Monday, October 22, 2007

At last, the pressure is off

Reuters Health reports that "emotions do not affect cancer survival." Cancer patients can now feel free to experience their emotions, including depression, without feeling that they may somehow be making themselves worse. I'm happy to see this particular "mind over matter" myth debunked; we're humans and humans get sick and die. People can't think themselves well when stricken with a terrible disease, and it's a disservice to sick people to pretend that they can.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this! I don't have cancer, I have kidney failure, but I am so, so tired of people telling me stress will make my kidneys worse or that how I feel has any effect on the function of a very complex internal organ. I generally try and stay positive because it helps me do the things that keep me as well as I can be, but I sure don't need the pressure to be "stress-free" at the same time. Thank you!

Catherine said...

You're welcome! I'm so sorry about your health problems. It make sense to me that you would try to stay positive for your own reasons but wouldn't want to feel pressured to be that way all the time.

Thanks for writing!