How Death Affects A Person

Death is inevitable but it brings different experiences to different people. No one can generalize death and how it affects a person or his family. Research however can be conducted and one can present the most common of the physical aspects that are associated with death. Similarly the most common emotional aspects and beliefs about death can be made part of the discussion.
Physical aspects of death

The chapter discusses that death happens because of accidents, age or disease and these things vary from country to country by all means. The physical aspects of death however differ. I think that death has more to do with accidents and disease than to age. There are very few people who die only because they have aged a lot. Most people die even at old age because of some disease. To me hence death is not about age or time, it is about disease and accidents. The book presents the sociocultural contexts of death which states that most people within the developing countries today die as people have always been irresponsible hence death in the developing countries even occur because of accidents and diseases. Most commonly death occurs at home, again I do not think that death has anything to do with being at home or being at hospital i.e. If

the disease has surpassed a crucial level then it can deadly anywhere.

Emotional responses to death

People react differently to death.

There can be no hard core explanation as to how people react. The death of a close one causes more emotional instability than the death heard over the news. The book discusses that the early responses to grief often entails shock, numbness and disbelief. I think that this happens only when death comes as a surprise. A patient who is undergoing illness and its untreatable is expected to die eventually. At another point the book states that Grief gradually subsides and the bereaved person is able to resume the previous daily activities and the social relationships. I agree with this point that even though the person is able to move on with life, the feelings of loss and yearning however never go

away.
In certain cases when the shock of a death wears off then the process of grieving begins. Greif is something that can profoundly affect in several physical ways such as:
Headaches
Nausea
Sickness
Loss of appetite,
Aches

On the emotional level, one may feel the following:
Despair
Guilt
Sadness
Disbelief
Loneliness
Anger
Beliefs about death and after life

Beliefs that one holds about death and after life are usually dependent on the religious and the cultural values. For example children realize that death is permanent but not until middle childhood do they come to the realization that is inevitable also. Beliefs about death and afterlife become more abstract with age. They also become more complex as the child grown up.
Furthermore the beliefs about afterlife have more to do with the culture and religion. A lot of people belonging to the Christianity and Islam tend to believe that there is a life after death. This is where the concept of heaven and hell come into the picture. However atheists believe that there is no such thing as afterlife.
This concept further accompanies with the traditions of mourning and praying for the betterment of the dead person. I firmly believe in these concepts but maybe this is so because I have been told this by my parents and I have been influenced by my culture and religion about it.
All in all it can be concluded that different people react to death in a different manner and they can be no consistent methodology to define the reactions of people. There are however some hard core implications of death which have been discussed within these chapter involving the physical implications, emotional or psychological implications and the beliefs that one holds regarding death.