necrophobia

Fearing the deceased

Necrophobia is an intense fear of death or dead things—corpses, coffins, funerals, graveyards.

The fear may focus on one's own mortality or on encountering the dead: Her necrophobia made it impossible to attend the viewing.

Distinguished from the normal unease most people feel around death by its severity and interference with daily life.

triggers

corpses

Dead human bodies

coffinsBoxes for burying bodies
funeralsRites for the deceased
graveyardsGrounds for interring the dead

morgue · mortuary · cemetery · crypts · mausoleums · tombs · caskets · shroud · embalming · wake

psychology

irrational

Lacking sound judgment

phobicHaving irrational dread
avoidanceDeliberate keeping away
obsessionPersistent, intrusive preoccupation

compulsion · dread · trauma · conditioning · hypervigilance · catastrophizing · rumination · desensitization · CBT · psychotherapy

symptoms

trembling

Involuntary shaking motion

sweatingMoisture through pores
dizzinessUnsteady, spinning sensation
hyperventilationAbnormally rapid respiration

nausea · distress · unease · agitation · restlessness · nervousness · apprehension · tension · discomfort · overwhelm

beliefs

afterlife

Existence beyond mortality

ghostsSpirits of the deceased
spiritsLiquor or apparitions
hauntingsSupernatural lingering presences

specters · apparitions · revenants · poltergeists · phantoms · wraiths · undead · zombies · vampires · ghouls

related-phobias

nyctophobia

Morbid dread of darkness

claustrophobiaDread of enclosed areas

Opposites

emotional response to death

necrophobianecrophilia

Erotic fixation on cadavers

death acceptance · morbid fascination · morbid curiosity · ancestor veneration

presence vs. absence of fear

necrophobiadeath acceptance

Peace with one's mortality

fearlessness · courage

Family

phobia, necromancy, necrosis, agoraphobia, necrology, hydrophobia, thanatophobia

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