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How to Deal with a Chronic disease Diagnosis?


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This paper analyzes Jack’s behavior after being diagnosed with a chronic disease, identifies his potential causes of disturbance of self-concept, and offers recommendations for Jack to follow in order to accept his new lifestyle, and stop being in denial, plus analyzing how the behavior of self-disclosure and time can help in accepting his new lifestyle.

Major Case Issues:

The case explains a 36-year-old Jack who is a professional leader in a hospital, he is supportive to his team and focuses on eating healthy, exercising regularly and playing on his church’s basketball team. However, his focus on healthy living declined due to focus on professional responsibilities for over a year, on his regular medical check-ups, he was diagnosed with a chronic disease, however, his reaction has been a denial of the diagnosis and a self-prescription of continued healthy living although he is aware of his family health history. (Self-concept case, 2010).

Why Jack’s self-esteem may be negatively impacted:

Some days you may be tempted to pretend you never received your diagnosis, however, facing your diagnosis head-on is the best way to cope with the new lifestyle, a study found that it was evident that women diagnosed of breast cancer, and resigned to their fate were psychologically less well and they adjusted three years later, compared to women who actively confronted their
Running head: Cognitive dissonance diagnosis. (Bourdeau, 2013, August). From this observation, Jack actions clearly shows are going to cost his psychological wellbeing and hence negatively affecting his self-esteem.

Accepting the diagnosis while he motivates his team to get involved:

According to Bourdeau (2013, August), digesting news of one’s disease can bring a flood of emotions, with chronic disease diagnosis one may experience various stages of grief, including denial, bargaining and anger, and sadness, which Jack might be swimming through.
The first step to do according to Bourdeau(2013, August), is to write all of his questions and taking them to his physician to discuss, ask his physician what steps he could take to optimize his health, accurate knowledge would make Jack feel empowered to live a new life,
He should also talk about this with his family and friends, in so doing he will build a strong support network because he needs support now, he can also seek help from a psychologist if the situation demands so doing. (Bourdeau, 2013, August).

Potential causes in Jack disturbance of self-concept

Jack holds to the self-concept that he can live a healthy life by having a healthy lifestyle, through eating healthy and exercising regularly, the new information of the diagnosis is a paradox to him, although he knows about his family health history which might confirm the genesis of the disease, he is in denial because he thinks his lifestyle would save him.

Self-disclosure behavior and time:

It is possible to overcome the resistance Jack is experiencing within himself, if he discloses his fate to different people like his family, friends and his physician, he would get enough support from disclosing about his new information and tell them exactly about his feelings, meanwhile time is the best healer so they say, I believe as time goes on, with fruits from the disclosure through well-managed communication, Jack will be helped to accept his new lifestyle status.(cultural intelligence for leaders, 2012).

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a new method of engaging with his team, that he should adapt, I believe he should be good to go on with his roles as before the new lifestyle, however he needs sometime off his duties while he adjusts to the new lifestyle, and this will call for a delegation of his duties.

Cognitive dissonance can be disturbing, although it reveals new information that we may not be ready to listen to, it is important because it is much worse when tragedy strikes while we were kept in the dark, or ignorance, in this case Jack is lucky he is aware of his health status, although he is in denial with a proper management process, he could accept the medication, and continue to be doing what he loves to do with his team.


Reference:

Cultural intelligence for leaders, 2012, Saylor Academy. Creative commons by-nc-sa 3.0, retrieved October 12, 2018, from https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/325629/mod_page/content/5/BUS5211Textbook. pdf
Self-concept case, 2010, retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/workshop/view.php?id=155891
Teri. L. Bourdeau, 2013, August, coping with diagnosis of chronic illness, retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/chronic-illness.aspx

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