Helping Patient with Death Anxiety in Living With Dying, A Handbook For End-Of-Life Healthcare Practitioners by Zilberfein and Hurwitz

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.

Death is an unknown place that people tend to avoid because of the fear that surrounds it. But, there should be fear or anxiety that has built up because being in a strange place will definitely add anxiety and fear to a person. Ron Scranton confirms this idea by saying. “learning how to die isn’t easy… I was terrified by the idea”. From the time when he was in the army, he had no choice but to face the idea of death. What seems to scare individuals the most is the thought and process

Facing Death is a compelling documentary on, oftentimes, the final journey patients and their families will venture through together in life. The documentary seeks to capture how the patients and their families respond to the inevitability of death. The film includes families who respond to the issue by allowing their family member, the patient, to pass through the door of death without aggressive care, while there are yet other families who insist on everything being done to delay the moment of death. This topic of fighting death is attributed with producing much debate. On one hand are those who do not see the point of fighting death, however, on the other hand, there are those who believe that delaying death and staying alive is what ought to be done. Personally, from what I understand of either party, I think that I am a part of the later party. In addition, this issue naturally delves into what one believes occurs after death, as it is an issue dealing directly with death. This also compels me to view this topic from the viewpoint of the later party.

Death is one of the most avoided topics because of the finality that comes with it and the fear of the unknown after death. However, there are quite a number of authors such as AtulGawande, Elisabeth Kubler-ross and Ira Byock who have attempted to go ahead and deal with death as a topic and other connected topics.Each of these authors have delved into one of the most revered topics that is death including related topics that come with it such as the dying process itself. Ira Byock’s Dying well: Peace and possibilities at the end of life is a book that looks at the moment prior to death when an individual is terminally sick and is at the point of death. A

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death by Irvin D. Yalcom is a raw and unfiltered look at one of the most difficult challenges everyone faces, death. He takes you through the real-life experiences of his patients, past and present, and shares his thoughts about death. The real-life examples have a way of grasping your attention and pulling you in. He assists his patients in recognizing the reality of death, but not fearing it. Yalcom suggests that people have varying degrees of death anxiety. For some, death is not even a thought, while for others it may consume their thoughts. He also suggests that our everyday anxieties may ultimately originate from our fear of death. He includes observations of approaches used by famous philosophers. While reading, you cannot help but to contemplate your own life and envision your death.

Research Report: Review of the Literature on Anticipated vs. Unanticipated Death and their Corresponding Coping Skills

Modern medicine has been fighting death and whether that is good or bad remains unknown. In the essay “On The Fear Of Dying,” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross dissects modern medicines effects on living and examines the mental and emotional toll it has taken on people. In the essay she talks about how regardless of modern medicine’s benefits, has allowed us to become more wary of acknowledging death and accepting it. The author explains that despite the advantages of these new advancements, medical advancements have lead to more emotional and mental problems regarding death. While Kübler-Ross takes a rather grim outlook on modern medicine, I agree with her; modern medicine has increased the average lifespan but has not changed the fearful ways we view death, has destroyed how we cope with death and dying, and has made dying an unpleasant experience.

Death is an inevitable fate for all living beings. It’s an aspect of life that can be hard to deal with, and the ability to overcome the fear of this unavoidable event can be difficult when it comes to knowing the reality of your fate in an

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who spent two years of her professional career gathering information from terminally ill patients to create the premise for On Death and Dying. “It is not meant to be a textbook on how to manage dying patients, nor is it intended as a complete study of the psychology of dying.” (Kübler-Ross, 1969). This book was written as a call-to-action; to raise awareness of the voice of the dying. Not only is there stigma surrounding the topic, but also numerous misconceptions concerning the emotional journey of the terminally ill. The Kübler-Ross Model creates a framework for those interacting with dying persons, to help caretakers better understand the transitions that are taking place, resulting in higher-quality care. This model is comprised of five stages, which can be experienced in a variety of combinations. Prior to the first stage, the patient must be delivered the news of their illness or the severity of their illness, which usually results in shock. Denial is the first stage noted by Kübler-Ross. Denial and isolation are normal responses to overwhelming emotions and serve as a temporary response until the individual is ready to accept reality. Although this defense mechanism is normative, it is important to note that it isn’t necessarily healthy, and that some never move past this stage. As reality sets in, pain beings to emerge and manifests itself in the next stage: anger. Rationality takes a

