Invisible Death Anxiety
Working as a therapist, "hints" of death and its accompanying anxiety are never absent. I hardly get through my sessions without sensing a cry for help from individuals hurt by dire consequences and relationships.
It's not private bias or indulgence on my part. It's a universal concern we all have as human beings.
This "death anxiety" though is often invisible. A male patient in his early 40s told me about his much younger cousin who died recently of cancer. After learning it, he suddenly felt a rushing in his panic attacks.
Once while inside an airplane, everything was well when he took his seat. Then suddenly, he became so uneasy and felt, "This plane is where I am and it's about to crash!" No amount of care from his wife or plane assistants could calm his anxiety and fear.
We have two choices to deal with "invisible death anxiety." We either face the truth directly or we try to flee the anxious feelings and not attempt to come to terms with it. I think the latter response appears more common in modern times.
In the "Hour of Death," author Philippe Aries writes, "Except for the death of statesmen, society has banished death. In the towns, there is no way of knowing that something has happened ... Society no longer observes a pause; the disappearance of an individual no longer affects it's continuity."
Ernest Becker, in his "The Denial of Death," describes the reality of the human condition. He says, "Man is a worm and food for the worms. This is the paradox; he is out of nature and hopelessly in it; he is dual ... Literally split in two... He sticks out of nature with a towering majesty and yet goes back into the ground a few feet ... to rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and have to live with."
Thus to make invisible our inherent death anxiety makes little sense. Our society focuses us more on the "economic" or "making a living." Such conditions us to deny or be unprepared to dying. Yet we all need to face the reality of it to live well.
Free from the non-essentials of life or unnecessary personal disabilities. Free from "denying the problem," "immature defenses," "distortion of our reactions," or projecting fears to things or persons.
Death anxiety is not beyond human control. If it's made visible and faced head-on, it can bring much quality of life. Especially in light of our limited years. I believe the measure of a good life is how we view and transcend our own death.
It's not private bias or indulgence on my part. It's a universal concern we all have as human beings.
This "death anxiety" though is often invisible. A male patient in his early 40s told me about his much younger cousin who died recently of cancer. After learning it, he suddenly felt a rushing in his panic attacks.
Once while inside an airplane, everything was well when he took his seat. Then suddenly, he became so uneasy and felt, "This plane is where I am and it's about to crash!" No amount of care from his wife or plane assistants could calm his anxiety and fear.
We have two choices to deal with "invisible death anxiety." We either face the truth directly or we try to flee the anxious feelings and not attempt to come to terms with it. I think the latter response appears more common in modern times.
In the "Hour of Death," author Philippe Aries writes, "Except for the death of statesmen, society has banished death. In the towns, there is no way of knowing that something has happened ... Society no longer observes a pause; the disappearance of an individual no longer affects it's continuity."
Ernest Becker, in his "The Denial of Death," describes the reality of the human condition. He says, "Man is a worm and food for the worms. This is the paradox; he is out of nature and hopelessly in it; he is dual ... Literally split in two... He sticks out of nature with a towering majesty and yet goes back into the ground a few feet ... to rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and have to live with."
Thus to make invisible our inherent death anxiety makes little sense. Our society focuses us more on the "economic" or "making a living." Such conditions us to deny or be unprepared to dying. Yet we all need to face the reality of it to live well.
Free from the non-essentials of life or unnecessary personal disabilities. Free from "denying the problem," "immature defenses," "distortion of our reactions," or projecting fears to things or persons.
Death anxiety is not beyond human control. If it's made visible and faced head-on, it can bring much quality of life. Especially in light of our limited years. I believe the measure of a good life is how we view and transcend our own death.
Comments