Reader’s Question

If you are absolutely sure that you will die, when you are in fact very close to death, will your natural fight/flight response make things worse for you in terms of survival? That is, would your natural fear of death hasten your death or perhaps, on the contrary, prolong your life?

Our Clinical Psychologist’s Reply

Much like life, death is a very individual experience. There is a breadth of responses to death ranging from those who are not afraid of it at all — who in fact welcome it — to those who are so fearful of death that they will do anything to avoid it. Experiences of dying also depend upon the situation in which death occurs. Reactions to sudden or unexpected death may differ from a death which follows a prolonged illness or a long life.

The natural fight or flight response you mention occurs when you perceive a threat. The body reacts by inundating you with stress hormones including adrenaline and cortisol. These are designed to prepare the body for emergency action, for either fighting the threat or running away. However, people’s responses to stress are also quite different. Some get agitated and keyed up while others withdraw or shut down. So again, much depends on the person and the context in which the threat occurs. In some situations, being agitated and fighting may prolong your life while in others “freezing” may be the way to save yourself. As such, the short answer to your question is: it depends.