One thing that is fairly certain is that people are uncomfortable with and often fearful of the unknown, particularly when the unknown involves their health status and could involve pain, suffering, and even death. How that fear manifests itself in their behavior can vary greatly from stoicism, to anger and emotional outbursts, to tears, withdrawal, and isolation.

Sick people are not at their best, and caring for them is an art. How they react to a situation may, and often will, be entirely different from how they would act if they were not sick. The ability to accept this and go forward involves a special form of patience and understanding inherent in a caregiver. This is an essential characteristic for health care professionals of all levels who will have direct and even indirect patient contact.

Society values independence and youth and casts a stigma on age and those who become dependent on others. This affects a person's ability to cope with an illness or injury and his ability to heal.

Some people cannot cope at all with just a simple cold or flu or a paper cut, and others aren't fazed unless the situation becomes truly life threatening. A lot of this depends on their own self-image and how comfortable they are with themselves. If a person was teased mercilessly all of his life for any little sign of frailty, then that individual is less likely to cope well with being even the slightest bit ill and being seen as momentarily weak.

On the other hand, those who are more comfortable with themselves may take things in stride and allow their bodies to react and then to heal and recover without a lot of angst and drama.

Others thrive on the attention and may even do things to intentionally delay the healing process in order to continue to reap the attention. They may also seek to find other illnesses and conditions that warrant or prolong the attention.