Ask HN: How to Deal with Death Anxiety?

Everything is a bardo[0]. I learned that from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I tested out the theory and it's the truest thing I ever heard. A bardo basically means 'in between'. We are forever in between something, never having truly finished it, including life itself. It's just one long infinite attempt to get to the next phase, and then once we are in the new phase, we are striving for another phase. For some this is Samsara, or the hedonic treadmill, for others it's a great relief knowing everything is essentially unfinished.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo

Erich Fromm is a psychoanalyst that emphasized human beings are set apart from other animals, one reason dealing us the ominous cognizance of mortality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Fromm

In Terror management theory, we as individuals and society are all faced with the existential inevitability of death, so we try to enforce cultural things and rally around them to ease the anxious feelings. As individuals TMT posits we try to boost our self esteem to that end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4W1s0vyJ4 (covers Fromm, TMT)

Also it's reassuring 1.) You don't love death (Fromm considered that to be the absolute worst of states of mind) 2.) that you're looking for social assurance 3.) finally hopefully you're pleased to find you're not alone in your feelings, mortality salience / death anxiety is an established concept. Why else would people be intrigued by all Doomsday movies / documentaries?

Fromm is very interesting to read on OP. He went into social and political psychology and, despite noting mortality, espoused an optimistic outlook on society and humanity. His concepts of escape mechanisms are genius and understated.

There's no where to go but up from here, hopefully!