Any serious illness inflicts some loss on the patient.
A diagnosis itself, with no change in subjective symptoms, can cause a feeling of loss. Part of the self has changed or is gone. Now I watch my diet and worry about my vision, my kidneys, and my heart. The emotional reactions to a myocardial infarction serve as a model for the reactions of a person who has experienced physical loss. In a series of 149 coronary patients whose emotional difficulties were severe enough to warrant psychiatric consultation, the majority of problems during the first two days stemmed from fear and anxiety.