Death Anxiety and Fear Effect Elderly People
Yadi Mao
Professor: Teddy Chocos
FYS
May 14th, 2013
At the time people were born, everyone of them was meant to die- it is just the matter of time. However, people do not normally think about this fact, until they truly need to face the situation of dying. As for the seniors, or as for every one of the people who is growing old, the final destination of all is the graveside. Because of the unknown feeling of dying, majority of people would feel afraid, and panic in the front of death. And the amount of fear and anxiety that people have is different during different stages of life. Some people believe that as the process of aging, death anxiety and fear would decrease, like Rudi De Raedt does. He assumes in the scholastic journal, “Death Anxiety Disappear in Old Age”, that "one would intuitively assume that death anxiety should increase...However...death anxiety...decrease with aging"(1). He believes that young people will be affected more by the death and anxiety than elderly people. However, it cannot present all- in fact, death anxiety and fear would increase as people are aging; which means that senior group of people will be effected more.
Generally speaking, as Marjolein Missler, who’s from Utrecht University, states in his scholastic journal- “Exploring Death Anxiety Among Elderly People”, that “death is an irreversible cessation of bodily and mental functions”(358). This indicates that life is like an one-way journey, and the death means the end of everything. The process of living cannot be reversed, and, basically, it also cannot be extended. Every happy and prescious memory and thing would seem to slip away from people, and disappear for good. Therefore, “death” would usually be thought of by people as a word of scary and bad. And all these negative common senses and comments of it lead people toward the death anxiety and fear. As De Raedt defines in his scholastic journal, the death anxiety and fear is “an emotional reaction involving subjective feelings of unpleasantness... related to death”(1). This means that death anxiety and fear would occur to people, at the time when there happened to be something that related to the death. And as elders have more possibility to deal with death than the youths, death anxiety and fear will have a huge effect on both quality and altitude of the elderly people toward their daily livings. Therefore, it is important for the old people to understand what death really is; and figure out the true meaning of lives. Also, from the understanding, they can get over the influence of death anxiety and fear on them, and have much better and more optimistic ways of living.
Actually, there are three major factors that will cause and have effect on elderly people’s death anxiety and fear. The first and the biggest part of the factors is seniors’ physical and mental health condition. It is a fact that commonly old people do not have as good health condition as young people have. In Sharon Curtin’s article “Aging in the Land of the Young”, there states that “the cells of the brain are destroyed with thousands of unfelt tiny strokes, little pockets of clotted blood wiping out memories and abilities without warning.”(56) Loss of memory, and slowing down of the body functions would cause a lot of inconvenience and troubles in elderly people’s day to day lives. With the process of getting old, seniors’ bodies start to loss their functioning ability naturally and unconsciously. Their immune systems cannot work as well as before, which will raise their risk of getting sick. Elderly people are not as energetic as before, and for even worse situations, they are not allowed to do other activities they used to do, for example, driving. They start to panic when they suddenly realize that their body condition can no longer support their livings like it used to work. As more and more things that old people cannot do, or not allow to do due to their health conditions, there comes the anxiety and fear of death. Like what Missler says, “...good physical health is associated with lower degrees of death anxiety in general;...mental well-being is also associated with lower death anxiety level.”(365) The more diseases old people get, the more death anxiety and fear they will receive. They will worry about whether if the illnesses are going to take away their last breath, or to stop their last heart beat. And also, poor mental health condition will blow up the panic and depression from their death anxiety and fear.
The second factor is the loss experiences that seniors have. The loss of friends or loved ones will bring up the feelings of grief, depressed, and anxious to them. Curtin says in her article that “the world becomes narrower as friends and family die or move away.”(56) The moving or passing away of their closed friends and beloved family members would make a huge change in elderly people’s lives. Their living and communication circle is narrowed because of the changes. This causes the increasing feeling of their loneliness, and which is also connected to the death fear and anxiety. And the death of their closed friends would also remind them that probably, someday sooner, they would facing to the situation of death too. The sudden thoughts of death would also make them feel anxious and afraid. As seniors do not have a very broad In Missler’s journal that “...death anxiety levels are usually higher following loss experiences. Such an experience might activate schemes related to death and dying.”(365) The loss experience is like an alarm; it reminds the seniors that everything happened to their friends will also occur to themselves. They feel grieved, painful, and panic at the same time. And the deeper seniors’ dread is, the greater influence of death anxiety and fear is added.
