It’s easy to think that the rich and famous among us aren’t really among us at all and that they’re separated from reality so much that worries and pressures and anxieties don’t get to them. Well, while that could be said of some, it certainly can’t be said of Rita Ora, who’s so crippled by her fear of dying that she tries to see a therapist once a week.
Death is my biggest phobia. I used to have panic attacks when I was little, saying, “Mum, I don’t want to die.” I have been going to therapy and I still try to go every week.’
The panic attacks began when she was seven, after playing with friends in a cemetery. She told The Mirror, ‘I was seven and playing hide and seek, but no one found me. I thought I was going to get stolen by ghosts.’
Death anxiety is a very specific type of anxiety also referred to as thanatophobia. And according to an 1981 study, the death fear is the primary fear on which all others are based, and children are more likely to feel it as they don’t necessarily know what causes it, but do know that it means people simply don’t exist anymore. And the idea of not existing anymore is so flummoxing it freaks them out. Deep, right?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.