Psychological death: what is it and how to avoid it?

A lethal outcome, by definition, is a complete stop of the biological and physiological processes of the body. There are a huge number of currents in science, physiology and psychology that study this phenomenon. However, all of them are more interested in the physical end of a person’s life. But some researchers are confident that it is impossible to deny such a phenomenon as psychological death. AiF.ru figured out what the problem is and why an outwardly healthy and strong person can quickly fade away.

What is psychological death: forms of the disease, types of behavior of patients

In psychology, psychological death is understood as a state in which a person ceases to control his own life, letting it take its course. This is a disease, one of the common forms of which is depression. According to the type of manifestation, this state can be social and personal. Social (social death) - self-isolation of a person from society. He stops interacting with other people, losing not only his job, but also any contacts. In severe cases of mental depression, the individual stays at home for weeks, not even going to the store. Reacts negatively to external influences and the desire to help.

Personal apathy is complete indifference to oneself. A person may continue to participate in social life, but his sense of self changes completely. Although physically active, he remains indifferent. Without receiving pleasure from activities that were previously loved, the individual loses the meaning of life.

Diagnostics - why the fear of death appeared

According to the expert, this disorder does not cause difficulties in diagnosis. The person himself will tell you about his fears; you should ask him the appropriate questions. Another thing is that in our country it is not customary to turn to psychologists, and especially psychiatrists, if even strong fears arise that threaten to develop into a serious mental disorder. It is also not customary to communicate with loved ones about worries about imminent death or their loss. These conversations are often met with hostility, and the person who tries to talk about their fears is advised to “just get them out of your head.”

Unfortunately, this advice is unlikely to help. Because if a person is ready to tell his loved ones about his problem, it means it has already seriously matured and developed. And in this case, it is vitally important to contact a specialist - a clinical psychologist or psychotherapist, since it is unlikely that you will be able to cope with it on your own.

If a loved one does not talk about the fear of death, but you notice that he refuses to watch films in which someone dies or reacts extremely strongly to such stories, you should worry. The first step to solving the problem will be a heart-to-heart conversation, after which you also need to contact a specialist. If thanatophobia is left unattended, it will lead to extremely dangerous consequences.

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How to identify symptoms of psychopathology in yourself and loved ones

The gradual decline of personality is a multifaceted phenomenon. It is dangerous because it manifests itself in a complex of symptoms that are initially invisible to both the sick person and those around him. Typical symptoms of an incipient disease include:

• causeless apathy, indifference;
• increased fatigue, constant feeling of tiredness;
• sleep disturbances;
• refusal of food, disappearance of the feeling of hunger;
• chills, decreased body temperature;
• dulling of the feeling of pain;
• hypochondria, increased interest in the diseases of other people;
• addiction to alcohol;
• aggression turning into self-flagellation.

As a rule, the disease manifests itself with several symptoms at once, successively following each other. Unpleasant physical signs are accompanied by mood swings: outbursts of aggression appear without objective reasons, alternating with long stages of complete indifference. The short-term manifestation of symptoms is not a reason to panic: at the initial stage, a person can help himself on his own. But if they persist for several weeks, you should seek psychological help.

How to get rid of the fear of death

Various techniques are used to correct the condition. Cognitive behavioral therapy, which is prescribed by a psychotherapist depending on the patient’s condition and the degree of disorder, shows high effectiveness. Hypnosis and prescribing antidepressants to the patient may also be practiced. But it is important to consider that antidepressants themselves do not cure anything. They rather dull the sensations, but do not allow a person to live a full life. Therefore, it is extremely important to approach treatment comprehensively, without trying to limit yourself to just pills.

“The effectiveness of psychotherapy depends both on the patient’s condition and on the technique used by the specialist,” notes clinical psychologist Nikolai Chadayev. — My author’s technique allows you to cope with the problem within one month, after several sessions. Traditional techniques require more time. Treatment usually takes months, sometimes even years.”

At the same time, the support of loved ones and the psycho-emotional background that develops in a person’s environment are of great importance. Of course, it is impossible to close yourself off from sad thoughts and protect yourself from any experiences. But each of us has the power to reduce the “degree” of negativity in our own lives.

And to do this, you need to get rid of the main sources of negative emotions: do not watch disaster films, thrillers and action films. Instead, choose light comedy films or non-stressful television programs. It is worth reconsidering your social circle and minimizing contacts with acquaintances who constantly complain about life. It is important to surround yourself with positive people, and then your own perception of life will also become positive.

Causes of psychological death: main risk factors

An apathetic state can develop in any person, even a positive and cheerful one. Its causes are varied and very individual, but risk factors can be identified:

1. Personal failures. Professional unfulfillment, loss of loved ones, family quarrels, especially those occurring in a short period of time, can seriously undermine mental health.
2. Social rejection. Rejection by the collective deprives the individual of one of the main needs - communication. Rejection, open negativity and hostility lead to symptoms of psychological dying.
3. Biological reasons. Decreased physical activity, disturbances in the functioning of the central nervous system, and hormonal imbalances can affect the state of the psyche.

