Psychogenic Death: What It Is, What Causes It, And Types
The power of the mind over our body is very high: the first is capable of affecting the functioning of the body. Our heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, level of muscle tension, dilation or contraction of the pupils, sweating, blood flow, intestinal transit, and many other similar processes are greatly affected by our mental contents. and emotional.
There are known cases of people who lose memory of traumatic events due to their mind’s attempt to block certain memories, or of others who have suffered from medical illnesses, seizures, paralysis or speech problems due to causes linked to mental suffering.
However, this relationship can go even further than what most people usually think: our own mind can cause our death. This type of death is known as psychogenic death and it is about her that we are going to talk about below.
Probably on some occasion we have heard of a person who is said to have died of grief shortly after the death of a person very close to him, or who has allowed himself to die because he had no desire to live. Although in some cases it is an interpretation of what has happened to the deceased, these types of expressions contain a truth that must be taken into account: it is possible to die from mental and emotional causes.
The name psychogenic death is the death or illness which occurs in the absence of a pathology or physical medical condition that explains the death, and whose main cause is the influence of the psyche on the functioning of the body and the energy necessary to live
This type of death is usually linked to the extreme experience of emotions such as sadness, fear or shame, generally linked to suffering from some type of traumatic experience that greatly affects the person.
In many cases the subject loses motivation to live and in fact after a while it can end up dying. However, it is not a phenomenon derived from depression or other psychiatric conditions, but simply and despite not being something intentional and intended (it would not be a form of suicide), the subject surrenders to death by losing consciousness. will to live.
Traditionally, psychogenic death has been considered to be caused by some type of cardiac alteration generated by the experience of trauma, such as a myocardial infarction or stroke triggered by emotional tension. This is so in many cases.
However, it has also been discovered that many of these deaths, especially those that are not linked to fear or shame but rather sadness, may have a different cause: the cessation of the motivation to live.
In physiological terms, the existence of an alteration at the level of the anterior cingulate, one of the main areas that govern motivation at a behavioral level and allow the person to direct their actions towards specific goals, something that includes orientation towards survival. Experiencing certain traumatic events can cause this area to stop functioning correctly, leading to a progressive loss of motivation and energy that can lead to death.
5 stages of abandonment
The so-called psychogenic death does not occur suddenly and suddenly (except in cases where the emotion generates a physiological response such as a heart attack), but it is generally possible to observe how these deaths occur throughout a process that can be relatively fast, lasting from a few days to months or years. In this process A series of stages or phases can be observed that little by little they will bring the subject closer to its end.
1. Social withdrawal phase
During this first phase the person begins to withdraw, isolate themselves and distance themselves from their environment. There is a tendency towards a certain egocentrism and separation from the world, as well as a progressive passivity and emotional indifference.
Generally this first phase usually occurs after some type of emotional trauma, and some authors interpret it as an attempt to distance themselves in order to rebuild themselves. It is in case of not achieving said reconstruction that the process is followed.
2. Phase of apathy
A second phase, more dangerous than the first, occurs when the subject begins to notice a total lack of energy along with a feeling of strong disconnection from reality. At this moment the subject may lose the instinct of preservation and stop fighting to develop and continue living.
Not only is the energy gone, but in this third phase so is the motivation and ability to make decisions. There is a kind of mental numbness and a lack of mental and conscious content.
An extreme withdrawal is common that even can lead to forgetting basic needs like eating, but even though the subject does not have the capacity to motivate himself, it is still possible to motivate him from the outside (now in the absence of said external motivation the subject will return to the situation of intense apathy and abandonment).
4. Psychic akinesia
This fourth phase is one of the most serious, increasing the previous symptoms in such a way that although there is awareness, there is a total lack of sensitivity. Better said, although they can feel, they are unable to react to stimuli. Even if they feel pain or discomfort, people in this state will not react nor will they avoid harmful stimulation.
5. Psychogenic death
The last phase of the process is the one that leads to the actual death of the person, after a stage in which no type of stimulation will make the subject react There is no motivation to live and the subject lets himself go, which will ultimately lead to death.
Types of psychogenic death
Although psychogenic death is generally the product of experiencing a traumatic event or the intense experience of emotions such as suffering or shame, the truth is that we can find different types of psychogenic death. Below we will see some variants of this type of death depending on what generates the lack of desire to live or the autosuggestion that they are going to die soon.
Among them we can find death by location, born of suggestion and conditioning of assuming that one’s own death will come when a specific condition is met. The high level of emotional tension that this entails will end up causing the subject’s own psyche to cause a real death. There are numerous historical records of people who have died in this same way.
We also find among psychogenic deaths voodoo deaths, which also arise from the belief and suggestion on the part of the sufferer that having been bewitched or having broken a sacred taboo will cause death. This is one of the most common causes that people who believe in voodoo end up actually dying after being cursed or what causes people who play with the Ouija board to suffer the same fate (reasons for which it is said that such acts only affect whether the person believes in them).
A third type of psychogenic death is found in what is known as hospitalism Hospitalism is a concept that refers to the separation of a child and their mother or attachment figure for an extended period of time. This separation generates great anxiety and distress for the child, who may end up losing his appetite and ending up dying. This is the case, for example, of many children abandoned or separated at an early age from their parents, who end up dying without a clear organic cause due to the deprivation of affection.
A type of preventable death
Psychogenic death is not an inevitable process, but rather It is possible to reverse the process First of all, work must be done on increasing the person’s activity, as well as on their perception of control over their own life and on the restructuring of maladaptive and dysfunctional beliefs, whatever the case may be among those exposed.
The traumatic situation that may have generated the beginning of the process must be treated, as well as stimulating commitment to oneself and the restoration of healthy habits to gradually add work on socialization and community participation. It may also be relevant to help the subject find vital goals reasons to live and towards which to orient yourself.
Likewise, psychopharmacology can help promote an increased desire to live, through the use of stimulants and substances such as antidepressants to promote activity and reduce passivity.
