thanatophobia…anyone suffer from it? has anyone gotten over it?

Written by admin on April 12, 2010 – 3:28 pm -

I know i suffer from thanatophobia (fear of death) and it’s really devastating. You finally think your getting somewhere in overcoming it and then your whole world crashes down again.

It kind of stems from a fear of nothingness or non existence, whatever reasons people tell me for not worrying about it or fearing it just don’t seem to help. Currently i can’t stop thinking of loved ones dieing, i constantly work out peoples ages and how long they have left, and i can’t be around the very old, it messes with my head too much.

I want to resolve it, i’m 21 at christmas and don’t want to spend adulthood in fear and depression. I want to get married one day but freak out knowing we’ll be old, that my husband (hopefully if i get one) will die and i’ll have to say goodbye then wait for my own death. I want children but sometimes can’t bear the thought that i’d be giving them life only for it to be snuffed out.

I am going to go and talk to my doctor or a uni councilor but I’ve read so many internet posts by other sufferers who say it didn’t help! I’m looking into religion as well but i don’t think my beliefs will ever be strong enough to conquer this!

Has anyone got through it? Learned to live with it? Got any advice?

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If humans did not fear death would we have religion?

Written by admin on April 5, 2010 – 12:48 pm -

Since all religion comes from the fear of death and the uncertainty that it brings would we have religion if we didn’t fear death.

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Thanatophobia (subtitled)

Written by admin on March 18, 2010 – 1:51 pm -

After a seance Shirpit and Carney are returning to their houses, only to find coffins waiting for them..

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Necrophobia – How To Eliminate The Fear Of Death

Written by admin on March 18, 2010 – 1:49 pm -

One of the most common fears is necrophobia, the fear of death. This serious fear affects thousands of individuals and can develop regardless of a person’s health, age, or personal beliefs. It is a fear that may have far ranging consequences on an individual’s life. Often, people are afraid of anything that can be linked to death, such as funerals, or less obviously, hospitals and horror films. In extreme cases, the anxiety disorder leaves people paralyzed with terror. Even though this fear is among the most serious, through education and treatment, people can successfully work past this irrational fear. Although most people can understand the fear of death, when a person suffers from a phobia, they have more intense, life-altering feelings of dread that can interfere with their day-to-day lives. The fear of death itself can lead to feelings of fear, paranoia, and serious anxiety attacks. Phobia sufferers often feel scared of circumstances under which they are not in complete control. Even though some individuals experience fear all the time, in others, it is only triggered by specific sights or events. For some individuals, the phobia may arise after a life-changing incident such as watching a loved one pass on. The phobia is distinguished overall by the experience of a strong, irrational fear of death, dying, and all things linked to death. The fear of death is rarely as simple as it would appear. This is because the phobia is associated with pain, hypochondria, fear of uncertainty, and other underlying worries that make it challenging to overcome. This complexity can be handled by a treatment intended to work against more than one phobia at a time. This is the case with a good hypnosis and NLP therapy program. Anxiety disorders can be treated in many different ways. Effective treatments include counseling and other types of therapy such as hypnotherapy, NLP, anti-stress medication, and anxiety-relief techniques. Hypnosis used in conjunction with NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) techniques tends to have one of the highest efficacy rates among the various treatment options because it uses various innovative ways of easing fears and relieving anxiety. A hypnosis therapy program opens with anxiety fighting techniques that make the mind open to phobia-relieving suggestions. Relief of anxiety and stress is a fundamental element of fear treatment because it is believed to be the initial stage in stopping panic attacks and warding off negative, fear-generating mental images. Systematic desensitization techniques combined with the state of hypnosis are another successful mechanism of treatment. Under the hypnotic state, a user is gently guided into visualizations of fear-triggering situations and is taught how to dissipate anxiety. After successful treatment, patients are able to stay rational and calm under circumstances which normally set off fear. Users also say that thoughts that normally lead to fear no longer cause them anxiety. Systematic desensitization may also be effectively conducted outside of the hypnotic state, but it then becomes a more difficult, time-consuming and involved process. The NLP Visual/Kinesthetic Disassociation is among the most effective technique to end strong fears. This technique helps patients “disassociate” their anxieties from the root, unconscious images that set off a panic attack, in a process that causes them to rapidly “snap out” of the feeling of fear. Due to this, programs using the V/K Disassociation are often hailed as “instant” phobia cures by their creators and users alike. Hypnosis has utilized increasingly sophisticated techniques for fear treatment. Ericksonian hypnotherapy, so named after its inventor, Milton Erickson, MD, has proven successful in helping to re-shape the unconscious thought processes responsible for a phobia. Using metaphorical language, it automatically directs the unconscious mind into a fear-free thought process. In a similar process, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is used to redirect the unconscious thought processes. With the NLP Flash technique, fear provoking thoughts will automatically be reversed to quell the negative feelings instead, achieving near-effortless phobia relief. The fear of death can be treated even when it is very severe. Traditional techniques teamed with hypnosis can speed up the treatment process, while novel hypnosis techniques work at the level of the unconscious mind to eliminate fear and anxiety. The non-invasive nature of hypnosis also makes it a safe treatment option as it can reduce or eliminate the need for anti-anxiety medication. Fear sufferers regularly report dramatic and life-changing effects arising from hypnotherapy. For countless people experiencing the fear of death, hypnotherapy offers an ideal form of treatment.

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Fear of Dying, Collapsing or Ill Health In Anxiety Disorder – Thanatophobia

Written by admin on March 11, 2010 – 2:13 pm -

The fear of dying ( Thanatophobia ), collapsing or ill health in anxiety disorders is common – US SITE: www.panic-anxiety.com UK SITE www.thelindenmethod.co.uk Charles Linden Explains how these fears are caused and what you can do to eliminate them completely.

