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Acceptance in Chronic Illness

Aamir Khakwani

Having a long-term, or chronic, illness can disrupt the patient’s life in many ways. They may often be tired and in pain. The illness might affect the appearance or their physical abilities and independence. They may not be able to work, causing financial problems. For children, chronic illnesses can be frightening, because they may not understand why this is happening to them. It should to be noted that the person who is suffering from any sort of chronic illness does not accept it immediately or overnight. It requires the help of the family members and friends to help the sufferer cope with accepting the disease. According to foundation of Nephropathy, the five stage of acceptance of a disease from the sufferer are:-

Denial
For many people, being diagnosed with any sort of chronic disease is the first time they have ever been faced with significant, irreversible disease - for themselves or within the family. It's a difficult concept to deal with, and many people initially try to minimize its impact by not accepting it right away. They may think there has been a mistake, or that it's just not something they need to worry about.

Anger
People sometimes respond to this by becoming angry at themselves, or at various aspects of the "establishment" or "system", or at other people. They are angry at themselves for getting sick or for not having done certain things, and they are angry at doctors because the disease was not diagnosed sooner or because they cannot cure it.

Bargaining
Bargaining and denial are closely-related. In denial, you sort of forget you have anything, or you refuse to accept it. In bargaining, you accept that you have the disease, but you start convincing yourself that you will cure or stop the disease by doing certain things, and these are usually things that unduly deprive you of something or things for which you have to make a personal sacrifice which might not be necessary.

Depression
When the patient sees that even with personal sacrifices are not curing him and his condition is either remaining the same or detoriting, he will go through the next stage. This may also leave the sufferer feeling a little depressed, perhaps because they feel powerless or hopeless. As time passes, and perhaps with increased knowledge about the chronic disease that they are suffering from they will adjust.

Acceptance
It is a natural process that we all eventually learn to live with the problems that we are suffering from the the person who is suffering from the chronic illness will accept the diseases he has. Acceptance is knowing that, while we don't choose any disease and we would prefer to have it, but with proper treatment and perhaps with lifestyle changes if necessary, we can live a good life. Even people who have reached end-stage illness will go on with their lives, even though it may have some limitations they didn't have before.
Family relationships shift over time as roles and responsibilities change with the illness. Such shifts present special problems in communication. Other relatives (such as siblings, children, and grandparents) or friends may be so uncomfortable with the situation that they may deny the illness. They may feel overwhelmed and cut off communication at a time when they really need each other's support. If the strains are too great, a family member might shut down, feeling hopeless, isolated, and trapped. Sometimes relatives fret over minor issues while holding back painful news, angry feelings, or resentments.It is necessary that the sufferers are provided enough time to go through all the phases and those others do not overwhelm them. It should be kept in mind that these individuals are already going through a major stress in their lives which requires life style management and at that time all they require is the family support.