Death anxiety in college students

Fear of death has a name, a long one. Thanatophobia is described as having an extreme fear of death or the process of dying, otherwise known as death anxiety, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) offers a course, Philosophy of Death and Dying. Christian Coons, an associate professor of philosophy who teaches the course, finds death anxiety to be more common than others may think. “One of the big theories about what’s up with death anxiety is that we’re all prone to have it, or most of us are prone to have it, but some of us have a better means of being in denial about it,” Coons said. Coons defines denial as “feeling that you’re immune to the thing you are afraid of”. This denial can also come in forms of lack of fear or lack of appreciation of the occurrence of situations like death or losing money. “They think they’re not afraid; it’s because they really think it will never happen to them,” Coons said.

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