By
Herbert Leon Hilliard
Submitted On April 02, 2015
When a person hears something that he or she does not want to
hear and refuses to believe it, it is very easy for that person to
attach themselves to a fantasy. They conveniently create for themselves a
make-believe world that they can comfortably live in. A pipe dream
becomes their reality and reality is a phantasm that is a perfect fit of
how they want the people and things in their life to be. This
self-delusion can be so pronounced that it becomes the effect that
guides every move they make in their life.
A true case study on the tragic consequences of denial. For convenience we will call our case study by the name of Unknown DOA. One day Unknown DOA went into a blood donation center to donate blood for money as a means of supporting his crack cocaine habit. While waiting for his donation to be processed so that he could be paid he was called into one of the staff doctor's office for consultation.
As he headed towards the office Unknown DOA could sense that something was not quite right about this. Of the numerous times that he had donated blood prior to this particular day he had never been asked to see one of the staff doctor's before.
Unknown DOA was seated and the doctor began to explain to him that an abnormality had been detected in the blood that he had just donated. At that time HIV and AIDS were making its initial debut on stage, and as such, not that many people in the medical profession knew very much about this rising presence and how to correctly interpret and give a name to what she or he was seeing under the microscope.
Unknown DOA was told that a blood abnormality known as anti-D had been detected in his blood and that they could not use it. Unknown DOA walked out of that blood center shattered, not because of what the doctor had just told him, but because the impact of what the doctor had just told him was perfectly clear. He would not be able to sell blood anymore to buy his drug of choice.
Unknown DOA's mother had, and was eventually killed, by complications from rheumatic fever, so he figured that what the doctor detected in his blood had something to do with this, sort of like a genetic trait finally coming to the surface. In another town and in another state Unknown DOA once again went into a blood center to donate blood in order to get money to buy his drug.
Again he was called into the doctor's office for consultation. By this time a number of months had passed since that first consult with a blood donation center doctor. During that time organizations like the CDC had been giving hospitals, clinics, and blood centers a heads-up on this emerging presence and a name to use to classify it. So this time the doctor gave Unknown DOA the diagnosis, not anti-D, but HIV positive as the reason why his blood was totally unacceptable as a source for donations.
At this early stage of the game being diagnosed as HIV or AIDS positive was just as well as strapping a person into an electric chair and pulling the lever. When Unknown DOA left that clinic he was certain that he had only months, or at most a year, to live. With this as his immediate forecast Unknown DOA now saw no earthly reason to do something that was always on his mind, quit using and get his life back on track, because he was just told that he does not have a life anymore to even consider putting back on track.
For nearly a decade Unknown DOA wallowed in drug addiction and its awful consequences. During those years an odd and curious thing happened. Unknown DOA caught colds and got over them. When he left that blood clinic he really believed that his next cold would be his last.
During those years he had been living like a vagabond, a vagrant, and a tramp, as his drug of choice led him. And with all that set against, him he was yet still walking and breathing topside. Unknown DOA now came up with his own prognosis, that there was nothing wrong with him and that those doctors were completely wrong in pronouncing a death sentence on him.
The fact that he has not been sick during these years and the lifestyle that he has been living only proves that they missed the mark when they diagnosed him as being anti-D, HIV, or whatever positive. At the invitation of a county court Unknown DOA entered a six months drug rehab program. Eight months later he came out clean. Unknown DOA now felt decent about himself for the first time in a mountain of years. He was now clean and sober.
HIV positive was a constant in the back of his mind, but he was more comfortable with denying that it existed in him. He got involved in intimate relationships without using protection to shield his mate. He was living in a world of his own choosing and by doing so is placing others at risk.
The stiff kick in the behind came for Unknown DOA when he developed shingles. He went to the emergency room when the discomfort and pain of shingles blew themselves way out of proportion. There a doctor told him that a possible cause for shingles was a compromised immune system and advised him to go to a clinic and be checked for HIV.
