At 71 years of age I havent felt anxious about death for 2 or 3 decades now, reason being I've pondered deeply about a few odd experiences throughout my life that has led me to believe that death is an illusion and my real self is immortal. I think that the majority of people have these odd experiences and don't stop and think and keep following that thinking, instead they just shrug it off, not being curious enough I suppose, I imagine the amount of curiosity is inborn, for me I just can't stop being curious while some others can't help not being curious.

Edited to add: Though I'm not anxious about my death I do have the odd twinge about my possible pre death suffering, also being alone if my beloved wife dies first, but that's just self pity!

Do you think that all human beings suffer from a latent form of death anxiety and if so what can we do to overcome it in order to live a full and carefree life? — Penav25

No, I don't think all human beings suffer from death anxiety, but many do. People who believe in evil spirits, hell, the devil, and so on have reason to be fearful about dying. Some people dread what happens to their dead body -- decay, purification, and all that. They won't be there, so I don't know why they fear that.

Banishing all evil spirits, hell, the devil, and allied forces of darkness is one thing one can do. They are not real and there is no reason to fear them. Be gone!

Personally, I don't know anyone living a full and carefree life. "Full life", maybe; "carefree life" definitely not. Trying to live a full life, and eliminating such cares as one can eliminate is a reasonable approach.

Like TWI, I'm in my 70s and stopped worrying about dying quite a while ago. The inevitability of dying has become clearer, and to some extent, welcome. The prospect of living for another 100 years is horrifying. I probably won't live another 20 years, may not live 10 more years, could be dead in 5 years, might be dead by morning. In the meantime, I have been spending the last several years filling in gaps in knowledge. I read a lot. I feel better emotionally than I have in a long time, and my brain is working extremely well (at least, it appears to be working properly; perhaps thinking my brain is in good shape is an end stage delusion of alzheimers disease, but that doesn't seem to be the case.)

The more one is engaged in living, the less one will think about being dead or dying.

Thank you both for your answers.
@Bitter Crank you focus more on the religious aspect of fear of death. What I meant was the existential type of fear, being afraid that there's nothing after death and that life is vain. Im more interested in learning if either of you has experienced some type of anxiety when you contemplate death. Does the prospect of ceasing to exist trigger any anxious or negative feelings and if so how do you deal with it?

I have had some friends who have told me they are afraid to die someday. Personally I never felt that fear. For the most part, I stay focused on the moment and that's why I do not make unnecessary dangers. In fact, I avoid everything that I consider stupid or dangerous. Usually people do the opposite thinking that it does not matter because they will die anyway. Often that does not go well.

I do not believe that all human beings suffer from this. Because suffering implies recognizing and living for this as a burden to bear and endure. Most people simply shrug their shoulders as soon as it arrives. For some it does not even come to mind.

The solution for a carefree life is actually to accept and endure. Do not ignore the idea of ​​dying thinking that it will be better if you only go to the movies with your friends. This action makes you and your reason for living depend on others ... big mistake and weak will too.

I suspect that none of us will know what our relationship with death is until the final days arrive.

My guess is that all human beings have some degree of death anxiety, but that it varies widely in how close to the surface this existential dread manifests.

Personally, I'm cool with being dead to the degree I understand my real feelings, but I do have anxiety about the process of dying, which can in some cases be ugly indeed. One of my uncles was mowing the yard on a hot 4th of July afternoon, had a heart attack, and was dead before he hit the ground. Sign me up!

Philosophically, if we examine it closely and patiently, we may see death and life are intertwined on a day to day basis, with psychological death being one of our favorite experiences. As example, consider the orgasm. You're totally gone for a few seconds, and you couldn't be happier about it. Many or most sought after experiences have this death component in one way or another.

As usual, my guess is that the hard boundary we perceive between life and death is more a property of thought, the tool we are using to make the observation, than it is the reality we are trying to observe.

