Understanding Death Anxiety

Worries about dying or losing a loved one are a normal part of life, but if your thoughts about death (or dying) are extremely distressing, time-consuming, or stop you from doing important things, you might be experiencing death anxiety.

Death anxiety (or ‘thanatophobia’) is a common fear that anyone can experience. Research suggests that up to 10% of people experience death anxiety, and around 3% have an intense fear of death. These concerns might relate to your own death, someone else’s death, the process of dying, or what happens after death.

Death anxiety can lead to difficulties with your mental health and can affect how you function in your daily life. It can also play a role in other problems including anxiety disorders (such as health anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder), depression, and eating disorders. The good news is that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for death anxiety.

This

Our ‘Understanding…’ series is designed to support your clients:

• Scaffold knowledge. The guides are perfect during early stages of therapy to help your clients understand how their symptoms fit together and make sense.
• Reassure and encourage optimism. Many clients find it hugely reassuring to know there is a name for what they are experiencing, and that there are evidence-based psychological models and treatments specifically designed to help.
• De-mystify the therapy process. To increase your client’s knowledge of the therapy process and the ingredients that it is likely to involve. If you can help your clients to understand why an intervention is important (think exposure!) it can help encourage them to engage.
• Signposting. If you’re just seeing a client briefly for assessment, or you have a curious client who wants to know more, these resources can be a helpful part of guiding them to the right service.
• Waiting time not wasted time. When you’ve assessed someone

• Noyes Jr, R., Hartz, A. J., Doebbeling, C. C., Malis, R. W., Happel, R. L., Werner, L. A., & Yagla, S. J. (2000). Illness fears in the general population. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 318-325.
• Agras, S., Sylvester, D., & Oliveau, D. (1969). The epidemiology of common fears and phobia. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 10, 151-156. DOI: 10.1016/0010-440X(69)90022-4.
• White, J. (1980). A practical guide to death and dying. Quest.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189-212). Springer.
• Yalom, I. D. (2008). Staring at the sun: Overcoming the terror of death. Jossey-Bass.
• Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (2015). Thirty years of terror management theory: From genesis to revelation. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 1-70. DOI: /10.1016/ bs.aesp.2015.03.001. 
• Iverach, L., Menzies, R. G., & Menzies, R. E. (2014). Death anxiety and its role