A single factor does not necessarily lead to the development of psychopathology.

But people with a weak type of nervous system are more susceptible to the influence of negative environmental factors

Therefore, they need to pay additional attention to their health status and use preventive measures every day.

There were no signs of trouble

As Bulgakov’s Woland said, “Yes, man is mortal, but that would not be so bad. The bad thing is that sometimes he is suddenly mortal.” Scientists also have a lot of research in this case. One of the most famous is the work of the Norwegian psychologist Randi Noyes, who identified stages for sudden death. Resistance stage. A person realizes the danger, experiences fear and tries to fight. As soon as he realizes the futility of such resistance, fear disappears and the person begins to feel serenity and calm.

Life review. It takes place in the form of a panorama of memories, replacing each other in quick succession and covering the entire past of a person. Most often this is accompanied by positive emotions, less often by negative ones.

Stage of transcendence. The logical conclusion of a life review. People begin to perceive their past with increasing distance. Eventually, they are able to reach a state in which all life is seen as one. At the same time, they distinguish every detail in an amazing way. After which even this level is overcome, and the dying person, as it were, goes beyond himself. It is then that he experiences a transcendental state, which is sometimes also called “cosmic consciousness.”

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The dangers of unwillingness to live: the impact of pathology on life and health

The rapid development of psychological death brings a person a lot of problems related not only to health, but also to other areas of life:

1. Health problems. Psychological diseases affect the physical condition, causing the development of chronic pathologies: diseases of the cardiovascular system, respiratory system and musculoskeletal system.
2. Social maladjustment. The loss of social contacts often leads to complete self-isolation, depriving the individual of the opportunity for self-realization.
3. Suicidal tendencies. Prolonged apathy and lack of positive impressions are a common cause of suicide. Adolescents and older people are especially susceptible to the negative influence of pathology.

Since the insidiousness of psychopathology lies in the patient’s denial of symptoms, it is important to monitor the psychological state and pay attention to the state of loved ones

Timely assistance at an early stage saves from the development of symptoms and reduces the risk of relapse.

Dying is not scary

One of the largest and most widely recognized studies of post-mortem experiences was also conducted back in the 1960s of the last century. It was led by American psychologist Karlis Osis. The study was based on observations of attending physicians and nurses caring for dying people. His conclusions are based on the experience of 35,540 observations of the dying process.

The authors of the study stated that the majority of dying people did not experience fear. Feelings of discomfort, pain, or indifference were more common. About one in 20 people showed signs of elation.

Some studies show that older people experience less anxiety when thinking about death than relatively younger people. A survey of a large group of elderly people showed that the question “Are you afraid to die?” only 10% of them answered yes. It is noted that old people think about death often, but with amazing calm.

How to avoid the negative impact of psychopathology and get out of depression

To study the psychology of death, psychologists conduct group studies to compare how specific treatments help people cope with symptoms.

Methods approved by psychologists for overcoming depression without medication include:

1. New experience. Brain function is closely related to mental experience. The older an individual gets, the less new experience he receives. This leads to a slower reaction and the development of apathy. To avoid degradation of brain function, you should organize daily opportunities for yourself to gain new experiences: learn a foreign language, try new dishes, plan unusual routes.
2. Support social connections. Despite the reluctance to communicate, it is necessary to maintain social connections at least on a formal level: communicate with colleagues, family, and not withdraw into yourself.
3. Restoring the daily routine. Proper alternation of sleep and wakefulness is an indicative factor of good health. It is important to sleep at least 7 hours every day so that the psyche does not become exhausted.
4. Increased serotonin levels. If the natural level of the joy hormone is reduced, you need to increase it artificially by adding foods containing it to your diet: chocolate, bananas, green peas.
5. Support groups. It is difficult for a person with psychological problems to open up to loved ones. But communicating with people suffering from similar diseases can be an outlet. You can find such support groups on the Internet or contact your local mental health center.

Non-drug methods help only in the first stages and with mild forms of the disease, as well as for the prevention of pathology in conditions of increased stress. If the use of these methods does not help, you need to contact a psychotherapist to select individual treatment.