Technorati Tags: Anxiety, Collapsing, Disorder, Dying, fear, Health, Thanatophobia

Tags: Anxiety, Collapsing, Disorder, Dying, fear, Health, Thanatophobia
Posted in Death, Uncategorized | No Comments »

A Passage of Time: Death as our Defining Moment

Written by admin on February 25, 2010 – 1:20 pm -

 

Thanatophobia is the fear of death, or the fear of dying. To be human is to be mortal, and if there is one moment, one action which is shared by every human who ever breathed, it is the moment of death. To be afraid of death is normal; we are hard wired to survive, to cling to life, to live to our full potential. Life is a journey, and it is in our genetic makeup to make every effort to make that journey as long as possible.

It is inevitable that our journey will end, as all journeys must do. What purpose is there in any journey we make if we have no intention of ever arriving?

The fear of dying is, deep down, a reason for living. But it is not the only reason, and an unhealthy preoccupation with dying will simply darken the whole journey. Imagine a train journey which is spent perpetually in fear of crashing headlong into some unseen obstacle. The entire journey would be spent scrutinizing the pinpoint of distance ahead, focussing only on the rails ahead and of the unseen obstacle. Far better, surely, would be to enjoy the journey – look to each side, and admire the view, watch the changing scenery unfold before you like the pages of an epic story, share the journey with those fellow passengers around you, and live whilst you are alive.

We have each been granted a glorious and unimaginably precious gift – a life. Each of us alive today has beaten the odds in spectacular fashion. It has taken billions of years to create you, and even at the moment of your conception you beat the odds of several million to one. We are each the culmination of eons of survival and success; we are each a spectacular winner in the survival stakes.

If you were to be given a gift of money, would you hide it away, looking at it occasionally, but keeping it locked away from sight and use for fear of losing it? Or would you enjoy the opportunity to use it to bring happiness, enjoyment, comfort or some experience which will become happy memories? To use our precious gift of life mulling gloomily on the fact that it is ultimately limited in length is to waste the time we do have; a time when we could be looking out of the window, becoming a part of the unfolding story, and celebrating the fact that we have beaten the infinitesimally small odds and made it here, all of us, together.

No story is successful without an ending, no poem complete without the poet’s concluding words, no sentence without its defining full stop. Death is our full stop, our defining moment – our grand conclusion, the final chapter to our current existences and this fabulous and unique passage of time that we are sharing with others. Death is the moment when this life becomes a sentence in the epic tale of life, a moment when we are defined in history, when we become the beautiful words in the poet’s last verse. It is the moment when our whole journey becomes worthwhile, when we arrive.

It is the ultimate mystery to know whether death marks the end of life, or merely the transition from one form to another. For many people religious beliefs serve as comfort, with the hope and faith of an eternal life beyond the physical existence we see. There is so much mystery and magic surrounding this world; to watch billions of tonnes of exploding gas rise up in the East and pour teeming life upon a globe suspended in an ultimate darkness is to see a world where almost anything seems possible. Science admits it has no answers, only questions. The more our scientists probe and explore, the more mystery is revealed. More scientists are turning to religion today than ever before.

To admit that a three pound lump of grey jelly is capable of thought so advanced that it can contemplate its own place in the universe, imagine beyond the physical world, probe deep within the fabric of the cosmos and still be able to remember how to boil an egg is to accept that this world contains something more incredible than could reasonably be expected. To consider that the imaginings of our brain extend beyond the physical realm we see is hardly far reaching.

We already accept that there is much we cannot see, yet know exists. We cannot see radio waves, or light, we cannot see the wind or heat, yet we know that they exist. An awareness beyond death is merely the shadow in the darkness we can’t see yet, until the light is switched on and it is revealed.

Whether you believe that there is a god, an eternal life force, or a world which exists on a parallel plane doesn’t matter – whether god is your religion, or science, or a self belief quite independent of others makes little difference – the thought of a further experience beyond death is comforting.

Perhaps scientist would do well to fall back upon the words of one of their own. Albert Einstein told us, even proved, that “Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only altered in form.” We, as human beings, are a collection of various types of energy. This energy, according to Einstein, has always been around and will forever be around. It can’t be destroyed, it can only change or alter in form; take on a different shape and appearance than what it once was. This is the reason spirit mediums are capable of connecting with those who have crossed over. It is because the essence of an individual’s soul, that energy, has altered from being embodied in one form and has changed into another form.

Yet again, to dwell purely on this possible extension of life is to dwell on the end of this journey. Yes, we may be on a train hurtling down the tracks towards a destination which may, or may not, be a station at which we disembark only to change trains and continue our journey – but this is a second journey, through different lands, with different stories and landscapes and experiences. We shall never again have the opportunity to look out of the windows we see now, to be part of the story unfolding right now, at this very minute.

Life without death is meaningless, as is light without darkness, heat without cold, happiness without pain. To consider one without the other takes away all meaning and substance from both.

Remember this – you are alive, now. More than this, you are alive and you are aware of that fact. There was a time before you, and there will be a time after you, but there will never again be an exact same world which you are currently living in and where you are a living sentence, an indisputable part of the epic tale that has been told for all eternity.

Live, don’t just survive; run, but not away from death – run through life only that you explore as much of it as possible. One does not throw away the seeds because the plant will only die; we plant it, nurture, it, spend every day helping it to grow not just to survive, but to bloom, to blossom, to be beautiful and alive.

Be alive, be beautiful. Tomorrow will come, but today is already here. Let’s discover what part we play in today’s chapter, and let the storyteller worry about tomorrow’s plot.

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