, find out how they coped with fear, etc.
Then you can think about your life principles and beliefs. One thinks about the meaning of life and values precisely when thinking about death, the finitude of one’s existence. What is important here is that a person begins to understand that all material wealth or external characteristics are nothing compared to kindness, honesty, love, and patience. The fear of death becomes less when a person realizes that after his death, his loved ones will for a long time keep in their memory the memories of his most beautiful deeds, good deeds, character strengths and achievements.
Many people, identifying themselves as having a fear of death, do not understand that in fact they are not afraid of death itself, but of possible pain. However, here the equal sign between pain and death is inappropriate. The dead do not feel pain. Pain is a property of life. It is specially given to a person in order to preserve his life, warning about various kinds of dangers. In addition, if a person suffers for a long time before death, then for him death is deliverance from suffering, which, in some way, is its positive aspect. Although at first it is quite difficult for the relatives and friends of the deceased to understand this.
Optimism and a sense of humor allow you to cope with many fears and difficult situations. The fear of death in this regard is no exception. It has been proven that positive, cheerful people are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases, which are often the cause of death. Treat with humor not only life, but also death. Moreover, you don’t have to become a fan of black comedies, you can simply remember jokes about death (and there are quite a few of them, the authors of which also once overcame this fear) or mentally add glamorous pink slippers to its stereotypical image in a cape and a scythe.
The main thing to remember when working with the problem of death is that it should not interfere with life. You need to live as brightly, fully and wisely as possible. Meet people you like more often, relax in nature, sing songs by the fire, remember stories from your school childhood or stormy college youth, walk in the evenings, dance in the rain, go away on weekends in an unknown direction - this is the only way you can understand and feel life in everyone its manifestations.
