Thanatophobia

Thanatophobia, also known as death anxiety, is the psychological distress caused by contemplating one's own mortality. Women typically report higher levels of death anxiety than men, and the experience appears across every age group, marital status and culture, even as culture shapes how it is expressed. It becomes especially acute for people facing a terminal illness with no curative treatment, such as advanced cancer, and mental health professionals regard it as an underlying fear in disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder and generalized anxiety. It is distinct from necrophobia, the fear of dead bodies rather than of death itself. Cognitive behavioral therapy, meaning-centered therapies and mindfulness-based interventions have shown effectiveness in reducing death-related distress. Human awareness of the inevitability of death is thought to have emerged roughly 150,000 years ago in our evolutionary history.