Do you deny your death?

In order to assess your attitudes toward your death, answer yes or no to the following questios:

Do you avoid the idea that you will eventually die?

Are afraid to joke about your death?

Have you put off making a will?

Are you afraid of dying?

Does reading about death make you depressed?

Do you dread visiting someone who is dying?

Look back over your yes answers and explain the reasons for your response. Since denial is a normal mechanism for coping with stress, it is understandable that each of us denies our own death to some extent. Yet undue reliance on the denial of death may result in too little precaution about the hazards of living as well as the postponement of things you really want to do, often until it's too late.