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Essay on death anxiety
Essay on death anxiety
Theory of death anxiety
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Everyone has an instinct in them that gives them a little fear, ever wonder about if someone can be taken from you to soon or that they were already taken to soon and you could be next? Death anxiety can do both cause and add to an assortment of fears. In fact, having this form of anxiety has a name called terror management theory also known as TMT. TMT actually suggests that this form of anxiety is a psychological distress that can be a serious investment in cultural beliefs and worldviews. People can deal with this type of concern in culture and belief systems causing their self-esteem to be affected. The philosophical perspective part of TMT is known as “meta-atheism” this is a way that someone could help cope with such some issues that …show more content…
In different cultures some can share the same religion causing them to even have the same type of spiritual beliefs which provocatively helps shape that culture. All cultures have their own theories about the meaning and purposes of life and what happens after death. This apprises to how people in those different cultures approach death in their own ways. “For example, people may find death more manageable if they believe in a life after death. In some cultures, people believe that the spirit of someone who has died directly effects the living family members. The family members are comforted by the belief that their loved one is watching over them. Over-all, beliefs about the sense of death help people make sense of it and cope with its mystery.” (Okechi, …show more content…
Living life to the fullest can be a start to keeping this anxiety at bae, “Do the things you want to do, even if they’re scary. Live life on your terms and take control.” (David, 2015) another way that people can work on their fear through a cultural and religious way could be to explore their spirituality “You may wish to join a religious organization, appear consideration classes, or explore your options until you find one that fulfills you.” (David, 2015) this way you can even talk to other people and see how they cope allowing you to find a new way to deal with it as well. Once you actually consider your beliefs about death and the afterlife under your own terms you can then being to accept your own death allowing you to feel a bit more comfortable when feeling so stressed about it. Finally, when looking back at it all you realize, although there are many different cultures and their ways of coping with death anxiety, certain religions and cultures do have a major impact on how someone would actually view death, it is how we are raised to make us think the way that we do. Just by following some of the steps on how to cope with death anxiety though terror management theory they tend to go back to finding a support group or a new cultural religious group in hopes to find you a new way of light and another way to view something that can be so tragic
Many religions and philosophies attempt to answer the question, what happens after a person dies? Some religions such as Christianity and Islam believe there is an afterlife. They believe that good and moral people enter Heaven or paradise and that bad and immoral people go to Hell. Other religions and cultures believe that death is final, and that nothing happens after a person dies. Buddhism and Hinduism have a different idea about death. Both of these religions originated in India. Buddhists and Hindus believe that death is not final. They believe that a person comes back after he or she dies. This process is known as reincarnation, and it provides opportunities for people to enter the world multiple times in different forms. Buddhists and Hindus want to reenter the world as humans, and they want to improve their status through reincarnation. In ancient India, many members of lower casts wanted to come back as members of higher casts. While this is an important goal of reincarnation, the main goal is to reach either moksha (Hinduism) or nirvana (Buddhism). In other words, the goal is to reach a point of spiritual enlightenment that removes the person from the reincarnation process. Geoff Childs, an anthropologist examines the views of the Buddhist religion by studying the lives of the people in Tibetan villages. He looks at issues that adversely affect these people such as infant mortality. He carefully looks at the lives of people who have been left behind by deceased loved ones, and he pays careful attention to customs and traditions surrounding death. Tibetan Buddhists view death as a means of reaching spiritual perfection, and they seek to reach this level of spiritual perfection through living spiritually meaningful lives....
Death comes to all in the end, shrouded in mystery, occasionally bringing with it pain, and while some may welcome its finality, others may fight it with every ounce of their strength. Humans have throughout the centuries created death rituals to bring them peace and healing after the death of a loved one.
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.
nsciousness after death, or maybe a combination of both, which creates this fear. The fear felt is undoubtedly universal. However, the ways in which it is dealt with are varied and diverse. The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. It is the society, which has the greatest impact on an individual’s beliefs.
The fear of death seems to be based on two things: the finality of death and the uncertainty of what follows. Many works have been written on the topic, some to offer consolation, others hope, and still others to urge readers to correct their behavior during life itself. The conflicting views put forward by different societies may never be reconciled, since nobody comes back to tell of an afterlife.
