The diagnosis of cardiomyopathy it is an earthquake in the life of a human being. Knowing that you have a heart that is not "normal" or even "sick" breaks the equilibrium in which you have lived up to then and makes it necessary to build a new one, which allows you to accept the cardiomyopathy and to adapt in the best possible way.
Acceptance and adaptation they take time and depend on various factors, related to personality and environment (character, age, presence or absence of the family, social and friend network), the possible need for specific therapies and especially how these are presented or "imposed" by the cardiologist. An example is the implantation of a Defibrillator, which can be incorrectly proposed with terrifying prospects relating to the risk of sudden death, instead of being proposed as a supporting element: a device capable of guaranteeing the safety of our life.
The process of acceptance and adaptation it can be difficult and very long, leading to considerable mental suffering with expenditure of physical and psychic energy, anxious symptoms and sleep disturbances. In this case, specialist help is useful to alleviate suffering and resolve ailments, favoring the process of elaboration and acceptance of the disease.
Episodes of decompensation, hospital admissions, therapeutic changes can represent further critical moments, in which the patient needs a "re-negotiation" with the disease and with his own body. When this process fails or is difficult, the patient may complain of anxious or depressive symptoms with feelings of frustration, helplessness and helplessness.
The proposal for a life-saving device, such as the Defibrillator, even if well formulated, it can be experienced in an ambivalent way and represent a moment of crisis. Felt as an intervention that preserves life, it can also appear, for fear of inappropriate discharges, threatening and persecutory to the point of being unbearable. The thought that a foreign instrument is implanted in one's body, which is continuously “felt” under the skin and changes the perception of our body, can lead to the refusal of the implant, despite the advantages and guarantees that it could entail.
The waiting period for transplantation, even for highly motivated patients, can be destabilizing and very difficult: the hope and expectation of change alternate with the anguish of what must be faced, to the point of reaching a strong state of anxiety and depressive.
Coexistence with the cardiomyopathy, at times, it involves the breaking of equilibriums achieved with difficulty and the construction of new ones, with a considerable effort that can put the patient's psychological well-being in crisis. When this happens, as explained above, the intervention of the specialist is essential to evaluate the most functional form of help. Psychological support through weekly or fortnightly interviews, possibly associated with drug therapy, may be sufficient. These interventions can allow a rapid modification of the condition of suffering and the rapid recovery of well-being.