Death and Dying Myths

Emerging Realities

You will become more afraid of death as you grow toward old age and your death becomes more imminent.

Serious physical illnesses are related to an increase in death anxiety and are more likely to occur at advanced ages. But evidence does not indicate that healthy men and women become more afraid of death as they grow from adulthood to old age, at least not at a conscious level.

Terminal patients go through predictable stages as they approach death.

Most terminal patients experience anxiety and depression before they die but do not go through a set series of stages.

A sudden or unexpected death has more adverse effects on the survivors than does a death that is expected.

Research findings do not support this hypothesis. The impact of a death on the survivors is not related to its suddenness or predictability.

Older men are likely to die at home, and older women are more likely to die in institutional settings such as hospitals and nursing homes.

The large majority of both men and women die in institutional settings. Men are more likely to die in hospitals than women, and women are more likely to die in nursing homes than men.

Among those adults whose spouses die, elderly widows and widowers are much more likely to die themselves a short time later.

Young adults who lose a spouse to death appear to be at higher risk of dying soon after their spouse than older widows and widowers.