Death anxiety

Prepared by / Hassan Mohammed Shaker Al-Heih
Hebron office
A feeling the human being has long tried to flee from, and not to think about, for the repellent sensations and hateful feelings it carries, which make a person feel their weakness and helplessness. It may terrify them at what will happen to them if death befalls them, or at what will happen to them after their death.
Will they suffer pain and torment?
Or will they find bliss and eternal rest?
And what will become of their loved ones?
Will they remember them and grieve for them, or will they forget them in the flood of joy in this world?
Many questions are stirred by this anxiety, and there may be no sufficient answers to relieve the human being's burden. And why not, for death is a journey to an unknown world, in which a person does not know what will happen to them or what will befall them. Is it a journey resembling what the hadiths of the prophetic sunna and the account of the night journey and the ascension have conveyed to us, or are there things that have been hidden from them? Questions and many questions without end, with which the individual tries to quench the thirst of their fear and to fill the hunger of their anxiety. For death is an end any human being expects, which may move them to a wonderful, beautiful life or to a painful, hideous one, a life they live endlessly with no return and no going back, since death is an abstract, unseen concept but a material truth and a real act experienced by every human being.
Death anxiety is defined as an unpleasant emotional state hastened by the individual's contemplation of their own death. Or it is an unpleasant response involving subjective feelings of displeasure and preoccupation with contemplating or anticipating one of the many aspects connected with death. Or it is an acute emotional state arising from the individual's thinking about their own passing away, the end of their fate and their move to another unknown, immaterial world, accompanied by physical symptoms and sensations involving a feeling of dread, distress and aversion.
Some individuals are subject to states of severe morbid fear of death and of what relates to it, such as seeing the dead, blood, burial and so on, which makes this kind of fear cause the sufferer to avoid seeing any source connected with that and to avoid taking part in funeral processions or burials. They also dread reading subjects connected with death, or hearing about them or speaking about them, for they feel choked and short of breath because these suggest to them the various psychological pains associated with it.

The causes of this fear:

The causes of this kind of fear are various and many, and we mention among them the following:
* A person hearing or reading about incidents of death, whether that was in childhood or in the other stages.
* A feeling of guilt for committing certain behaviour, or imagining that they behaved in a certain way, and as a result falling under the torment of conscience.
* Being subjected to the pains of separation that occur between loved ones or members of the family.
* Being subjected to ambiguous situations about death and its causes, which happens with young children who are ignorant of the truth of death.
* Suffering from states of severe depression, which often affect the sufferer's morale.
* Being subjected to the various natural disasters such as wars, earthquakes, floods and so on.

The symptoms of the illness of fear of death:
There are many various symptoms that differ from one sufferer to another, among them the following:

* Suffering from shortness of breath.
* Frequent weeping.
* The dominance of pessimism and a gloomy view of life.
* Suffering from severe depression.
* Suffering from insomnia and difficulty sleeping.
* The dominance of negative emotions, among them weeping.
* Withdrawal.
* Fleeing from situations connected with death, whatever the sufferer's kinship to the deceased.
* Suffering from headaches or various bodily pains.
* Frequent complaints of various illnesses that do not exist in reality.
* Speaking about death and about the incidents that cause death.

The treatment:

* Knowing the real cause that led to the aggravation of that fear.
* Clarifying the matter relating to the nature of that fear and relieving the sufferer of it, and showing that death is inevitable and cannot be escaped, and that although people differ, they differ only in the time and the moment when their appointed term comes.
* Convincing the patient that their fear of death does not prevent death from occurring, because it is inevitable for everyone (Say, indeed the death from which you flee will surely meet you) God Almighty has spoken the truth
* Encouraging the sufferer from the illness of fear to accept that truth, by giving them many examples from the reality of life, and that the prophets, the trustees, the rich and the poor are all subject to death despite their positions and their places in society.
* Practising relaxation exercises whenever the thought of fear of death arises.
* Occupying the patient with what distracts them from thinking about death.
* Practising physical exercise, which protects the patient from thinking about death.
* Reading about death and about natural cases of death, which helps in accepting the event of death.
* Planting self-confidence and self-reliance.
* Making the child sleep in their own room so that they get used to caring for and looking after themselves without resorting to their parents in matters small and large
* Encouraging the sufferer to accept the truth of death (Say, never will we be struck except by what God has decreed for us) God Almighty has spoken the truth.
* Controlling the anxiety connected with death by the means available to the sufferer that suit their health and the nature of their life
* Planting optimism in the sufferer's soul and moving away from the pessimism that complicates the matter.
* Getting rid of and moving away from what stirs sadness and depression as far as possible.
* Getting rid of thinking about death.
* Keeping away from the depressed and from those who talk about death.
* Avoiding watching films, programmes or news that deal with talk of death
* Avoiding sitting alone.
* Seeking help from the Qur'anic verses that bring psychological rest and reassurance to the fearful, and (Every soul will taste death, then to Us you will be returned) God Almighty has spoken the truth.