I don't think that it makes sense to have anxiety about something that cannot be avoided and inevitably happens. I think anxiety has purpose in our lives to protect us from harm and to allow us to be more cautious in certain situations. For example, some amount of social anxiety actually helps us socialize better by inhibiting us from saying socially awkward and rude stataments. Death anxiety serves us with the purpose of allowing us to avoid an early death. A person not afraid of death might be more likely to do wreckless activities and so there's survival benefits to death anxiety. But the problem with death anxiety is that it persists as you age. In fact, older people seem to have more death anxiety than younger people but younger people could use it more. A young person might live an unhealthy lifestyle because he doesn't care if he dies early. It's just too far away for him to worry about it anyway. An older person is often anxious about death but it would be better to be carefree about it. It will happen anyway so you might as well not stress yourself out over it.
While we can acknowledge that death anxiety isn't useful in old age, it is hard for us to get rid of this anxiety. But I think recognizing the absurdity of it is the first step. Anxiety usually occurs because we recognize a particular situation as dangerous. But if we are to be in inevitable defeat, we might as well calmly walk into the battlefield for our mortality. Another thing to consider is that it's not clear how death is bad if you don't believe in any afterlife. If death is like being under general anesthesia and never waking up, then it's hard to see what's so bad about that. You won't feel the perception of time so it will feel like no time has passed at all and the infinity of nonexistence will pass by infinitely fast. Though, I think it's hard for a conscious mind to imagine not having consciousness and that's why people often don't believe they will ever die. It's just beyond their imagination and they find the strangeness of death intimidating.

Bitter Crank you focus more on the religious aspect of fear of death. What I meant was the existential type of fear, being afraid that there's nothing after death and that life is vain. Im more interested in learning if either of you has experienced some type of anxiety when you contemplate death. Does the prospect of ceasing to exist trigger any anxious or negative feelings and if so how do you deal with it? — Penav25

At times I have felt some sort of 'existential fear' about not existing--though not recently. How we think about life, death, life after death, nothing after death, is not a given. We aren't required to be anxious about existential death. We can shape the way we think over time. Preparing to think about inevitabilities in a certain way (like, how will I respond to being diagnosed with terminal cancer) doesn't guarantee anything, but we can at least deal a much stronger hand for ourselves.

If we spend decades carefully honing our fears about dying, then as we approach death, it will certainly be a fearful thing. If we put a similar effort into accepting death, accepting our extinguished existence, accepting the universal rightness of dying (especially if it is a "timely death" in old age) death will be much less fearsome.

Anxiety isn't the only thing we fear about death. We also experience nostalgia for the life we haven't yet departed from. We feel regrets about all the things we could'v, should'v, would'v done, but didn't do. We feel some shame for this or that betrayal. In other words, anxiety isn't the only song on the record, and we haven't even mentioned the good feelings we have about our lives so far.

How old are you guys? I'm younger and I have this fear! It's not much a fear of death, at least not yet, but a fear of dying young and not being able to reach my full potential and have a whole life experience(marriage, grand kids, etc.). I figure the only thing I can do is use my time wisely and live my life to the fullest, so that I don't have any regrets when I take my last breath.

No-one knows what happens to us when we die: both the belief that we will survive, and the belief that we will not, are unsupported by any evidence. For all we know, therefore, it is entirely possible that we will survive death, and that what we will experience thereafter will be unpleasant. A degree of anxiety when contemplating one's own death is therefore both natural and reasonable. To quote the poet Yeats:
“Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all.”

Having said that, dwelling on that anxiety when one is still healthy and active is a total waste of time and energy. Luckily for me, most of the time I am far too busy to make that mistake.

So, IMO, the best way to overcome the anxiety is to be busy - preferably with something one finds of such absorbing interest that while it is going on, one simply forgets that one is mortal.

That’s sound advice. However, I tend to get so immersed in something (currently this philosophy forum) that I soon get burned out on it. Then I don’t want to touch the thing, sometimes for long stretches, sometimes for good. I think I could learn some moderation in my interests and vary them as well. However, that seems to go against my nature. At least it feels that way. I know Sartre would disagree about having an inherent nature. I just can’t seem to break the cycle... Any advice for me?

Die.

This isn't directed towards me, but I'll put my two cents into it. The best way to fight this is to do as many things as possible, and regulate how you do them. For an analogy, take the reeds of woodwind instrument - using one reed continuously will cause it to be used up faster, meaning you will have to by ones more often. Using two to three reeds at a time, and switching between them, means that you preserve the reeds better, as they each aren't used so extensively, making their net lifespan longer. If you switch between doing different things, you won't burn out on them so fast. Also, try new things, even if you don't want to. Even if you end up not liking it, it will still be something that takes up your time. I hope this helps.

That is good advice. I just have a problem with motivation. I often feel stuck in place, and my will power is weak. Do you have any advice on strengthening the will? (I’m not talking about free will.)

I'm actually having that problem myself. I've not come up with a solution yet, but I will let you know if I do.