Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Theory of death anxiety
Theory of death anxiety
Theory of death anxiety
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” As people we tend over exaggerate situations that happen to us. We allow our fears to take over and control how we operate in everyday excursions. With that being said fear can only go as far as we allow it to, it takes a strong mind and hope to keep that fear minimized. Hope and fear can influence a person’s behavior in positive and negative ways, however it affects your emotional and physical state as well.
Researchers have been contemplating the origin of fear for years. Theories about fear have been thrown around, but the concept of fear is still vague. Many people when asked, would say that they are afraid of death, that they try to avoid thinking about it all together. A group of scientist have
…show more content…
“When death is heavily thought about, people become more adamant in their beliefs and get extra-motivated to distance themselves from their physicality and to assert their symbolic value...They show off their skills, smarts, fitness, and generosity” (VILLARICA). The thought of death can alter the way someone lives their life. The fear of knowing that death is something that you can not cheat changes your outlook on how you perceive things. You start to take the little things more seriously, knowing that you will not be here to correct them if something is wrong. Your attitude changes as well, you start taking your education and health into bigger consideration. You also show more feelings towards others, such as giving back and making sure everybody is taken care of. Even though the fear of death can drive people to become more courteous and self aware. It can also drive a person mad in knowing that they will be leaving a life they have become accustomed too. “Thus, part of the human condition is living with a desire to continue to live” (VILLARICA). As humans we do not want to die and leave everything behind. Our goal in life is survival, and anything that threatens that survival should be terminated. Sadly death is not something you can stop from happening, the thought of this is something that affects people in different ways. Reckless behavior is a common example of how the thought of death
I agree, in my view, fear is very powerful “it paralyzes you from doing the work” , it makes everything seem “harder” or impossible to do when
When people ponder death they wonder about the unknown with trepidation. As a young man, William Cullen Bryant wrote the "Thanatopsis." His thoughts progress from the fear of death to the acceptance of the event. People should not fear death because everyone dies and becomes a part of nature.
Fear is something very foreign to countless people, not the idea, but the response to it, the way people react to fear. Everyone has their own fears; their own definitions and triggers to these unique varieties of fear. We imagine our worst fears and what would happen if they became a reality. This is where imagination plays a key role in the response to fear. Imagination can overcome one’s ability to reason out an abnormal situation, in which fear kicks in; frequently resulting in the situation becoming worse than the previous extent. Fear is in everyone’s lives, although it doesn’t affect some as much as others due to their response to this fear. Meaning they don’t let their imagination overcome their reason, creating a mindless fear as exhibited throughout our lifetime.
Fear prevents us from embracing the present moment. While fear does serve as a protective force, as individuals would not consider consequences without it, it also damages an individual’s ability to live mindfully. Fear prevents risk; it prevents individuals from taking risks that could move them from despair to fulfillment. We stand dissatisfied with the present, yet afraid of the unknown.
Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometimes cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death, but the unknown that comes from death, that is the
According to Ernest Becker, “The main thesis of this book is that it explains: the idea of death, the fear of death that haunts humans like nothing else; the mainspring of human activity designed to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man” (“Becker” ix). The author of this book describes and quotes many other psychological thinkers views on the different kinds of fear and what contributes to the fear of death in man. The author explores several topics like self-worth, heroism, fear, anxiety, depression and many other issues throughout this book.
This research was based on findings from previous studies with main objective of exploring relation between death anxiety and self-esteem. Even though majority of previous studies have shown either none or negative relation between main variables of research, expectation of positive correlation is possible. Therefore the hypothesis of this research is that, individuals with stronger self-esteem would have less fear of inevitable death. It is important to convey this research in order to find out whether the relationship between self-esteem strength and fear of inevitable death exists. It could lead to successful prevention of self-damaging behaviors such as suicide in individuals with low self-esteem.
Fear influences people to make irrational decisions and take extreme measures. Often times, these actions are done to protect one’s reputation. Fear causes people to lie and manipulate to those they care about in order to escape what they are scared of most. Fear of failure has caused higher levels of anxiety, and has made society put blame on each other, rather than owning up to their mistakes. Fear can also cause one to forget one’s true identity and lose one’s values. There are two options that one can take when being faced with a fear: run away from the fear, or go through it and learn a valuable lesson in the end that will make you a stronger person. Fear is a harmful emotion that everyone has to go through in order to succeed.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
Death is part of the circle of life and it's the end of your time on earth; the end of your time with your family and loved ones. Nobody wants to die, leaving their family and missing the good times your loved ones will have once you pass on. In the Mercury Reader, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross “On the Fear of Death” and Joan Didion “Afterlife” from The Year of Magical Thinking” both share common theses on death and grieving. Didion and Kübler-Ross both explain grieving and dealing with death. Steve Jobs commencement speech for Stanford’s graduation ceremony and through personal experience jumps further into death and how I feel about it. Your time is on earth is limited one day you will die and there are many ways of grieving at the death of a loved one. I believe that the fear of death and the death of a loved one will hold you back from living your own life and the fear of your own death is selfish.
Since 1877, American politics and society have been influenced by fear. This fear came from a lot of ways, for example: foreign culture and also from American. After the Reconstruction of the south of America, after slavery, the northern and the Southern became more and more close. By the United States unification, America met a lot of events that made people felt fear when America society had development and became strong, like Communism power, effect of atomic weapons.
The average youth of today isn’t afraid of death because it seems to happen to other people. Death is distant. Every day, we read about people being killed in this or drowned in that but it never happens to someone we know. If someone we know does die, we are shocked and forced to reconsider our lives because, for an instant, we realize that we could die as well.
Death will always be universal and is continuously seen or heard of everyday. The fear and death its self affects everyone, but it’s important to feel accustomed and comfortable about it. Sure it will be sorrow or and painful when the day comes for you or a loved one, but that’s the world. We must feel comfortable and learn to accept this topic. Finding motivation or something to distract you from this is a good way to motivate your life and build up a positive lifestyle. Death will always induce fear, but it’s just another chapter in life. Even though death has been studied for many years, it will forever be one of the most debated topics, including the fear of
Ultimately, although the symptoms of fear is real, fear does not have to be. With fear, you have the option to fight or flight due to the fact it is a perception. Fear can easily be manipulated to a strength. The things you “fear” now make you who you are.