Man has searched for the Fountain of Youth since ancient times, in

the hope that he may live forever. So many people fear death, fear

growing older, as a person with a severe phobia. There is no

Fountain of Youth. There is only the Circle of Life.

Our existence moves in concentric circles, sometimes very

quickly, sometimes more slowly and more gracefully. We do not

exist, and then we are created by the union of a man and a woman,

who, we hope, care for each other. We have seasons of our lives,

just as the earth has seasons. From our birth to our adulthood is

the Spring of our lives, and our new adulthood to our middle age

is the Summer of our lives. Our middle age to our elder years is

our Autumn, when we turn gray, our blood does not run as hot as

it once did, and we move more slowly, just as the Earth’s Autumn.

Our Elder years until our death is our Winter, when we slowly

wane and finally, we sleep eternally, no worries, nor fear, nor

pain; none of the things we did or did not do in life can be

changed. Eventually, they will cease to matter to anyone at all.

Facing mortality can be frightening for many people. Some will

realize that they are mortal when children grow up and finally

leave home. Some will realize their mortality when they have a

close call in some accident or other. Some never realize their own

mortality until it is too late for them to reverse the damage done

by their own hand or the hand of another. Some people realize

their mortality through chronic illness.

Chronic illness, whether it is treated or not, is known to shorten a

person’s life span. Debilitating pain, side effects of medications,

depression, and the effects of the chronic illness itself all are

contributing factors to the premature death of a chronically ill

person.

Sometimes, a patient may go for years on end treating

only symptoms of illnesses, with no definite diagnosis. These are

the patients most at risk of premature death, because they show

negative results of every medical test that is run, yet their medical

team knows something is wrong. When every possible test has

been performed, the patient’s healthcare team often tends to give

up on finding a diagnosis. A “wait and see” approach is taken. The

doctor or doctors may suspect one disease or more, yet without

definitive proof, they are hard-pressed to convince HMO’s and

other health insurances to cover drugs that are expensive, and

which may not work to treat the underlying illness. The patient

then continues to suffer, only treating symptoms as they arise,

knowing that nothing definite will be discovered until after they

are dead, and realizing that they will be dead before the general

expected life span of their culture.

This is another area where patients fall through the cracks of

depression screening. The patient grieves for themselves, and for

the loss of the life they once knew. They grieve for the family and

friends they know they will leave behind. They may become

withdrawn and irritable, and seem as if they believe the world is

out to get them. Often, they feel that it is their own body that is the

traitor who is out to get them, as they feel one system after

another turn against them, destroying more and more of the person

they once were, until they no longer recognize themselves. The

non recognition of the patient’s self is not always a cognitive

problem, such as dementia, but the changes wrought on their

lives, on their psyche, have changed them until they may hate the

person they have been forced to become by their illness.

It is difficult for these chronically ill and undiagnosed patients to

recognize depression or grief in themselves, as they struggle with

the day to day tasks of life. They may be parents of young

children who need them so desperately, as young children do.

They may be caring for aging relatives who are themselves

chronically ill. Patients feel anxiety and worry as they try to

explain to their children and their families the things they do not

understand themselves. These are extra stressors which contribute

to the stress of being ill. The holding in of fear and anxiety from

loved ones for fear of frightening them or causing them undue

stress and worry is exhausting.

It is impossible for any human to know when they will die, but it

happens to all living things eventually. It is both an unknown and

a natural occurrence. The fear of death is nothing more than the

fear of the unknown, the fear that we as human beings will be

forgotten, the fear of wondering what happens to us after we die.

Every culture has its own beliefs about life after death; it is human

nature for us to seek the comfort of a commonly-held belief of

something so unknown and so mysterious.

Death is a part of the Circle of Life. We do not exist, we are

created by the union of a man and a woman, we live out the

seasons of our lives. We complete the circle. It is both the

beginning and the end of us all as human beings, whether we are

good or bad, whether the life we live is good or bad. All Life

moves in concentric circles, some much faster than others, some

much slower. Some complete their circle in pain and illness, and

some complete their circle in health. Some complete a very

difficult circle by their own hand, by their own choices and the

consequences they must face. Some complete a very easy circle

by the choices of those before them and the luck of good health.

In the end, Death will equalize them all, and there should be no

fear as we accept that we all must die, and return to the beginning

of the Circle.