Death Education: The Way to Prepare for Future Uncertainties
- Painting; by Catherine Luker
Preface
The sudden death of my grandfather three years ago was a big blow to our family. As we can’t scientifically view death, my families, including me, became very decrepit, until I learned that the reason for our inability to relieve was the result of the lack of death education due to China’s social-cultural constraints. I was then motivated to initiate a death education project called “Say No to the Taboo about Death.” I wrote an analytical article about death education’s resilience function under the context of COVID-19.
Special Moments
I believe It's a novel way to make connection between death education and the improvement of resilience
This analytical article won Outstanding Writing Style Prize in Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest
Death Education: The Way to Prepare for Future Uncertainties
COVID-19 Pandemic and Depression
All those nights, tears flow like shattered beads, rolling down their cheeks and soaking the pillows. In a small, cramped space with no natural light, students have already fixed their eyes on screens for over eight hours. This is a common phenomenon among Chinese students during quarantine. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, they have been glued to their chairs, getting little exercise. Depression seems to have a tight grip on them.
According to the 2021 Adolescent Behavior and Experience Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 44.2 percent of students persistently have feelings of hopelessness and depression, and 9.0 percent have made suicide attempts. Depression often develops in students who spend a lot of time in a cramped space with no connection to the outside world, no opportunity for in-person interactions, and no chance to unwind with varied leisure activities. Left untreated, depression can impair productivity, leading to alcoholism, drug addiction, or even suicide.
Given the many harmful effects depression has, we should reduce the impact of psychological distress, and psychological resilience takes effect. Thus, building psychological resilience is our top priority; it helps people go through hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. But COVID-19 is merely the tip of the iceberg of adversity and uncertainty. How do people deal with far-reaching future uncertainties? Death education, I believe, helps solve this dilemma.
What Consequences are Caused by Untreated Depression?
Firstly, depression weakens productivity, which harms youth’s academic performance. In their study, Alketa Hysenbegasi, Stenven L. Hass, and Clayton R. Rowland found a correlation between diagnosed depression and a 0.49 point, or half a letter grade, decrease in student GPA, as depression robs one’s motivation, engagement, and passion for work. However, a UK-based study by Vielife found that high levels of emotional resilience (i.e. dealing well with stress) are associated with increased efficiency at work, which could offset productivity losses
due to depression.
Secondly, people are likely to use alcohol or drugs to cope with depression, which makes them heavily dependent on such substances. Since alcohol releases people’s stress, it thus becomes an accessible coping tool for people to reduce their depressive symptoms. Also, there is a positive correlation between depression and nicotine dependence, as individuals resort to smoking as a form of relaxation in the face of social isolation and loneliness in the context of
the pandemic. However, resilience is often associated with a reduction in alcohol and illicit substance use. Individuals with higher resilience can rely on adaptive or flexible thinking to reduce substance abuse.
Moreover, anxiety disorder is a risk factor for the subsequent onset of suicidal ideation and attempts. When individuals encounter a huge blow in life that cannot be transformed, they feel pessimistic, helpless, and bewildered, some may choose suicide as a way of escapement.
Thus, resilience, as a protective factor against suicide risk, should be given more attention. In groups at greater risk for suicide, among high-risk individuals, and the general population, resilience promotion may reduce suicide risk.
How Does Death Education Build Resilience?
Death education enables individuals to comprehend the nature of death, acquire pertinent knowledge, understand the dialectical relationship between death and life, and guide them to think about the meaning of death so that they can cherish and build an optimistic attitude towards life. It includes a broad range of topics, such as death-related practices, religious, philosophical, or spiritual views, etc. It also enhances alexithymic function and stimulates the spiritual dimension of people.
The fear of COVID-19 makes the imminence of death prescient for individuals, increasing anxiety and worsening mental health. If depression remains untreated, serious consequences will arise. Hence, improving resilience is imperative. That’s how death education plays its role.
Death education entails not only understanding medical terminology but topics such as meanings and attitudes about death and life. People cherish their lives more when they have a better awareness of end-of-life issues.
Firstly, death education reduces alexithymia, improving people’s ability to recognize and express emotions. Alexithymia is reported to be a risk factor for depression. People with alexithymia have trouble expressing their stress, which limits their ability to receive social assistance. Thus, they are prone to feel lonely and dismissed over time, further worsening depression. A loop develops. If people have emotional cognitive deficiencies, simply adopting counseling would be ineffective. However, death education courses can help adolescents
better articulate their emotions. They will not repress their feelings if they are depressed; instead, they will vent, which will help them feel better and become more emotionally resilient.
Also, death education stimulates the spiritual dimension; it protects against depressive symptoms and other mental health risks and improves resilience when dealing with negative life events. People are in an unprecedented predicament because of the unexpected COVID-19 outbreak, and they are under great psychological pressure. When anxiety enshrouds them, they feel aimless and desperate, so they abuse alcohol and drugs or even commit suicide to
escape from the reality. This is the common manifestation of people with less resilience. But through death education’s valuational dimension, people realize that they need to cherish their time, plan for the future, and explore and pursue their value and meaning. Orville E. Kelly who was facing her imminent death founded an organization called Make Today Count. She said, “I do not look upon each day as another day closer to death, but as another day of life, to be appreciated and enjoyed.” Although life is fleeting and full of difficulties, it can still
be meaningful. Thus, people won’t easily escape from reality when they encounter setbacks, but instead, they face everything with an optimistic attitude. A positive outlook is one aspect of resilience, as is conquering obstacles.
Individual death anxiety is normally triggered by public health emergencies such as COVID-19, and people must become more resilient. However, Yang Luo, Rui Guo, Chaohua Huang, Yan Xiong, and Fei Zhou, in their research, argued that the pandemic builds resilience; individuals adapt well and develop actively after experiencing adversity, which refers to mental resilience.
Hence, there’s no need for death education as people become more resilient naturally from hardship. However, people who blindly indulge in negative emotions are difficult to experience psychological growth; instead, individuals more capable of adapting and recovering from bad situations do. Thus, people can only experience growth if they have a certain level of resilience, and death education can help them build that resilience.
Better Preparing for Future Uncertainties
Other than COVID-19, there have been so many other heart-wrenching events in recent years. “Black Lives Matter,” “2021 Henan Floods,” “Russo-Ukrainian War,” to list just a few examples. Time and time again, people are in the midst of panic, anxiety, and depression. How can people predict what else may occur in the future? What uncertainty will it be full of? The best solution is to receive death education, become resilient, and be prepared for uncertainties.
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