You may grieve the loss of your health, the loss of your identity and independence, or loss of future life plans. As you process your diagnosis and adjust to a new “reality”, you can experience and move through different stages of grief, the most common being denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
According to imaginelifetherapy.com, there are seven stages of grief for chronic disease: denial, pleading, bargaining and desperation, anger, anxiety and depression, loss of self and confusion, and acceptance. Clients can go from one stage to another until finally reaching acceptance.
Identify the four phases of chronic disease. Discuss how each phase may impact the client's physical life, psychological life, and social/work life. Describe what occurs in each phase of chronic disease (crisis, stabilization, resolution, integration)
How can a long-term physical condition affect my mental health? Having a long-term physical condition can lead to social isolation, low self-esteem, stigma and discrimination. You may feel tired, frustrated, worried or stressed, especially when dealing with pain, tests, treatments or flare-ups.
If you haven't heard of the five stages of grief before, the stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It's important to mention that there is no order you “must” go through for these stages, and you might experience one stage more strongly than another.
Edward Suchman (1965) devised an orderly approach for studying illness behavior with his elaboration of the five key stages of illness experience: (1) symptom experience; (2) assumption of the sick role; (3) medical care contact; (4) dependent patient role; and (5) recovery and rehabilitation.
Sorrow and sadness
It's common to feel sad after an illness has been diagnosed. The sadness may come and go, or may be present much of the time. There are often many changes to be made and you may feel grief as a result of these changes, and at the thought that your future may not be as you had planned.
Affective factors usually include more negative emotions, such as depression, pain-related anxiety, and anger. Cognitive factors include catastrophizing, fear, helplessness, decreased self-efficacy, pain coping, readiness to change, and acceptance.
In short: The cytokines are probably what's causing you to feel extra tearful and irritable when you're under the weather. There's a long list of neurological and psychological symptoms that fall under sickness behaviors.
They are of long duration and generally slow progression. The four main types … are cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes (10).
High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol & Diabetes.
Subsequently, the model comprised six emotional stages: denial and anger, bargaining, depression, revising, deserting and acceptance. The results show that individuals can move freely between the first four stages, but deserting and acceptance are always the final stages.
Emotional symptoms are defined as daily presence of at least one of four symptoms: feeling low, irritable or bad tempered, nervous and having difficulties falling asleep.
Emotional experiences have three components: a subjective experience, a physiological response and a behavioral or expressive response.
People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They're able to cope with life's challenges. They can keep problems in perspective and bounce back from setbacks. They feel good about themselves and have good relationships.
Although it may feel like it's coming from your joints, pain – particularly the chronic pain common to arthritis – is also an expression of your state of mind. If you're depressed or anxious, you'll very likely hurt more than when your mood is lighter or more balanced.
Negative emotions and physical ill-health
Neuroticism, defined as the tendency to experience negative emotions and display aggressive, hostile, or angry behavioral patterns, is well-known to be a risk factor for a range of physical health outcomes like cardiovascular disease, asthma, and hypertension.
1. any psychological disorder characterized primarily by maladjustive emotional reactions that are inappropriate or disproportionate to their cause. Also called emotional illness.
Most chronic illnesses persist throughout a person's life, but are not always the cause of death, such as arthritis.