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LINK People can die from giving up the fight | EurekAlert! Science News

People can die simply because they've given up, life has beaten them and they feel defeat is inescapable, according to new research.

The study, by Dr John Leach, a senior research fellow at the University of Portsmouth, is the first to describe the clinical markers for 'give-up-itis', a term used to describe what is known medically as psychogenic death.

The five stages of give-up-itis are:

  1. Social withdrawal
  2. Apathy
  3. Aboulia
  4. Psychic akinesia
  5. Psychogenic death

In concentration camps, people who reached this stage were often known to be near death by fellow prisoners when they took out a hidden cigarette and began smoking it. Cigarettes were highly valuable in the camps and could be traded for important things such as food.

Dr Leach said: "When a prisoner took out a cigarette and lit it, their campmates knew the person had truly given up, had lost faith in their ability to carry on and would soon be dead."

altschmerz 9 July 9
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There are reports of American Indians, especially medicine men, being able to call death down on themselves like this right up to the 1970s.

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I heard of a few real cases...

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I understand . If you are not religous there is a time to let go.

@altschmerz indeed, both of my parents have passed....my sister told my father and my mother that they could let go.....and they did.....

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