Prostate Cancer, which is the second leading cause of death in men, often brings scare even to the toughest men around.
This type of cancer slowly develops in the prostate though there are cases of aggressive growth of cancer cells in some individuals.
When someone is diagnosed of prostate cancer, he initially sees himself dying anytime soon.
Worries, fears and uncertainties envelope patients diagnosed with this type of cancer.
Nevertheless, it is not just the patient who is always affected.
Those who are closest to them such as their spouse, children and loved ones share the same emotions.
How do you go on living as a prostate cancer patient? In Psychology, there is this well-known five stages of grief or the Kübler-Ross model.
It describes the stages people go through to deal with grief or tragedy in their lives like being diagnosed with terminal illness such as Prostate Cancer.
Denial: Once you heard the news from your doctor, it does not sink in to you completely.
Your first defense is to convince yourself you are doing fine and that there were no symptoms at all, you follow a very strict diet and even exercise a lot, how sure are the doctors it is prostate cancer? Anger: When you start to embrace what are real, feelings of denial is replaced by anger.
You started to think life is not fair.
You try to find something or someone to blame for your condition.
You resent people who are doing better than you are.
Jealousy overwhelms your emotions thinking why other people can live happily and plan for their lives while you wait for your time to succumb to your disease.
Bargain: After some time, you surrender, let go of anger and embrace hope.
You start to bargain.
It is like saying, "just give me more time to do the things I need to do for my loved ones then I can go in peace".
A little extension of your life will suffice the pain you are going through just to see loved ones are doing alright before you leave.
Depression: When hope is loss, prostate cancer patients start to feel depress.
Knowing how certain death could be, a patient will disconnect from anyone or anything that is significant to him.
It is important that loved ones continue to give emotional support to cheer patients up regardless of how hard it can be.
Acceptance: The last stage, which is acceptance, takes time to embrace.
There are times it never happens.
This is the moment where someone embraces his fate.
He lets go of all worries, anger and grief.
This may be is the hardest part of all but it releases prostate cancer or any patient with terminal illness of physiological and emotional pain.
It makes things easier to bear.
These stages may not necessarily come in order when dealing with prostate cancer.
It is something that is not to be rushed or pushed as each individual is to his own.
There are incidents when people start to accept, the power of the mind work its way to the body.
This is when miracles happen that even the most advanced technology or well trained doctors could not explain.