How to Overcome the Fear of Death?

You cannot enjoy life, because you do not know how to overcome the fear of death, do you? We know how to help you. Read this article.


For the whole life a man experiences plenty of various fears, but the most common is considered to be the fear of death.

Many people try avoiding thoughts about it, realizing the death is an inevitability, from which one cannot hide or go away.

What do you feel when you think that your close and beloved people are going to disappear forever some day?

Such thoughts are difficult to overcome and they find their reflection not only in the burdensome feeling of hopelessness, but also trigger some unpleasant body reactions: shivering, pain in the chest, a lump in the throat.

All these expressions are connected with the fear of death, which is also called thanatophobia (“tanatos” – “death”).

People, who fear death, are said to die day by day, because they are constantly thinking about the end of their lives.

They constantly feel tension and cannot overcome it.

They are afraid of all things around: illnesses, accidents, people who threat their safety.

They suffer and do not know how to overcome this situation.

So, let’s try to figure out how to overcome the fear of death.

Why does the fear of death appear?

Every man has his own images of death.

However, on the appearance of fear of death generally influence the following factors:

  • The feeling of attachment to a person.

    A person doesn’t want to part with close people, favorite job, and wealth.

  • The horror of uncertainty.

    The fear to cross the line, behind which there is only uncertainty, is inherent to many people and they are not able to overcome it.

    This is less expressed when you change your place of work, get married, or move to another country.

    Though, the death is permanent, and the fear is much stronger.

  • Unwillingness to feel physical pain.

    If all people died calmly while they were dreaming, the fear of death would have much less “fans”.

    Many people are afraid that the process of death will be accompanied by the terrible pain caused by some traumas or diseases.

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  • The fear of the personal decrepit state.

    People, who are used to controlling and commanding everything and everyone, feel terrible, when they cannot go to the bathroom on their own or can’t get up to get a glass of water.

    Nobody wants to be a burden to a family, being on a deathbed. Nevertheless, still worse feel those, who realize that there is no one to take care of them.

    This list of fears proves – a person is afraid not of the death itself, but of the preceding events.

    Almost 80% of the reviewed answered they wanted to die suddenly and only 20 people chose death as a result of illness.

    It means many people fear the process of death.

Symptoms of the fear of death

Any phobia has both hidden and visible symptoms.

People, who suffer from thanatophobia, are obsessed by their own death and cannot overcome the obsession.

Fixed ideas may become the reason for the deterioration of health and the quality of life in general.

Such restlessness is reflected, in the first place, on the physiology.

A man:

  • suffers from insomnia;
  • loses his appetite;
  • suffers from neurotic pains;
  • becomes irritated, aggressive and nervous.

People suffering from thanatophobia are easily recognized – they are suspicious, anxious, non-confident, and are always obsessed with the trifles.

What should you know to overcome the fear of death?

  1. Talk to somebody about your fears.

    You’ll feel much easier, if you talk to a person, whom you can totally trust and express all your emotions and feelings.

    Try to figure out together, why you feel discomfort and look for a way how you can overcome the situation.

    It will be much easier to do it together, because another person may suggest a solution by the fresh opinion from the side.

  2. In order to overcome the fear of death, sort out all your convictions and life values.

    All our deepest convictions serve as a ground of how we live and how we will live.

    If there are some contradictions between what we are doing and what we feel about how it must be done, we get spiritual torments.

    Think how you would answer the question about the sense and goal of human existence and estimate whether your lifestyle, business and actions actually reflect your convictions.

  3. Do not worry until it’s time.

    Death is not the thing you must worry about.It’s probably the thing you are to learn how to accept it as a part of life, as its natural continuation.

    Brave people do not think about death even if they are ill with hard and incurable diseases.

    The first thing they are thinking about is how many chances they have to stay alive, even if they are really small and they may not overcome it.

    Besides, these people survive much more often, than those, who have easier diagnoses but are pessimistic about their recovery and think only about death.

    So, is it worth torturing yourself by the fear of death, if you are still full of life?

  4. Change the scale of your life values in order to overcome the fear of death.

    Remember that all creature comforts, including your body will stay behind, when you die.

    That’s why devote more time to the things in your life, which are not located in the material plane.

    Think how you spend your time and where you put your energy.

    These are your limited and precious resources.

    Learn how to invest them wisely.

    Improve your patience, sympathy, kindness and love towards you and other people.

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  5. Start living a full life.

    Do not waste your precious time on anxieties about death.

    Instead, fill your existence with happiness and do not let small misfortunes make you feel pity.

    Be more often on the loan of nature, communicate with your friends, get yourself busy with a new hobby.

    Open your new and new talents and try to fulfill all your capabilities.

    Just do everything you like and what is useful to you and the people around.

    It is a sure-fire way how to forget about death.

  6. Develop positive thinking to overcome the fear of death.

    Optimism will make you live longer and postpone your death by this.

    Researches showed that people, who have optimistic views about life, suffer less from heart diseases which cause most deaths on the planet nowadays.

    So, do not worry and you’ll live longer!

  7. Identify death as a natural continuation of life.

    Understand – this is a cycle: people are born, they live, die and another people are born.

    They also live and die.

    Everybody has a place in this cycle and someday we’ll also have to leave to give space to the new generations, just as previous generations left in order to give us some space.

    Accept the running of time as a possibility to do something useful while you are alive, to store the good deeds, which are sure to become your trace on the Earth and which you’ll leave as a heritage to those, who will eventually be gone too.

  8. Stop thinking that you’ll sink into oblivion after death.

    Dear people, who left us, will always live in our hearts and memories.

    That’s why you shouldn’t think about death but focus on how you live in order to learn how to give your warmth and love to the close ones.

  9. You can console yourself and hope that death is not a complete disappearance.

    Nobody actually knows what happens for real.

    Nobody among the living could look behind the curtain of that very mystery, and nobody can say for sure there is “something” there, or there is nothing at all.

    Materialistic views on life and death assert physical reality is the only possible reality, but it’s only one system of convictions, and not more.

    No one knows what happens, when a person dies, the mystery is too uncomprehended.

    We can only guess.

    So, why should you suppose the worst?

  10. In order to overcome the fear of death, do not be afraid of pain.

    It may also happen that we are worried not about our possible sufferings during dying, but we cannot overcome the fact that our close person suffered seeing you dying.

    Moreover, we are afraid he will die and feel terrible pain.Situations may be different, but one thing unites all of them: we often set death equal to pain.

    Nevertheless, death is not necessarily pain.

    Though, physical pain plays a huge part during the course of our lives (actually, the pain is needed to preserve our lives and warn about danger), but after death neither you, nor your close people will feel pain.

    Even if a person is gone, and he suffered much pain because of the illness – try to console yourself by the fact that now he is free from sufferings.

  11. To overcome the fear of death completely, try to imagine how after death you’ll be gone to a place where you’d feel happy.

    Almost all world religions assert that this is what actually happens.

    Who knows, maybe they are right?

    There is no proof either “for” or “against” it!

Now you know how to overcome the fear of death.

Besides, people, who are satisfied with their lives practically have no phobias, they just live and enjoy their lives.

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