The social support of the elder people is the last element. As a special group in the society, the actions from other young people can influence the seniors directly. Curtin also writes that “...the young mothers and their children gathered on one side, and the old people from the other.”(57) She uses a scene she saw in the park, that elderly people are automatically be separated by an invisible line from the youth. Every time when the young kids “over across” the boundary line between the two generations, their mothers would imminently come to take them away. Even the mothers would apologize to the elderly people to being nice and kind, but the seniors are obviously be isolated. They are respected but drifted apart by the society people. The separation causes the loneliness and isolation of the old people; and these feelings cause their death anxiety and fear. Old people need care and support from the society. The lack of social support would lead to the increasing their feelings of isolation and loneliness, and which would further increase seniors’ death anxiety and fear.
Like each coin has two sides, the effect of death anxiety and fear of senior people have both positive and negative sides. It is good for the senior people to have some bits of death anxiety and fear, for it will let them to prepare for the future death. But the negative effect is something that seniors need to get over with. In Cowley’s article, he says that “if inner resources are lacking, old persons living alone may seek comfort and a kind of companionship in the bottle.”(94) The only comfort that some of the anxious old people could seek is alcohol- if there is little attention paid by the society or the family. They use alcohol to kill the loneliness, anxiety and fear they get. And as time goes by, the alcohol destroy both seniors’ physical and mental health condition- and which makes their death anxiety and fear even worse. From all the causes and impacts of death anxiety and fear above, it shows people that seniors’ reactions and attitudes on death anxiety and fear will largely influent the quality of their daily lives.
In order to get rid of the bad effect of death anxiety and fear on elderly people, there are several solutions that can be used to make their lives better. For the people in the society, or the family members of these anxious seniors, they can spread the true meaning of death to them. In the article “On Natural Death” from a physician, Lewis Thomas, there says that “If you know not how to die, never trouble yourself; Nature will in a moment fully and sufficiently instruct you...take you no care for it.”(108) People can tell elderly that there is nothing to fear or worry about the death- death is just a natural process, and the natural will guide people go through it. And they can also communicate with seniors, and give them comfort more often, so that the fear and anxiety of death could be relief by the warm company and love. And as elderly’s attitude toward death will also be passed to the younger generation; for the senior people themselves, they can fill life with positive life purposes and meaningful events. Good living prospections and activities can help elderly people reduce the death anxiety and fear. Moreover, they can also do more exercises, which is good for their health conditions. Furthermore, old people should stay happy, and optimistic in facing their late stage of life.
Therefore, compare to the young people, death anxiety and fear have a greater influence on elderly people. And this fear and anxiety is affected by four factors of impact, which are physical and mental health condition, loss experience, and social support of seniors. The feelings of anxious and fear would cause troubles into both old people’s daily lives, and the attitude of young people toward death in the society. And good ways of dealing with death anxiety and fear will bring much more happiness and joy into elders’ lives.
Work Cited
Curtin, Sharon, “The Atlantic Monthly”. The Atlantic, July 1972. Print.
Cowley, Malcolm, The view from 80. Penguin Books, First Edition. February 1st, 1982, Print.
Thomas, Lewis, “On Natural Death”.
Web: http://1001essays.com/on-natural-death-by-lewis-thomas/
De Raedt, Rudi. “Death Anxiety Disappear in Old Age”, Depression And Anxiety. Wiley-Liss, Inc. 2007, Print.
Missler, Marjolein, “Exploring Death Anxiety Among Elderly People”. Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. 2012, Print.