KUBLER ROSS MODEL OF DYING

KUBLER-ROSS MODEL OF DYING

Although there are many theories about the emotional transitions encountered by dying people, the best known is Kubler-Ross. She studied extensively death and dying and suggested that terminally ill patients display the following five basic reactions.

 

     I.            Denial –  Denial is the first stage that can initially help you survive the loss. We start to deny the news and, in effect go numb (no physical sensation).

If you were diagnosed with a deadly disease, you might believe the news is incorrect a mistake must have occurred somewhere in the lab – they mixed up your blood with someone else. If you receive news on the death of a loved one, perhaps you cling to a false hope that they identified the wrong person. In the denial stage, you are not living in ‘actual reality’, rather, you are living in a ‘preferable’ reality. Interestingly, it is denial and shock that help you cope and survive the grief event.

 

 II.            Anger : The second stage is characterized by ‘’Why me”? Once you start to live in ‘actual reality again and not in preferable reality’, anger might start to set in.

We might look to blame others for the cause of our grief and also may redirect your anger to close friends and family. If we are strong in faith, we might start to question your beliefs in God. “Where is God? Why didn’t he protect me?”.

Researcher and mental health professionals agree that  this anger is a necessary stage of grief.

 

Its thought that even though you might seem like you are in an endless cycle of anger, it will disappear – and the more you truly feel the anger, the more quickly it will disappear, and the more quickly you heal.

 

III.            Bargaining : During the third stage, people generally bargain with God or Doctors for an extension of life, one more chance, or time to do one more thing.

‘Please God, if you heal my husband, I will strive to be the best wife I can ever be – and never complain again’. This is bargaining. In a way, this stage is false hope.

This is period of self-delusion, hoping to be rewarded for promises of good behavior and good deeds. “Just let me live to see my children graduate”. This stage involves the hope that the individual can somehow postpone or delay death. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made with a higher power in exchange for a reformed lifestyle.

 

IV.            Depression : During the fourth stage, the dying person begins to understand the certainty of death. In this stage the individual become silent, refuse visitors and spend much of the time crying. It represents the emptiness we feel when we are living in reality and realize the person or situation is gone or over.

Ross identifies two types of depression in terminally ill patients : (1) Reactive Depression, (2) Preparatory Depression. The first is a reaction to the irrevocable loss (not able to be changed, reversed), the second is an inner emotional preparation to give up everything.

 

  V.            Acceptance : In this stages, people reconcile (restore friendly relations between) the loss and accept the fate.

“It’s going to be okay,” ‘I can’t fight it, I may as well prepare for it”. In this last stage, the individual begins to come in terms with their mortality (death) or that of their loved one.

 

v      Symptoms of Grief / Dying :

·      Crying

·      Headaches

·      Difficulty sleeping

·      Questioning the purpose of Life

·      Questioning your Beliefs (belief in god)

·      Isolation from friends and family

·      Worry

·      Anxiety

·      Frustration

·      Guilt

·      Fatigue

·      Anger

·      Loss of Appetite

·      Stress