What Psychological Impacts Does Facing Death Have on Individuals?

Narayani Bhardwaj
8 Min Read

Post Author

It really hits hard when someone says you are diagnosed with this serious illness or you may not have much time left. As a bystander, caretaker, guardian, friend, family member, or relative, it becomes difficult to deal with the fear of losing your loved one and it’s not complicated to imagine that even the thought of losing your loved one can make you so desperate and stressful regarding the situations, how much it will feel like to them who are going to suffer the pain and process.

Many psychological impacts vary on different situations that accompany you in your journey whether you are the one who is facing mortality or a loved one who has to suffer the loss, the psychological influences will seamlessly be different for both.

Psychological Impacts Based on Age

When you are an experienced and elderly person who has lived their life enough and has achieved everything you wanted in your life at least the regrets are lesser while facing your mortality.

But, when it comes to teenagers, it becomes extremely difficult to accept your faith while facing mortality because being 18 years old doesn’t mean you are an adultly adult, at this age, people have dreams and goals to follow, a cheerful life to live, and a lot more, everything together makes it so difficult to face mortality at such a young age.

And so because of this the psychological impacts that one has to face highly depend on age as well. However, it doesn’t mean that the fear of death becomes any lesser either for teenagers or elders. However, it becomes easy to accept your faith and think positively while anyone faces their mortality at their older age.

Emotional and mental damage are the two most important phases through which a person facing mortality has to go through and its impact can be extremely high for young age people.

Psychological Impacts Due to Severe Illness

Most of the time, facing a mortality situation is associated with severe illness when people go through several phases starting from diagnosis to treatments and then palliative care and sometimes even end-of-life care as well.

Getting diagnosed with a serious disease can impact one’s mind in various ways. If you are optimistic, you may find ways to calm yourself down and lessen the stress of your mind by thinking positively and having hope for a great recovery. However, fear of death can’t be denied but people have different mindsets, life goals, and ways to take things.

Not only the fear of death, but the pain that a person has to suffer can lead to great anger or depression in some cases, which can worsen the psychological impacts. However, at these times, thanatology or end-of-life care can help people with their mental health and establish an emotional balance. It may not lessen the fear of death but these cares can help people gain optimistic insights and make them hold on to the hope for their well-being.

Facing Fear of Death: 4 Skills for Anxiety and Fear of Death and Dying

Even though the fear of death or facing mortality can make a person weaker physically, mentally, and emotionally, proper thanatological care and a positive mindset can make willpower strong to combat disease, which is even from the doctors’ perspectives is important.

However, once the people on the other side succeed in fighting a disease, it is often seen as a positive insight and an optimistic way to see life and live every moment to the fullest, which can be considered as a positive impact of going through suffering and winning.

Let’s Hear About Psychological Impacts From People Facing Mortality

A session has been done with three people who have been facing mortality and put up with a few questions about their experience and psychological influences or traumas that they are dealing with.

This starts when you are diagnosed with some chronic disease, there are sudden moments when people initially can’t decide what to do as it’s like a sudden shock to them. However, the first thing that is found to be common in all three people was the fear of death partly not because they may die, one of the reasons was because they would have to leave their loved ones.

Three Dying People Talk About Death | On Death | Cut

The thought of dying or leaving their loved ones sometimes results in furiousness and this anger can be so high people often fall into anxiety or depressive situations, where they even can think of suicide. So, it won’t be wrong to say that psychological influences can also be negative and it takes lots of courage and hope to convert your negativity into a positive one.

Nevertheless, even when they try to hold on to the hope, there are days on which it makes them feel like dying and there is not much time left for them, which does not certainly lead to anger but regrets, unhappiness, sorrow, and great misery.

When this misery becomes greater, their mind even wants to give up sometimes as it’s like everything is happening in vain as there may be no end to treatments, no end to the trauma of dying and holding on to the hope every day, smile even when you are in pain.

However, even though there are times when these people wanted to give up, they fought, and might still be fighting, but one of the positive things that can happen once you become fine or get chances to survive longer, is there is positivity to embrace the love, people, care, nature, and everything in their surroundings as one who has seen his/her mortality from really closer can only know the absolute meaning of life and how important it is to live and cherish every moment.

Positive Impacts While Facing Mortality

When people face their mortality and decide to fight with courage while thinking optimistically about their conditions, there can be some positive impacts that can influence the mind positively and can make a person’s willpower stronger.

Cherishing your loved ones and their care, believing in spiritualism, overcoming fear of death, giving time to their health and making it a priority, embracing mindfulness, and being grateful for all that you have or had in your life instead of grieving about regrets or sorrows can be several positive psychological impacts that people may face while facing mortality or after getting a sign of recovering.

Stay Connected

Share This Article

Narayani Bhardwaj is a young and ambitious Web Content Writer with more than a two years of experience. She writes with her passion and desires of travelling the beautiful places in the world. The places merely not include only travelling, the articles she writes, are strictly professional with a touch of an individual's sincerity and feelings on what they are looking for. She has upskilled herself in the field of writing for her audience, and ensures the quality of the content which is relatable in executive as well as distinctive manner.

Education Masters of Computer Applications Certifications/Qualifications MCA in Computer Science BCA in Computer Science Programming Foundations with JavaScript, HTML and CSS by Coursera
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *