Death anxiety (psychology)

Death anxiety is the morbid, abnormal, or persistent fear of one's own mortality. One source defines death anxiety as a "feeling of dread, apprehension or solicitude (anxiety) when one thinks of the process of dying, or ceasing to ‘be’". It is also referred to as thanatophobia (fear of death), and is distinguished from necrophobia, which is a specific fear of dead or dying persons and/or things (i.e. others who are dead or dying, not one's own death or dying). Lower ego integrity, increased numbers of physical problems, and more psychological problems are predictive of higher levels of death anxiety in elderly people.