Emotional venting Essay Example

Emotional venting Essay Example Emotional venting Essay Emotional venting Essay Essay Topic: The Healers The first stage in Kuibler-Rosss ( 1969) model is denial, a common reaction to being told that one is dying. During this stage patient rejects reality of his or her impeding death. Denial of death provides patient with time to direct energies toward coping with the now reality. Undoubtedly, denial is an important self-protective mechanism, in that it enables a person to keep from being overwhelmed or rendered helpless by the frightening and depressing events of life and to direct his or her attention to more rewarding experiences. It is certainly advisable for any seriously ill person to question a terminal prognosis and seek additional medical opinions. But denial becomes unrealistic when the patient invests precious time, money, and emotions in medical quacks and faith healers. Denial of death is manifested in many ways. For example, patients who have been told clearly and explicitly that they have a heart disorder, cancer, or some other serious illness may deny having been told anything. Such oversights demonstrate how denial operates in selective attention, perception, and memory. Defensive, unconscious denial also helps a person to minimize the importance of bad news without dogmatically refusing to believe it. Denial of death is, of course, not limited to dying patients. It is also quite common among medical personnel and among the family and friends of dying patients. Anger (Emotion) During this stage, patient resents interruption of personal hopes and plans. Continual deterioration of a terminally ill patients health and sense of well-being makes it more and more difficult to suppress the fact that time is growing short. As the dying process continues, denial gradually fades into partial acceptance of death. However, partial acceptance is accompanied by feelings of anger at the unfairness of having to die without being given a chance to do all that one wants to do, especially when so many less worthy people will continue to live. The feelings of anger experienced by a dying person are frequently nondiscriminating, being directed at family, friends, hospital staff, and even God. The direct target of the patients anger, however, is the unfairness of death rather than other people. It is important for those who have regular contacts with dying people to be prepared for these attacks of anger and to recognize that much of the hostility represents defensive displacement of emotion from the real target to a convenient scapegoat. To facilitate the expression of anger (emotional venting) in a safe atmosphere, Kubler-Ross ( 1969) recommended the use of screaming rooms for both the patients and the medical staff. Usually, expression of anger allows patient to move to next stage. Bargaining In the normal course of events, a dying patients anger fades and is replaced by a desperate attempt to buy time by striking a bargain with fate, God, attending physicians or nurses, family or anyone or anything that offers hope for recovery or at least a postponement of death. Bargaining is a healthier, more controlled reaction than denial or anger, and patients in this stage make many promises. They may promise to take their medicine without fussing, to attend church regularly, to be kinder to others, and so on. Praying for forgiveness, embracing new religious beliefs, and engaging in rituals or magical acts to ward off death are also quite common. During this stage patient gradually comes to understand reality of the situation.