How might your relationship with a loved one change once he or she is diagnosed with a terminal illness?
Each person is unique, and each person's journey with a terminal illness is very individual. Relationships usually don't change when people are faced with bad news. It's important to build on the strengths of the relationship that were in place before the terminal illness came about. It's also important to be open to possibilities during this dynamic time. Sometimes people experience healing in their relationships and find this time to be some of the richest of their lives.
Is there a typical emotional process that a person with a terminal illness goes through?
Numerous theories about grief and the experience of grieving have been developed and published. Having a clearer understanding of a process can make it seem less intimidating and can even give us a sense that we are more in control of it.
Many children will experience grief when they find out that they have a terminal illness. A better option might be accommodation — learning to live as fully as possible, while learning to accommodate to the presence of this terminal illness in your life. But do you have to accept that you have a terminal illness? Do you have to accept that you're going to die before you thought you would? No, you don't.
How do you deal with a child who's in denial about his or her impending death?
Denial is an important coping mechanism and has been described as a form of terror management. We deny because the reality is too frightening, too overwhelming or too much of a threat to our sense of control
The child who's dying may be afraid of the pain that might be ahead. Or perhaps the person is afraid of losing control of his or her bodily functions, mind or autonomy. The person may also fear abandonment or becoming a burden to others.
