Terminal Patients all over the world go through this process of dying but how does it affect them psychologically. Should these patients acknowledge the fact that they are going to die or simply ignore it and hope it goes away? According to the New York Times article “Palliative Care Extends Life”, Dr. Harvey Chochinov, Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba stated that “"We found that depression was about three times greater in patients who didn't acknowledge their terminal prognosis,". Although patients are obviously told that they have a terminal illness 10% still deny it. Everyone needs hope, it is a human emotion that most of us have experienced, it’s that feeling you get when you see something beautiful, truly beautiful and think that this could last forever. Albert Einstein once said “Learn from yesterday, Live for today, Hope for tomorrow.” I believe he was trying to express the idea that you don’t know what the future is going to be like all you have is the experiences from your past so use them today to make the future as bright as you can.  

Tuesdays with Morrie expressed the psychological effects of being diagnosed with a terminal disease very well when he discussed detachment, he said “… detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let the experience *penetrate* you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you *fully*. That’s how you are able to leave it”. Most terminal patients do not accept the fact that they are dying or even have a terminal illness so it is impossible for them to detach; detachment will allow those in denial to process what they are going through and eventually move past it so that having a terminal illness is only a part of their lives, a part that is managed and controlled as if it were a diet.

In the United States there are a recorded average of 380,791 deaths from heart disease, which is the leading cause of death overall in the United States (Cancer.org). I have a family member overseas in Egypt who has recently been diagnosed with heart disease and has since then allowed me to interview her. When we first discussed this topic, it was about a month after she had been diagnosed and you can still tell that she is a bit uncomfortable with the topic of dying in general. I could see the door to her apartment open in the background, something that I have never seen, when I confronted her about it she said something that honestly shocked me, “I’m going to die anyway so why should I care about my safety.” After that I decided to give her a few days to relax and not think about Things. Two days later I talked to her again, I told her about the research I was doing specifically the idea of depression and how it can happen in those who have terminal illnesses. She was depressed and as far as I could tell not getting any better. This feeling of sadness not only for her but for her family has engulfed her. She is starting to let the illness live her life for her. The last time we talked I told her about the idea of detachment I discovered in Tuesdays with Morrie and she said that she would try it but wasn’t optimistic on the chances of it working. During this interview and the research on this project I learned a lot about the mental affects of having a terminal illness and not just the physical, I specifically learned about the effect denial can have on the process of the being able to past the realization that you have a terminal illness and the effects after wards. This reveals the idea of hope and hopelessness that is very common among those with terminal illnesses in today’s culture and also shows that we deal with problems in our lives by not dealing with them at all and simply pretending they do not exist. The psychological effects of being diagnosed with a terminal illness matters because no one should have to live in a state of depression were not only their lives are hurt but their families as well, when it is just as easy to accept the fact that you have a terminal illness and try to live your life to the fullest.