in coping with life-threatening illnesses is another individualistic trait that people use to cope with the behavioral side-effects associated with the diseases. Depersonalization is a very prominent behavioral trait associated with cancer patients. Findings show that people with cancer cope no worse than non-cancer patients. Cancer patients tend to blunt his or her experiences as a means of handling a painful reality. Avoidance and denial are typical tendencies of psychic numbing. Cancer patients also report a self-distancing mechanism, and take on a third-person perspective as a means of dealing with the life-threatening disease. It is argued that putting one's life within a framework of religion is a very important part of the coping process. This religious framework helps the patients understand that some things are out of one's control. As discussed earlier, a lack of control over one's stressful stimuli generates a degree of psychic numbing. However, by putting his or her life-threatening disease within a religious framework takes the mystery out of the disease and adds a sense of control. As discussed earlier, the perceived sense of control as well as actual control are important contributors to adequately coping with psychic numbing. As described earlier, research on psychic numbing has suggested that people who become desensitized to suffering may be more adept in dealing with an upsetting or dangerous situation. Nuclear denial disorder Many individuals fail to react effectively to the overwhelming threat of annihilation by nuclear warfare, and in 1987 Thomas C. Wear termed this nuclear denial disorder, a type of psychic numbing. It involves the over-use of a denial defense mechanism, and "an apathetic business-as-usual attitude toward the threat of nuclear annihilation". Michael D. Newcomb viewed nuclear denial as an avoidant response to quite justifiable nuclear anxiety. References Nuclear warfare English phrases Mental states