LAUSR

Recent research suggests that depression may stem from the conflicted relationship between the goal to continue living and the knowledge of death (Hayes, Ward, & McGregor, 2016). From this perspective, awareness of inevitable death can trigger withdrawal from the goal to continue living, which precipitates a general collapse in the goal-approach system and causes depression. Withdrawal from life functions to resolve motivational conflict regarding life and death, however, and thereby reduces feelings of anxiety. The current research extends this theorizing by testing the hypothesis that reactivating the goal to continue living among people who are life-withdrawn reduces feelings of depression but increases anxiety. Based on the evidence, we propose a model of depression and anxiety stemming from death-awareness that sheds light on depression-anxiety comorbidity, and discuss implications of the model for understanding depressive symptomatology.