Chronic Illness Adaptation

The experience of illness requires many adaptation and adjustments. Discuss the processes involved in coping with a serious illness. “It is more important to know what kind of patient has the disease, than what kind of disease the patient has”- William Osler
Different individuals react differently to developing a chronic illness. Their reactions depend on many factors, such as their coping skills and personalities, the social support they have, the nature and consequences of their illness and the impact of the illness on their daily functioning. At the very least, having a chronic condition involves frequent impositions on the patient and their families that require adaptation and adjustment.
Leventhal and colleagues (Leventhal, Meyer & Nerenz, 1980; Leventhal & Nerenz, 1985) defined illness beliefs as a patient’s own
Identity refers to the label given to the illness (the medical diagnosis) and the symptoms experienced
2. The perceived cause of the illness – this may be biological (e.g. a virus) or psychosocial (e.g. stress or health-related behaviour). Patients may also hold representations of illness that reflect a variety of different causal models; for example, ‘My illness was caused by a virus’ versus ‘My illness was caused by being
Available evidence does not support the idea that most individuals adjust to dying with a predictable and orderly sequence of coping reactions. (Reed et al, 1994) Some people may go through a specific stage, such as anger more than once during their adjustment; others have more than one emotional reaction simultaneously and some seem to skip stages. Despite these shortcomings, Kubler-Ross’s work has many positive effects. For one thing, it has been influential in stimulating people’s awareness and discussion of the dying process and the needs of terminal