Necrophobia (fear of corpses): symptoms, causes and treatment

An anxiety disorder linked to an intense and pathological fear of corpses.

Although the fact that the end of life exists makes every minute of our time valuable, the truth is that almost no one wants to die and a large part of people have a certain respect and fear of death.

However, for some people the fear of death and corpses and everything that has to do with them becomes a real phobia, which generates great suffering and prevents them from living life to the fullest. We are talking about necrophobia, which is the subject of this article..

What is necrophobia?

It is known as necrophobia to the phobia to the death, and especially to the corpses, which supposes an incapacitating condition and that it supposes an incapacitating condition and that generates a high level of anxiety and discomfort.. As a phobia, it involves the existence of an irrational and disproportionate fear (something usually recognized by those who suffer from it) with respect to the risk posed by a stimulus or a situation, in this case death and everything related to it.

The exposure to what is feared or even the possibility of encountering something related to it generates intense levels of anxiety, which can lead to the appearance of somatic symptoms such as tachycardia, hyperventilation, tremors or excessive sweating. It can even generate panic crises, in which in addition to the above may appear fear of suffering a heart attack, losing reason or losing control of the body itself. For all these reasons, the subject tends to avoid all those situations that remind him or her of or are associated with the phobic stimulus.

Necrophobia is a specific phobia that can be related to the fear of harm, Blood and injections. It is also often referred to as thanatophobia, although there may be nuances that make them not completely synonymous: although both fears are of death and include the fear of dying, thanatophobia tends to be more general and focused on the fear of dying oneself, while necrophobia tends to be more general and focused on the fear of dying oneself.Necrophobia tends to be more closely linked to the fear of corpses, burials, and coffins.

Symptoms

Although fear of death is common, necrophobia as such is not very common. It is a condition that can significantly affect the person who suffers from it. Even if we are not constantly surrounded by stimuli that remind us of death or corpses, the subject will tend to avoid situations and places that for him are related.

Thus, some stimuli that can trigger anxiety and that those affected by this phobia will avoid include cemeteries, celebrations such as Halloween or even museums where mummies or skeletons have been exhibited. They will also avoid movies, novels and works of art related to death or lifeless bodies, such as horror or horror films.such as horror or noir genre films, novels and works of art related to death or lifeless bodies. Even more relevant than this could be the avoidance of hospitals, something that can be very detrimental to the health of the subject if he/she needs medical assistance. In severe cases it could lead the person to avoid even leaving home, for fear of the possibility of dying or finding some kind of corpse.

Likewise, for people with this phobia the fact or thought of growing old is a great source of anguish, since age is linked to a greater possibility of dying.. This can contribute to extreme attitudes towards staying young or even avoiding older people.

Causes and origin of fear of the dead

The causes of necrophobia are not completely known and are not unique, as multiple factors and variables influence its appearance. Before considering them, it is worth mentioning that, as we have already mentioned, fear of death is natural, since even at a biological level we are programmed to try to survive.

Beyond this, it is common that behind the origin of necrophobia lies the experience of an adverse event. the experience of some aversive event that has conditioned the reaction to death or dead bodies.. Among them we can find encountering a corpse (either human or animal) in childhood, or living in a traumatic way the loss of a loved one. Another cause may derive from the knowledge that we are all going to die sooner or later: the corpse is a reminder of our own mortality, so we empathize with it and panic appears to end up like the body we are seeing. The presence of parental or environmental models highly fearful of the idea of dying can also have an influence, acquiring reactions or ways of understanding death that are magnified or extreme.

Also, as with phobias of animals such as spiders and snakes, the fear of death and corpses can be influenced by phylogenetic inheritance: corpses rot, smell and over time bacteria and organisms that can cause disease begin to grow on them, so that people who were not in regular contact with the bodies without any treatment could survive more easily.

Treatment of this phobia

As with all phobias, necrophobia is a condition that can be successfully treated and overcome through psychological therapy. can be successfully treated and overcome through psychological therapy.. First of all, it will be necessary to analyze with the patient the vision and meaning given to death, the possible existence of traumatic events, the consequences that necrophobia is having in his life or why he considers that the phobia has arisen.

Among the most effective therapies we can find exposure and systematic desensitization.. In both cases, the subject should be progressively exposed to a hierarchy of different anxiety-generating situations, ordered from the lowest to the highest.

While in simple exposure the subject must remain in the situation until the anxiety subsides by itself, in the case of desensitization the person must perform a complementary activity that is incompatible with the anxiety (such as relaxation techniques). The objective is to make the anxiety something controllable, so that when encountering the feared stimulus the subject does not need to flee or avoid daily activities. Examples of stimuli or situations to be exposed to might include watching horror movies, reading narratives or descriptions of sensations in people with near-death experiences, trying on zombie or skeleton costumes, going to a cemetery, or going to a wake.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is also a recommended resource.The aim is to analyze and subsequently try to modify the beliefs, biases and dysfunctional thoughts that cause the problem to have originated and/or be maintained. Another technique that enjoys certain popularity in this type of phobia is hypnotherapy. It is also possible to use anxiolytic drugs in specific situations that generate anxiety (for example when attending a funeral), although this would not solve the problem.