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Shelley Taylor Health Psychology

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Most, if not all, people know that smoking is harmful to health. However, many people continue to practice the bad health behavior. Dr. Shelley Taylor, author of Health Psychology, states that smoking increases the risk for respiratory diseases including emphysema and also causes about 1 in 5 deaths per year, mainly due to lung cancer. This was the case for my grandfather, Isamu “Sam” Hanano. He began smoking at the age of 25. My mother remembers that he would smoke up to 3 packs of cigarettes in one day but quit cold turkey when he found out that he would be a grandfather. At that time, he was 59 years old which meant he smoked for 34 years before he quit. Even though it was great that he was able to quit without relapsing, the amount that …show more content…

Taylor states that the first stage is denial, which is a “defense mechanism by which people avoid the implications of an illness” (pg. 241). My mother was with my grandfather when he was diagnosed with cancer and said that after the appointment, he walked out of the hospital as if nothing happened. She asked him if he understood what he was told. He said yes, but he did not seem to think that the cancer was that bad. Even when the rest of my family found out about his condition, he kept telling us not to worry because it would go away soon if he started …show more content…

Before my grandfather had to stay in the hospital, my father took him to his chemotherapy or radiation appointments during the week. My uncle built a ramp to the door so that it would be easier to move my grandfather, who was in a wheel chair, in and out of the house. My mother took care of any paperwork that needed to be done as well as any medical-related tasks. When my grandfather received hospice care in the last month of his life, my mother and grandmother helped bathe and change him as well as cook special meals for

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