The bases of death anxiety... which affect you the most?

[Blue3]

According to one psychological theory, these are the bases of death anxiety...

1. Which affect you the most?

2. And which do you think are most common for people in general?

From this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_anxiety_(psychology)#Meaning_management_theory

[fhtagn]

Personally uncertainty for me. I don't know what to believe since there are so many different views on what happens when we die, and nothing to prove any of them.

I think uncertainty and leaving loved ones are probably the ones that affect the most people, though, leaving loved ones could also be tied into uncertainty if you really think about it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The penultimate option is the most important for me. There are things I want to do in my life, and I fear dying without having done them first.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

A lot of these are synonymous.

[Blue3]

A lot of these are synonymous.

How so? They seem rather distinct to me.

[Mr. Smith]

Uncertainty for sure for reasons fhtagn stated.

After that, assuming the atheists are correct, the finality of it.

[°Leprechaun]

No, death is only a problem for those left behind. If one's personal death is truly death it is nothing and therefore nothing to be feared.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

A lot of these are synonymous.

How so? They seem rather distinct to me.

"Of course I fear finality and annihilation- they would mean a disruption of my life flow and never seeing my loved ones again!"

Like, obviously.

[Blue3]

A lot of these are synonymous.

How so? They seem rather distinct to me.

"Of course I fear finality and annihilation- they would mean a disruption of my life flow and never seeing my loved ones again!"

Like, obviously.

Um, no. That's selecting multiple options. You can be one of those and none of the others, and vice versa.

[Antonio the Sixth]

None bothers me that much, tbh. I might be a really weird guy, or maybe it just hasn't hit me yet because I'm young and careless about the future, but the prospect of dying really doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. I'd rather not die if I could, but if I do, well, either it won't hurt me because I won't be feeling anything at all, or I will access a higher level of consciousness of some nature (and if this consciousness entails some form of suffering, then I must believe that this suffering will be temporary and ultimately make me a better person). There is an infinity of things I find much scarier.

[Blue3]

None bothers me that much, tbh. I might be a really weird guy, or maybe it just hasn't hit me yet because I'm young and careless about the future, but the prospect of dying really doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. I'd rather not die if I could, but if I do, well, either it won't hurt me because I won't be feeling anything at all, or I will access a higher level of consciousness of some nature (and if this consciousness entails some form of suffering, then I must believe that this suffering will be temporary and ultimately make me a better person). There is an infinity of things I find much scarier.

Well, neuroscientists say the brain doesn't truly develop to understand mortality until around the age of 26.

[Antonio the Sixth]

None bothers me that much, tbh. I might be a really weird guy, or maybe it just hasn't hit me yet because I'm young and careless about the future, but the prospect of dying really doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. I'd rather not die if I could, but if I do, well, either it won't hurt me because I won't be feeling anything at all, or I will access a higher level of consciousness of some nature (and if this consciousness entails some form of suffering, then I must believe that this suffering will be temporary and ultimately make me a better person). There is an infinity of things I find much scarier.

Well, neuroscientists say the brain doesn't truly develop to understand mortality until around the age of 26.

Oh wow, really? That's fascinating. I had no idea the brain had much left to develop after 15-16 or so.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Oh wow, really? That's fascinating. I had no idea the brain had much left to develop after 15-16 or so.

While I can't speak specifically to the neurology of mortality awareness, the brain does remain fairly plastic and adventurous until around 25 or so.  It's one reason why teenagers make so many boneheaded decisions.  It's evolution's way of helping the species as a whole, since some of those leaps of faith teenagers make prove to be advantageous despite there being no rational way of knowing ahead of time.

[Bojack Horseman]

The unknown mostly. My grandmother's husband is fast approaching the end of the line, and he doesn't want to go. He's fighting the drugs they're giving him to relieve his pain and keep him calm, and he had to be physically restrained last night because he kept trying to get out of bed. The entire time he was screaming that if he laid down, he was going to die.

[Blue3]

For me...

-failure of life work completion (particularly if I'm a father of young children when it happens)

-annihilation/finality... it possibly being "The End"



I might also add

-not really me leaving loved ones... more like "the pain my death would cause for loved ones"

-not knowing how things turn out in the future

-death being involuntary and forced upon us

[All Along The Watchtower]

Oh wow, really? That's fascinating. I had no idea the brain had much left to develop after 15-16 or so.

While I can't speak specifically to the neurology of mortality awareness, the brain does remain fairly plastic and adventurous until around 25 or so.  It's one reason why teenagers make so many boneheaded decisions.  It's evolution's way of helping the species as a whole, since some of those leaps of faith teenagers make prove to be advantageous despite there being no rational way of knowing ahead of time.

I thought that men's brains don't mature as fast as women's. Presumably that would have a role in plasticity over time?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

It's how you look at death, is it going home to be with the Lord or your body shutting down and cease to exist.

