What is Necrophobia?
Most people searching for the term necrophobia on the Internet may find themselves frustrated by search returns. Necrophobia, which may also be called thanatophobia, is the fear of death, fear of dying, fear of dead things, or fear of things related to death. Unfortunately, the websites that describe this fear tend to do little to allay it. First, they may briefly describe the fear and then form a statement that basically says “get over it,” or they may suggest the fear can be resolved if only a person will believe certain religious precepts.
Like all phobias, necrophobia is an irrational fear. Talking people out of it is not easily done. Appealing to the rational mind will not work, and many people with this fear may already have deeply held religious convictions about continuation of life in some form after death. These simple solutions posed by many websites will do little to end this phobia and may only serve to make it worse or make a person feel yet more abnormal for having this fear.
Naturally, all things die, and most people are able to make their peace with that in one way or another, but the person with true necrophobia needs much more help in this respect. Faced with this constant fear, especially if the fear is of personally dying, the necrophobic person may develop many other fears. They may not leave the safety of their homes because dying seems more possible outside. They might be afraid of violent attack or violent sexual attack (agraphobia). Other fears like fear of heights or of being in enclosed spaces could evolve, and some people develop constant symptoms that they are dying and spend a lot of time at doctor’s offices seeking reassurance that they are not.
When necrophobia is more the fear of dead things, usual events like attending funerals may be torturous, and people could develop severe anxiety symptoms regarding this. These could include high or fast heart rate and respiration rate, profuse sweating, and massive panic attacks. Yet these could also occur when a person in general fears death, and they may occur any time the fear of death is activated, which can be often.
Such anxieties, which can be so difficult to live with, are best addressed by work with a psychiatrist and therapist. Psychiatrists may be able to prescribe medications that can help reduce panic symptoms. Therapists can use a number of techniques to help a person gradually overcome the larger aspects of this phobia. These could include hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and desensitization work.
Another important part of therapeutic care is finding out which things trigger the person with necrophobia. The fear may have developed when a person witnessed a death, or was forced to attend a funeral as a child. There can be a direct cause between past experiences and development of this fear; and it’s wise for parents to take this into account when they must help a child recover from the death of a loved one. Forcing kids to attend open casket funerals may not be a great idea, though this won’t always cause necrophobic feelings.
Some believe that fear of death and dying things has become much more exaggerated in the modern world because many people have eliminated the natural presence of death in their lives. In Victorian novels, the deathbed scene where family surrounded a beloved elder or child was very common, and it reflected the ordinary way death was perceived in the culture. Today, there are fewer of these scenes, and most people die at hospitals instead of in homes. There does seem to be less necrophobia in cultures where death is still treated as a natural part of life.
Yet however formed, it is important not to underestimate the suffering of the person who fears death so much that it induces anxiety and panic symptoms. This is a real illness that needs to be treated with compassion and requires medical and mental health care. While it is true, that all people may harbor some small fear regarding the end of life, the necrophobic’s fear regarding this is huge, encompassing and overwhelming, and it cannot be resolved with a good logical talk or through most religious means.
Written by Tricia Ellis-Christensen
