What emotions?

The changes that we encounter during the ICU stay can create discomfort, fear sense of loss the will to live and trust in the future, and necessarily compel the patient to deal with itself and with its own sense of impotence. This burden could be worsened by the memories bond to the ICU admission, the illness or the accident that caused it. Sometimes nightmares or fearful thoughts persist a long time after the discharge.

quali emozioni

The acceptance phase of change is often long and difficult: you can feel ashamed for the change in the physical appearance or impairments and the scars that the illness left on your body, disgust or discomfort for the invasive care tools (eg tracheostomy, enterostomy and catheters), feelings of inadequacy for the daily activities, sadness for the loss of autonomy, fear of not finding an acceptable balance, anxiety for the risk of relapse, difficulties in relationship with others and a tendency to withdraw into yourself.

The person that has to revolutionize old habits and certainties needs to appeal to all the energies and to count on the support and understanding of the loved ones in order to get out of this difficult period. It is very important to have patience and to overcome the tendency to crash, maybe agreeing to get help from those who have already lived this experience or have a specific professional training. The objective is to see the events in a different way, more functional, allowing the person to metabolize the incident.

Sometimes emotions of completely different nature rise: those who risked dying could experience a strong sense of rebirth and gratitude to the caregivers, managing to give a different importance to the problems. It is therefore important not to take anything for granted: gratitude for having another chance can arise from a serious illness!