Are you suffering from the fear of death? Symptoms of fear of death

Death is an inevitable outcome for everyone. Most people can face it correctly, but there is still a very small number of people who will experience inexplicable panic and fear every time the topic of death is mentioned or when they hear the news that an elderly relative or friend has passed away. This is the legendary thanatophobia. So what are some other manifestations of death fear? How to treat the disease? First, we need to understand more about the fear of death.

Death fear and its manifestations

Everyone is afraid of death (the "not afraid of death" in literary works and film and television dramas is to cater to certain needs), but the degree of fear is different, and thanatophobia is an abnormal fear. This disease is a type of neurotic phobia. The so-called neurotic phobia refers to the disorder of the interaction between the cortical and subcortical nerves caused by the adverse or deviated inner emotional experience, continuous or repeated real-life environmental stimulation, etc.

People with thanatophobia avoid mentioning any topic related to death or any food that suggests death (for example, they dare not pass by the door of a store that provides one-stop funeral services). Once exposed to these things, neurological symptoms such as trembling limbs and sweating all over the body will appear.

How to get rid of the fear of death?

The common treatment for death phobia is behavioral therapy, which is systematic desensitization therapy or exposure shock therapy. The specific operation method of systematic desensitization therapy is: first conduct muscle relaxation training, assess the discomfort area and grade the target symptoms, and seek symptom relief through imagination or reasonable real stimulation. Exposure shock method refers to directly and continuously exposing patients to fear-inducing situations or content, maximizing "full exposure" to patients in order to eliminate their fear. This method should be used with caution when the patient's condition is still unclear.

The above two therapies are only things to get rid of the superficial symptoms of fear of death. To fundamentally eliminate the disease, we should treat it from the root, that is, eliminate the fear of death complex. This requires a fundamental change in the patient's misconceptions. Let the patient realize that what causes fear is not the scary things, but his own fear of death. It is not fear of ghosts, but fear of death. There is no scary thing in the world. You are just scaring yourself. Because of the fear of death, you think scary things are scary. All scary things become not scary when you are not afraid of death.