Deaf as an Aspect of Serious Illness - Assignment Example

DEATH AS AN ASPECT OF SERIOUS ILLNESS There is only one destination that we are all headed to, and that is death. It has been described as the final destination of our life or our final resting place. Call it the equalizer or any other name you want but death is a natural thing that enables our society to perpetuate from one generation to another. Without death, perhaps the world would not exist because of the population pressure that it would have gone through. Death as a natural phenomenon is common to all species from animals to plants. (Gurtman, 1990) There are many causes of death. Death can be caused by an accident, by illness or by any other incident. Here illness will be referring to physical illness that eventually leads to failure of body functioning system that results to death. Death due to accident can be as a result of injuries that have been inflicted on the body and that eventually makes the body to succumb to death. But it is the aspect of illness that we are interested in. how can we define or explain death as an aspect of serious illness Looking at death as an aspect of serious illness, we would definitely be looking at two components of this aspect which are fear and anger. With death there come so many things. But the irony is that, it is the bereaved that bear the blunt of it. After all death can be said to be a form of deep sleep, a slumber in which we don't come back to this world again. No one knows if there are dreams in the sleep or there no dreams. But one thing is evident that the one who dies does not feel any effect of the death. Then how does fear and anger manifest in death As we have said it is bereaved who bears it all. The loss of a loved one becomes the point of anger on the issue. Many of us fail to comprehend why the dead had to leave us when we needed them most. The paradox of it all is that we are angered by forces beyond our control. The loss of a loved one can be painful and stressing which causes a lot of pain and anger to us. This anger may lead to many other effects on our body which may affect us and cause some serious illnesses physically. It has been evidenced that anger and stress resulting from loss of loved one has in many instances led to subsequent death of a bereaved person. Many people have been witnessed to have collapsed and died instantly on receiving the news of loss of loved ones. But it is the lasting illness that can express the whole idea of serious illness arising from death. (Gurtman, 1990) The bereaved will spend long hours contemplating about the loss. This will come along with anger and frustrations. It takes time for them to recover from the loss. The anger and frustrations affects their daily performance and some may fail to recover at all. Most people may turn to be permanently disabled for the time they take to recover. This turns out to be a serious issue that may turn to an illness. Although we clearly understand that we are not vesting our anger on any person, we direct to the act of death. We understand that we cannot fight death. It is superior to us. The reason that we cannot fight death despite the anger that we may be having brings about an aspect of fear of death. Death brings fear with it. Imagine the loss of somebody who has been very close to you. This is somebody who you have lived with and interacted with for along time. Lets us take an example of a spouse. The loss of one spouse may bring so much fear to the other such that this person looks like he or she has suffered a serious illness for along time. Once we learn about the death of a very close person, we tend to think that this may follow the same pattern that has dictated our life. Death of one couple in a marriage has been witnessed to bring a lot of fear to the other. Some even finds it difficult to live under the same roof that they had been sharing. Many a time it comes out that we tend to look at death as something that we cannot escape once it has befallen on our loved ones. No wonder death has been attributed to evil spirits for along time. Along the argument of spirits, the bereaved is left with a burden in some instances. In some societies, after the death of one spouse, the other spouse is supposed to undergo some rituals which may last for days or months and sometimes for years. Performance of these rituals is done in fear of haunt by the evil spirit. With time, performance of these rituals turns out to be routine duties which instill more fear to the bereaved. This is definitely fearful and stressing. And talking about fear of death, how many of us don't fear death Some people would rather make a journey of thousand of miles or do any other punishable or distressing and disgusting thing all in name of avoiding death. What happens when we are faced by a situation that may result to death We tend to forget our personality and even other around us. It has been proposed that some people who suffer from terminal illness like Cancer or Aids eventually succumbs to death due to stress caused by fear of death itself. This is the main reason why ant Aids campaigners have been emphasizing on the need for self acceptance as a way of reducing fear that engulfs us once us once we learn that we are infected with HIV virus. (Gurtman, 1990) Component of fear and anger may affect us mainly through stress and depression. The aspect of fear and anger of death brings about stress. Stress is one of the conditions that can easily make us succumb to death. Due to stress our bodies become weak and are not able to function properly. Our immune system is depressed and we become more and more exposed to diseases. Hence fear and anger do not directly cause death but rather they result to stress which weakness our body making it more prone to diseases. Perhaps if we are able to overcome fear and anger in death, we could be saving millions of lives everyday. Reference: Gurtman, H. (1990). The Impact of the Psychoanalysts serious illness on Psychoanalytic work. Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 18: 618-625. Retrieved from, http://www.pep-web.org/document.phpid=JAA.018.0613A.htm on 26th February 2008 Read More