Attitudes Towards Death and Dying Analysis Essay

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Analysis of Attitudes towards Death and Dying

Death is an inevitable process that has to come with aging. As a person ages, they become more aware of this universal truth that he has to leave this world, and nothing would remain of him. He starts taking life from a different perspective and thinks of ways how he could be of benefit to others who he leaves behind. Some of the older people start thinking about their will, and some start preparing themselves for death if they are sick. This paper aims to reflect upon a person's ideas about grief, bereavement, and mourning from a psychological perspective and the difference of death anxiety with age and gender. In further sections, cultural and religious thoughts and their impact on a person's attitudes towards life would be discussed. 

Difference between Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning in Psychological Terms 

From a psychological perspective, bereavement refers to facing the sad incident of losing someone close (Shear, 2012). Grief is the response of a person's psychological experiences after losing that someone close in the form of sadness, yearning, and memories of the lost one. Mourning is a set of psychological processes that occur in response to grief to counter the gloomy thoughts, and reorientation to the real world could be settled. 

There is a strong relationship between the person who lost his loved one and the person who died. The grief becomes more intense based on the strength of the reaction. Various studies have revealed that grief is the most intense during a child's loss for a parent or when a life partner is gone. There is also a risk of depression and anxiety involved in those who bereave. It is a common conception that such grief is normal since a parent or anyone who has lost a close one experiences bereavement for a certain time, for instance, a year. Then he or she manages to adjust to the usual routine of daily lives and the environment. However, if the bereavement symptoms persist, the bereaving person can fall ill or fall victim to mental disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, or major depression. 

As mentioned earlier, grief is the psychological response to bereavement when the brain starts playing previous memories and thoughts related to the deceased one. The yearning relative finds the inner world of thoughts and sadness more indulging than the outer world's activities; therefore, he keeps himself engrossed within his world of images and reflections, showing repulsion towards the ordinary life. This can also be inferred as acute grief.

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The bereaving person accepts the certainty of his loss, and re-imagining a prospect of happiness and contentment remains distant to him. 

Mourning is the psychological process in which the bereaving person tries to adjust himself back into the normal routine life after his loves one is lost. The emotional regulation and awareness can be defined in clinical terms of this process. It can be deduced that it is the systematic acceptance of a future without the deceased relative and reverting to the normal life without him. The bereaving person tried to reconnect with others and gain happiness in daily activities by…

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…adamant about their religious beliefs. Therefore they are extremely against these two concepts. It can be deduced that different cultures have different insights about deaths and taking one's own life, even if it is with a medical expert's assistance. 

Acceptance of Death in Religious and Spiritual Terms 

Religion's role in accepting death is significant since people close to religion accept death gracefully and have less death anxiety. This is verified by a study conducted to evaluate the relationship between religiosity, death acceptance, and death anxiety. The results showed that people who accept inevitably have less fear (Harding et al., 2005). There was also a negative correlation between death acceptance and death anxiety. Those who accepted death without any dread were witnessed having less anxiety. Also, having a strong faith in God and religion had significantly string results since the belief was strongly correlated to death acceptance and negatively correlated with death anxiety.

It should be noted that belief in God and death acceptance does not indicate any after-life belief. Religion is complex itself, and the way people have perceptions about God might reflect their opinions about life and death in certain cultures. Researchers need to be aware of this disparity since thoughtfulness needs to be put to practice when conducting a study on religious certainty and peoples' attitudes about death. 

Conclusion

When someone close dies, the closest relatives are greatly impacted by this loss since their mourning, grief, and bereavement influence his psychological proceedings meaningfully. Age and gender have been established to influence individuals' death anxiety, and for that, cultural and religious differences….....

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