We all suffer from grief, but we all have to go sometime.  But, science is getting better so that our lives are extended significantly.

[Blue3]

For me...

-failure of life work completion (particularly if I'm a father of young children when it happens)

-annihilation/finality... it possibly being "The End"



I might also add

-not really me leaving loved ones... more like "the pain my death would cause for loved ones"

-not knowing how things turn out in the future

-death being involuntary and forced upon us

I guess to further summarize this, it would be...

1, I want to simply live (and since I don't know for sure as a scientific fact that there's an afterlife, I want to live as long as I can)

2. I want to know how the future turns out, for both the world and my loved ones

3. I want to at least have enough time to feel fulfilled, like my life's work is complete

[anvi]

My views on this have changed a lot over the years.  Anyway, I voted pain and loneliness, prematurity and violence and failure to complete life aims.  Annihilation and finality don't really bother me, since I have no unhappy memories of the time before I existed, which was quite a while.  . The judgment and retribution issues don't bother me since I have not believed in life after death since my teens.  I never used to think about pain and loneliness before, but when I consider how one of my brothers died a few years ago and how my mom died a few months ago, these became quite real for me.  

By the way, pertinent to one of the discussions above: my understanding of neuroscience on the issue being talked about is that the neurons in the cerebral cortex don't become fully myelinated till about the age of 25.  That means that the thinking part of the brain in general--not just the parts related to morality, which are quite widely distributed--are not fully "online" until then.  The consequence is that people younger than 25 tend to make decisions on the basis of instinct, emotional reactions, associative connections and so on than they do on the basis of reflective thinking.  But we are talking about generalised capacity here only.  I know plenty of people older than 25 who don't primarily make decisions on the basis of reflection either--as well as some very sharp, even brilliant, even genius, young people.

[Blue3]

My views on this have changed a lot over the years.  Anyway, I voted pain and loneliness, prematurity and violence and failure to complete life aims.  Annihilation and finality don't really bother me, since I have no unhappy memories of the time before I existed, which was quite a while.  . The judgment and retribution issues don't bother me since I have not believed in life after death since my teens.  I never used to think about pain and loneliness before, but when I consider how one of my brothers died a few years ago and how my mom died a few months ago, these became quite real for me.  

By the way, pertinent to one of the discussions above: my understanding of neuroscience on the issue being talked about is that the neurons in the cerebral cortex don't become fully myelinated till about the age of 25.  That means that the thinking part of the brain in general--not just the parts related to morality, which are quite widely distributed--are not fully "online" until then.  The consequence is that people younger than 25 tend to make decisions on the basis of instinct, emotional reactions, associative connections and so on than they do on the basis of reflective thinking.  But we are talking about generalised capacity here only.  I know plenty of people older than 25 who don't primarily make decisions on the basis of reflection either--as well as some very sharp, even brilliant, even genius, young people.

I do have to say that, while I thought I understood death very well before, for some reason I understood it even more deeply than I thought possible in my late 20's.

[Georg Ebner]

Fear of Heaven.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I no longer fear death like I did in the pass. I will live a long life, as long as I am healthy.  There isn't a fatal disease that will kill you instantly.  And now I acknowledge that.

[HillGoose]

Leaving loved ones and life flow disruption, at least if 'life flow disruption' is what I think it is.

The only person I really love is my fiancee, and the thought of her possibly dying before me in several decades is one of the worst thoughts to me. Like I definitely hope I die first just because I'm sure she could get along without me but I don't know if I could without her. Also by that point we'll probably have a child, so leaving them will be awful too.

Life flow disruption is another one, at least if it mean what I think it does. One of the biggest things about dying to me is that it's annoying because then you don't get to see what happens next. Seeing what happens next is one of the things that drives me in life so not being able to do that is actually a big source of anxiety for me.

I used to fear "judgement and retribution" but I've come to terms with my beliefs. I don't know what comes after death, and that's okay with me. I don't get the idea that religion or spirituality can predict it. I do have a bit of a fear that God is actually cosmic Saddam Hussein and that when I die I'll be thrown into hell for not being his little bitch and bowing down before the Great Dear Leader his Royal Highness so he can absolve me of my thoughtcrime while I was alive, which is what most religions and spiritual traditions seem to bend towards. But I also don't think that's likely, as the more I learn the more I become convinced that religion (and the whole idea of God) was invented by ancient governments as a means of control. I think it's far more likely that when we die we either cease to exist or we go somewhere not totally good or bad, like Earth.

So honestly I don't know. I guess I'll just have to wait and see on that, then work with it if there is an afterlife. It doesn't give me anxiety of uncertainty because whatever it is I won't roll over and give up.

[Blue3]

Any new thoughts, with all the recent events with the pandemic affecting anyone differently with their attitude towards death?

[Mr. Smith]

No, death is only a problem for those left behind. If one's personal death is truly death it is nothing and therefore nothing to be feared.

Nothing is a terrifying concept inherently.