28 May 2018 - Thanatophobia (Fear of Death)

Has any parent ever experienced a phase where your child suddenly talks to you about death and then starts to breakdown?  Sad to say, it recently happened to Javier.  When he came home from student care centre this evening, he came and told me that he cried in the centre earlier in the day because he was scared of death.  Somehow the thought of death floated into his mind.  He started asking about what will happen when a person dies?  Is there really spirit?  Is Heaven and God real?  Why can't we live forever?  Why life is so short?  What is the purpose of life?  And the questions go on and on.......

There is a term for such fear and it's called Thanatophobia.  According to some website articles, such fear is common for children, especially boy between ages 4 to 8.  I started reading about how to tackle such situation and how best I can help Javier to overcome this fear.

It is really quite challenging, especially when he starts to relate his "scientific" knowledge into the conversation.  All this while, I do share with Jerlene and Javier a lot of general knowledge.  I had mentioned once that the Earth will one day be "eaten up" by our Sun.  Javier has a very good memory and remembers all that I had said.  So he started asking what will happen to human being when Sun "eats up" the Earth......

I'm not sure where he learns about reincarnation and he started asking me about it.  I tell him frankly that it's a belief and no one can prove whether it's real or not.  But I told him that if it'll help him get over the fear by believing that a person will reborn after death, then he should probably think that it's true.  It seems like that helps him a bit and at least he now feels that death may not be the end of everything.  Then came the question, why a person cannot remember anything after reborn.......?

I will monitor his condition for a while before deciding whether he requires professional's help.