Is it painful to die or not - feelings at the moment of death

Every person at a conscious age thinks about death. What awaits us after death? Does the other world exist? Are we purely biological beings, or does each of us still have a certain soul that, after death, goes to another world? One of the many questions that arises in the mind is the unknown of the sensations that a person experiences just before death. Does a person experience torment, pain, or, on the contrary, do all sensations become dull before leaving for another world? The issues discussed have worried people since their inception and still do. Scientists continue to study this mysterious phenomenon, but only a few questions can be answered. Feelings of Dying People The physical sensations of a dying person will depend primarily on what led him to death. He can experience both severe pain and pleasant sensations. As for psychological perception, at the moment of dying, most people instinctively feel fear, panic and horror, and try to “resist” death. According to biology, after the heart muscle stops contracting and the heart stops, the brain continues to function for about five minutes. It is believed that in these last minutes, a person’s mind reflects on his life, vivid memories emerge, and the person, as it were, “sums up” his existence. Classification of death Biologists divide death into two categories: Natural; Unnatural. Natural death occurs according to the laws of normal physiology and occurs due to the natural aging of the body or in the case of underdevelopment of the fetus in the womb. Unnatural death can occur for the following reasons: Due to various serious and fatal diseases (oncological, cardiovascular, etc.); Mechanical effects: suffocation, electric shock; Chemical exposure: overdose of drugs, medicinal substances or alcohol overdose; Unspecified - a seemingly healthy person dies suddenly from a latent disease or a sudden, acute form of the disease. From a legal point of view, death is divided into: Non-violent; Violent. Nonviolent death occurs in old age, long-term illness, and in other similar cases. Violent deaths include murder and suicide. Stages of Death To better understand what a person may experience during death, we can consider the stages of the process identified from a medical point of view: Preagonal stage. At this moment, a malfunction occurs in the blood circulation and breathing systems, causing hypoxia to develop in the tissues. This period lasts from several hours to several days; Terminal pause. At this moment, the person stops breathing, the functioning of the myocardium malfunctions; Agonal stage. The body is trying to return to life. At this stage, a person periodically stops breathing, the heart works increasingly weaker, which causes malfunctions in the functioning of all organ systems; Clinical death. Breathing and blood circulation stop. This stage lasts about five minutes, and it is at this moment that the person can be brought back to life with the help of resuscitation measures; Biological death - a person finally dies. Important! Only people who have experienced clinical death are the only ones who can accurately report what sensations are possible in a dying person. Morbidity in various deaths Cause Time of dying Pain Overdose of prescription drugs 129 minutes 8.5 Fall from height 5 minutes 17.78 Drowning 18 minutes 79 Shot in the head with a pistol 3 minutes 13 Fire 1 hour 91 Is it painful to die from cancer Cancer is one of the the most common causes of death. Unfortunately, a cure for malignant carcinoma has not yet been discovered, and cancer at stages 3 and 4 is an incurable disease. All that doctors can do in this situation is to reduce the patient’s pain with the help of special analgesics and slightly prolong the person’s life. A person with a cancer tumor does not always experience pain when dying. In some situations, before the death of a cancer patient, he begins to sleep a lot and ultimately plunges into a comatose state, after which he dies without feeling any physical illness, that is, directly in his sleep. In another situation, the stages of dying of a cancer patient are as follows: Before death, the patient may experience migraines, see hallucinations and lose memory, which is why he does not recognize his loved ones; Speech disturbances occur, it is more difficult for the patient to say connected sentences, he may utter awkward phrases; The person may experience blindness and/or deafness; As a result, the motor functions of the body are impaired. However, this is only a general average picture of how a person with cancer feels before death. If we look directly at specific types of cancer tumors, then the localization of carcinoma in the liver makes a person die in agony due to multiple bleedings. Death from lung cancer also causes significant pain due to the fact that the patient begins to choke, vomit blood, after which an epileptic attack occurs and the patient dies. In the case of intestinal cancer, the patient also feels excruciating pain in the abdomen, in addition to this, he is tormented by a headache. Laryngeal cancer patients also feel pain before they die. With this localization, the person also experiences severe pain in the corresponding area. Important! Do not forget that the described symptoms are eliminated by doctors with the help of special analgesics, and before death - narcotic drugs, so in some cases it is possible to achieve an almost complete reduction in pain until it disappears. Thus, the question “is it painful to die from cancer” can most likely be answered in the negative, since modern medicine has all the means to help reduce the patient’s pain. Is it painful to die of old age? According to medical research, people in old age experience a feeling of relief when they die. Only 1/10 of those surveyed feel fear before death. Just before death, old people feel discomfort, pain and complete apathy towards everything. When dying, people begin to see hallucinations and can “talk” to the dead. As for physical sensations, dying is painful only due to difficulty breathing. Most old people can die in their sleep, and this death is not associated with severe pain and physical suffering. Does it hurt to die from a pill overdose? The physical sensations of a person dying due to taking an excessive amount of a drug depend