Finally, after these long years of living falsely the qualitative proof that Unknown DOA had been looking for and dreading to prove without doubt that those doctors were right had finally manifested itself in the form of shingles.
This case study is not really about Unknown DOA, but about the innocent people that he put at risk because he strapped denial on his back and ran with it.
A true case study on the tragic consequences of denial. For convenience we will call our case study by the name of Unknown DOA. One day Unknown DOA went into a blood donation center to donate blood for money as a means of supporting his crack cocaine habit. While waiting for his donation to be processed so that he could be paid he was called into one of the staff doctor's office for consultation.
As he headed towards the office Unknown DOA could sense that something was not quite right about this. Of the numerous times that he had donated blood prior to this particular day he had never been asked to see one of the staff doctor's before.
Unknown DOA was seated and the doctor began to explain to him that an abnormality had been detected in the blood that he had just donated. At that time HIV and AIDS were making its initial debut on stage, and as such, not that many people in the medical profession knew very much about this rising presence and how to correctly interpret and give a name to what she or he was seeing under the microscope.
Unknown DOA was told that a blood abnormality known as anti-D had been detected in his blood and that they could not use it. Unknown DOA walked out of that blood center shattered, not because of what the doctor had just told him, but because the impact of what the doctor had just told him was perfectly clear. He would not be able to sell blood anymore to buy his drug of choice.
Unknown DOA's mother had, and was eventually killed, by complications from rheumatic fever, so he figured that what the doctor detected in his blood had something to do with this, sort of like a genetic trait finally coming to the surface. In another town and in another state Unknown DOA once again went into a blood center to donate blood in order to get money to buy his drug.
Again he was called into the doctor's office for consultation. By this time a number of months had passed since that first consult with a blood donation center doctor. During that time organizations like the CDC had been giving hospitals, clinics, and blood centers a heads-up on this emerging presence and a name to use to classify it. So this time the doctor gave Unknown DOA the diagnosis, not anti-D, but HIV positive as the reason why his blood was totally unacceptable as a source for donations.
At this early stage of the game being diagnosed as HIV or AIDS positive was just as well as strapping a person into an electric chair and pulling the lever. When Unknown DOA left that clinic he was certain that he had only months, or at most a year, to live. With this as his immediate forecast Unknown DOA now saw no earthly reason to do something that was always on his mind, quit using and get his life back on track, because he was just told that he does not have a life anymore to even consider putting back on track.
For nearly a decade Unknown DOA wallowed in drug addiction and its awful consequences. During those years an odd and curious thing happened. Unknown DOA caught colds and got over them. When he left that blood clinic he really believed that his next cold would be his last.
During those years he had been living like a vagabond, a vagrant, and a tramp, as his drug of choice led him. And with all that set against, him he was yet still walking and breathing topside. Unknown DOA now came up with his own prognosis, that there was nothing wrong with him and that those doctors were completely wrong in pronouncing a death sentence on him.
The fact that he has not been sick during these years and the lifestyle that he has been living only proves that they missed the mark when they diagnosed him as being anti-D, HIV, or whatever positive. At the invitation of a county court Unknown DOA entered a six months drug rehab program. Eight months later he came out clean. Unknown DOA now felt decent about himself for the first time in a mountain of years. He was now clean and sober.
HIV positive was a constant in the back of his mind, but he was more comfortable with denying that it existed in him. He got involved in intimate relationships without using protection to shield his mate. He was living in a world of his own choosing and by doing so is placing others at risk.
The stiff kick in the behind came for Unknown DOA when he developed shingles. He went to the emergency room when the discomfort and pain of shingles blew themselves way out of proportion. There a doctor told him that a possible cause for shingles was a compromised immune system and advised him to go to a clinic and be checked for HIV.
Finally, after these long years of living falsely the qualitative proof that Unknown DOA had been looking for and dreading to prove without doubt that those doctors were right had finally manifested itself in the form of shingles.
This case study is not really about Unknown DOA, but about the innocent people that he put at risk because he strapped denial on his back and ran with it.
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Article Source:
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