Death anxiety is anxiety caused by thoughts of one's own death, and is also referred to as thanatophobia (fear of death). Death anxiety differs from necrophobia, however. This type of anxiety can actually cause a lot of issues for an individual during their lifespan. Psychotherapist Robert Langs proposed three different causes of death anxiety: predatory, predator, and existential. In addition to his research, many theorists such as Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Ernest Becker have examined death anxiety and its impact on cognitive processing. Death anxiety has been found to affect people of differing demographic groups as well, such as men versus women, young versus old, etc. Anxiety caused by recent thought-content, about death, which sometimes is classified by a psychiatrist in a clinical setting as morbid or abnormal, or a combination of the two. This classification pre-necessitates a degree of anxiety which is persistent and interferes with everyday functioning. This high level of death anxiety in the elderly (who perceive themselves as close to death), can cause lower ego integrity, more physical problems as well as an increase in psychological problems. Death anxiety can cause a person to become extremely timid or distressed when discussing anything to do with death. Findings from one systematic review demonstrated that death anxiety features across several mental health conditions. One meta-analysis of psychological interventions targeting death anxiety showed that death anxiety can be reduced using cognitive behavioral therapy. From Wikipedia