I analyzed the “Fear of the Dead, Fear of Death: is it Biological or Psychological?” by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi in 2012 for the generation of the death fear (Beit-Hallahmi 328). From Beit-Hallahmi’s work, he states the fear comes from the “cognitive incongruity” and the brain detects the situation is conflicting to the expectation (Beit-Hallahmi 328). Then the brain would combine the past and present experience to produce a response of fear to the imagined situation (Beit-Hallahmi 328). He also mentions the fear of death would lead to the other effect and behavior, such as the fear of corpse. (Beit-Hallahmi 322). In this paper, first, I will use these scholars’ works to support my research. Second, to make the research more convincing, I explore
Stages of grief can lead to learning a lot about yourself and your spiritual self, therefore knowing how we view fear. Fear of death is rather common, especially if you are staring right at it. However finding spiritual oneness with yourself and God can bring awareness that is destined to chase away the fear to nothingness. Developing understanding, sense of value and having a sense of significance can help one realize it is best to enjoy life and embrace you’re spiritually. “They have no evolved spiritual problem. If they have any spiritual sense, they are in touch throughout the living world with their soul (Kramer, 2004). How we view death can be an awakening experience, even when feeling or dealing with the fear of death. We all know we will die, no matter what, but how we deal with and view death can offer a sense of significance and importance. Another stage is spiritual. According to (Kramer, 2004), “you cannot die alone”. Spiritually people long forever, we have natural something that knows there is a whole other world to this world than meets the eye. It instigates our ...
In many cultures all over the world their religions view death in numerous different ways. The author Leslie Marmon Silko depicts this in a short story called “The Man to Send Rain Clouds”. The author herself is of mixed ancestry including Laguna Pueblo Indian, Mexican, and white enabling her to write a short complex story of a culture trying to maintain their own religion when living in a society of what religion is expected and right in others eyes(Literature for Life, 1243). The theme of “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” focuses on death, understanding everyone has different cultures, and respecting others.
In the book The Denial of Death Ernest Becker writes “the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is the mainspring of human activity – activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man” (Becker XVII). One thing that every human being on this earth has in common is that death is imminent. This fear of death produces terror and is explained through terror management theory. Terror management theory addresses the conflict of both the desire of living and also the inevitable fear of death. After analysis of the terror management theory the unconscious fear of death leads humans to mask their terror
When I was young my parents never spoke to me about death .They just shut their mouth when I was in front of them.As per my culture ,we believe that if we speak about end of life issues , the probability of death of that person is high.So we avoid talking about death about our near ones in our home.We commonly use our own native language -Malayalam-to convey the death message to others as we feel that usage of our own mother tongue is better enough to express our emotions than English and the common terms like “expired,passed away,lost,separated,leave '' and the like are used to express our emotions on death .We maintain a calm and quiet environment if someone dies in our area.To be frank ,we do not speak about the topic death openly .We feel sad ,depression and so on whenever we speak about this end of life issues.The lack of awareness about the death and dying makes me to be afraid of death .I really feel fear to hear as well as speak about the term “death” currently.I try to avoid the topic related to death these days and I have a pessimistic attitude towards death these
The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. For it is the society that has great impact on the individual’s beliefs. Hence, it is also possible for other cultures to influence the people of a different culture on such comprehensions. The primary and traditional way men and women have made dying a less depressing and disturbing idea is though religion. Various religions offer the comforting conception of death as a begining for another life or perhaps a continuation for the former.
The most important categories out of the four of death-related concerns are the dying, death or bereavement of someone else. It’s odd that I do not care for my own death and what will happen to me after my death. I am fearful about someone close to me or one of their loved one dying. For example, I am close with my sister, my brother and my sister’s children. You would think I would be concerned with my husband. My feelings with him will definitely change soon we have children – Sh, do not tell him I said this. I am concerned that I will have a hard time coping with the situation and being a resourceful person to them. Overall, it is major concern in this category because it makes me happy to see my siblings and their families happy.
Terror management theory posits that people cope with the fear of death by relying on cultural constructs that give life meaning, or provide a means of escaping mortality concerns (Greenberg et al., 1986). In spite of such defenses, however, the physical body—doomed to eventual
Death and dying is one topic that is very familiar to me. I have experienced the death of my Grandfathers, Great Grandmother, uncles, aunts, close friends and many patients that I have cared for. In some aspects death is a God sent to some people because they are no longer suffering and you know now that they are in peace. In others ways death can be very traumatic because perhaps someone’s life ended too soon. No matter how much you experience death and dying, no death will affect you in the same way. One thing about death that everyone has in common is that it is inevitable, everyone will die someday.
It is the one thing no human can escape, for we all have a similar fate at the end of the day. Humans tend to have two different outlooks on death: denial or fear of it, or questioning and a wish to understand it. There are always those two types of people, the person who does not like to talk about death and avoids it at any cost. And the person who enjoys conversing about death and the meaning of life afterwards. This is a conversation some cannot handle to have due to the fear tied into the unknown. Then, there is the person very capable of having this conversation who often leaves others disturbed. This person embraces death for whatever it may be, they find what they are looking for, for they believe it to be there. The person who denies death and is full of fear on the matter finds nothing when the time comes, for they did not believe it to be anything more. The emotional behavior death alludes from is what makes us all