Death anxiety

Death anxiety refers the fear of and anxiety related to the anticipation, and awareness, of dying, death, and nonexistence. It typically includes emotional, cognitive, and motivational components that vary according to a person’s stage of development and sociocultural life experiences (Lehto & Stein, 2009). Death anxiety is associated with fundamental brain structures that regulate fight-or-flight responses and record emotionally charged explicit and implicit memories (Panksepp, 2004). Cognitive dimensions of death anxiety can include an awareness of the salience of death and a variety of beliefs, attitudes, images, and thoughts concerning death, dying, and what happens after death (Lehto & Stein, 2009). Death anxiety can be experienced consciously or unconsciously; it can motivate individuals to ameliorate their death anxiety through distraction (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, Simon, & Breus, 1994), attempts to enhance self-esteem...