primarily on the type of medication and the individual characteristics of the body. In fact, death occurs due to the development of severe intoxication of the body, and before death a person may experience pain due to pain in the abdomen. In addition, he experiences dizziness, nausea and vomiting. An exceptional case would be a person who has taken an excessive dose of a potent sedative, since the consequences of such an act will be the onset of a deep coma and the shutdown of all instinctive defense mechanisms. In view of this, a person passes into another world directly in a dream and does not feel pain. Is it painful to die from a stroke? Because a stroke can occur in different areas of the brain, a person's experience of death may vary. If the motor center has been affected, weakness or paralysis may occur in a particular limb. The general picture of a person’s feelings about death is usually the following: He hears incomprehensible voices or sounds; Sleepy; Confused mind; Strong headache; General weakness. Some stroke patients may also die in their sleep or go into a deep coma. Is it painful to die from a heart attack? During a heart attack, sudden changes in pressure occur due to a failure in blood circulation, which is felt by a person as severe pain in the area behind the sternum. In addition, the blood supply to all organs is disrupted, which also causes pain - in particular, blood stagnates in the lungs and swelling of the latter occurs. The patient experiences difficulty breathing and general weakness of the body. In the first minutes, when blood stops flowing to the brain and hypoxia begins, the person will also experience a severe headache. However, as a rule, during such an attack, a person may lose consciousness almost immediately, since the organs are not supplied with blood in the normal manner. Without medical assistance, a person in this condition can live no more than 5 minutes without feeling pain. Does it hurt to die from a bullet? It all depends primarily on the place where the bullet hit and its caliber. If a bullet pierces the brain, then very often death occurs almost instantly, and the organ shuts down faster than the person has time to feel anything. In other situations, as a rule, first a person feels a sharp jolt, then a certain warmth in the body, and only then severe pain. After a few minutes, a painful shock occurs, when pain is no longer felt due to the body’s defense mechanisms being turned on, and the person loses consciousness. If medical care is not provided, he dies from blood loss, but there is no physical suffering. Does it hurt to die from a fall? Death from falling from a great height occurs almost instantly - within a few seconds or minutes. The sensations largely depend on the position in which the person landed and on the surface on which he fell. If you land on your head, death occurs instantly, and the only thing that can be experienced in this case is psychological panic during the flight. Death due to a fall occurs due to multiple fractures, rupture of internal organs and large blood loss. In the first seconds after the fall, a person experiences severe pain from the impact, then weakness occurs due to developing hypoxia and loss of consciousness. Is it painful to die from blood loss? The time of death in this case depends on the caliber of the damaged vessels. In particular, if the walls of the aorta are destroyed, the person dies almost instantly, without experiencing pain. Losing a lot of blood, a person does not feel pain. When bleeding, he first experiences dizziness, heaviness in the body and weakness. Gradually, strong thirst is added to these feelings. Eventually, due to insufficient blood supply, the person may lose consciousness and die. Is it painful to die from cold? In severe frost conditions, a person can die for quite a long time, but will not experience pain. Being in the cold for a long time, a person first experiences severe trembling and body aches. Gradually, he also begins to lose his memory and the ability to recognize the faces of loved ones. Then severe weakness sets in and, as a rule, people simply fall into the snow. The slow speed of blood flow in the brain provokes hallucinations. Severely narrowed capillaries on the skin can suddenly expand their lumen to create a surge of heat, which is why people often try to take off their clothes at this moment due to the feeling of “hotness”. After this, the person loses consciousness and dies as if “in his sleep.” Is it painful to die from AIDS? Since death in this case does not arise from AIDS itself, but from a disease that the body cannot cope with, the sensations before death may vary. Most often this is cytomegalovirus, liver cirrhosis, tuberculosis, developing against the background of AIDS. However, death can also occur from ordinary bronchitis. Physical sensations will depend entirely on the disease that the body cannot overcome. It is painful for a person to die only if he is sick with serious diseases of the internal organs. For example, if death occurs from tuberculosis, the patient will experience severe pain in the chest, breathing and heartbeat may be impaired, and bloody vomiting may occur. In cases where death occurs due to cirrhosis of the liver, the patient may experience excruciating pain in the abdomen and right hypochondrium. Conclusion Summarizing the above, we can say that it is more painful for people to die psychologically. Only in some cases does a person experience severe pain before death. Most often, people find it difficult to accept the fact of dying.

General terms of conversation

• Try to conduct these conversations in close physical contact: hug, stroke, touch, hold your hand, sit on your lap. The younger the child, the more important this point is. In your arms, the child will feel quite “grounded” and there will be less fear.
• If you don’t know the answer to a question, just say: “I don’t know.”
• Don’t lie or fuss, it’s better to say that you’re not exactly sure how to explain it yet, and you need to think some more.
• Like all other conversations, it is also advisable to conduct this one not on the run, but in a calm environment, so that children can ask questions and so that they have time to react.
• Like all other conversations, this one can last for months, with interest periodically fading and awakening again.