They looked for general feelings of positivity and negativity, and words describing positive and negative emotions including happiness, fear and terror.īlog posts from the terminally ill were found to have considerably more positive words and fewer negative ones than those imagining they were dying – and their use of positive language increased as they got close to death. Researchers analysed the writing of regular bloggers with either terminal cancer or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who all died over the course of the study, and compared it to blog posts written by a group of participants who were told to imagine they had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only had only a few months to live.

A ComRes survey from 2014 found that eight in ten Brits are uncomfortable talking about death, and only a third have written a will.īut we don’t need to worry so much, according to new research comparing our perception of what it’s like to die with the accounts people facing imminent death. Death anxiety appears to be at the core of several mental health disorders, including health anxiety, panic disorder and depressive disorders.

Tell me why i shouldn't end it all