Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance…
DABDA the stages of grief I have learned in psychology class which I had a hard time giving examples of each stages, when asked for…

Well, I thought then, how could there be a staging of anything in the world??? Shouldn’t we just face grief head-on, straightforward??? Why I have to go through bargaining or depression??? Growing up, I never knew the feeling of depression…well, especially when you’re from a Filipino lineage, depression has no room in our house at all.

But yes, DABDA exist.

DABDA applies even to the patients I see on a regular basis. Yesterday, I have to attend to a family wanting to discuss about their patient wanting to discontinue the treatment. I ended the meeting entailing details on encouraging and prodding the patient to continue the treatment plus in the end, it is always a patient’s right. He was still in his anger phase.

Last Saturday, Prime decided to call the Police department to check on one of our patient as he was a no show for a week, no return calls, not even the MD knew his whereabouts. After an hour, the wife called, the patient was just in the house, said he was depressed to even move a bone. But he promise to reschedule his treatment Monday (I hope he showed up…).

A friend read my previous blog posts, called me and said I am still depressed or even in denial from the passing of my Mom….

Huh?!?!

Denial, I knew it.
Depressed? Hmmm….
I worry for myself.
G.