What is death? What makes death such an avoided subject? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, death is defined as: the permanent cessation of vital functions; the end of life. So maybe we fear death and death’s process because the thought of life ending is unbearable or because we know little about the dying process and naturally, as humans, we fear the unknown. These all may be true and in most cases probably are. But if one was to take a look at death and the process and consider the true meaning of that very moment in one’s life, maybe we would view it differently and maybe, just maybe, see life itself in a whole new way?! Marie de Hennezel, in her book Intimate Death defines death as

Our society finds it difficult to talk about dying and euphemisms are the norm. It is typical for both doctors and patients to be hesitant to initiate a discussion on dying. Focus instead is often more often placed on interventions and actions for managing symptoms. This avoidance can leave patients and their families unprepared for the inevitable death. (Schapira, 2010) It also often results in requests for therapies which may be excessive, costly and even painful in the hopes for a cure. One study demonstrates that when patients are aware that they are terminally ill, the majority are able to reach a state of peacefulness and also exhibit lower levels of distress. (Ray, Block, Friedlander, Zhang, Maciejewski & Prigerson, 2006) It is also important that family members are willing to discuss end-of-life options with their loved ones. According to elderly patients, they are most often the ones who initiate these conversations with their

However, how a person responds to their fears is individualised and mostly unpredictable due to the varied capacities people have to cope with death, pain or judgment; crises, grief, trauma and/or loss. Evidence suggests that the physiological development of a person, from birth to life event, shapes their capacities to cope with their life event. In addition, practitioners value conflicts/coping mechanisms are changeable/teachable given their will do so and openness to learning. Interestingly, this papers writer discovered that the differences between euthanasia and palliative care are differentiated primarily by method. That is, for the death to be labelled euthanasia it requires the ill person or the physician to carry out the act. Similarly, “palliative care” or end of life care requires either the ill person or the physician to reduce/stop treatment. For that reason, euthanasia and palliative care is interchangeably a way to end the needless suffering of the ill person. Conversely, these forms of death ends the suffering of everyone

I feel that when it is your time to go, you are going. That’s really the only belief that I have about death. Explain how level of death anxiety may be impacted by gender, age and mental health. Death anxiety in gender, women tend to have higher death anxiety scores than men on self-report scales. This does not mean that women get excited over everything it’s just that men usually tend not to show any emotional feelings about an emotional situation. Death anxiety in age, death anxiety is higher in adolescents and early adulthood. Then it decreases as we settle in life and by the time we get old anxiety gets higher again, by the time you reach seventy your anxiety will go back down. By this time in life you start looking forward to death. Most of your friends maybe dead already, your parents, siblings, and spouse by this time may already be deceased so in a way you have embraced death at this point. Death anxiety in mental health and illness, death anxiety is higher in people with diagnosed psychiatric conditions. Selective attention is when you have so much going on and you get distracted. You are not trying to avoid anything your mind is just on somewhere else. Selective response is when a person has thoughts about death but they choose who they want to talk to about it. Compartmentalizing is when you realize and understand that he is in a life-threatening situation and choose to respond to some aspects of the illness. Deception is when someone

According to Kübler-Ross, “there are a common set of emotional responses that individuals share when they receive the knowledge that one has a serious, and probably fatal, illness.” This claim is supported by Kübler-Ross’s stages of dying theory, which states that “similar reactions might occur in response to any major loss” as follows: denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. If I were to propose a program to deal with death, I would develop a solution to each stage in Kübler-Ross’s stages of dying theory. Kübler-Ross refers to the denial stage as a defense mechanism in which anxiety provoking thoughts are kept out of, or “isolated” from, conscious awareness. This stage is the most important stage to overcome because if an individual continues to deny the death of a love one, they can’t positively progress to the acceptance of the death. To establish a sense of support, I would develop an open discussion counseling similar to the Alcohol Anonymous Program, which allows those who have experience death to share their story to others who deny death because they feel as if they are alone in the

Death is the thing you hear and known about but never truly know until you face it. I never thought death would frighten me until I was looking at my mom in the hospital; her face bruised from going unconscious and hitting the floor from what the doctors diagnosed her with “unclassified cardiomyopathy”. Death not only caused me to worry for my family, but also even made me worry for my future. With almost losing a special person, I realized that life can suddenly be taken from you. Life is valuable and should not be taken for granted and to savor everything.