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Negative and Positive Energy? (pg. 9)
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| Theresa |
| quote: | Originally posted by Miss Pie
Actually, you're dead wrong here. It is important for people to cope however they want to cope. To make health decisions for themselves. Set their own priorities. Etc. Not everyone is looking to prolong their life, and what makes one person's last days more pleasant is completely different and unique from the next person's. Only the sick person can decide what is important for them.
Furthermore, there is a big problem with the belief that ill people need to be positive. Part of the experience of illness is accepting and working through negative feelings, feeling like , etc. Illness is an extremely meaningful and transformative time for people, and they should not be denied the opportunity to just be sick and take the bad with the good.
False hope and false cheerfulness may actually make sick people feel worse. Why do sick people have to be positive? They're ing sick! The whole notion of people staying positive when they're not well is more a reflection of other people's discomfort with illness/death/whatever. |
I haven't been studying it like you have, but from my personal experiences with people who are dying, those who have a positive attitude and aren't wallowing in self-pity seem to maintain a better quality of life, and they also seem to live longer. This is only based on personal observations however.
My mother for example, has terminal cancer. Instead of sitting around crying and moping that she is going to die, she is continuing to live her life as normal as possible and attempting to stay as positive as she can. The doctors have been amazed at how healthy she has been and they believe she is going to live a lot longer than they first anticipated.
On the other hand, and this is no lie, my mother's husband also has terminal cancer. He has been moping, feeling sorry for himself, and feeling miserable. He stopped sleeping, and pretty much lost it. He was admitted to the hospital this past Thursday and they expect that he will die within the next couple of weeks.
While my mother's husband's cancer is probably a bit more advanced than hers, he wasn't that far ahead of her when they were first diagnosed. He has seemed to deteriorate at a lightning speed compared to my mother.
The same thing happened to my aunt. She died of cancer several years ago. When she was first diagnosed, they gave her less than a year to live. She ended up living for 7 years, and during that time, she went on living like normal and had a very positive outlook on life.
When I was working for Sunnyside in Kitchener (you may or may not be familiar.... an "old age home"), the nurses would explain to me that those who were pleasant all the time usually stuck around longer. I was only 12 or 13, and after having been berated by the meanest old man on earth, a nurse took me aside and said "he wont live for a lot longer. He is dying, and the meaner they get, the sooner they die." Again, an observation, but it seems to be consistent.
I know I have read some medical journal that talked about the benefits of maintaining a positive outlook when ill. I will look to see if I can find it or something similar.
I am not disputing what you're saying... I would wager you know more than I do on the subject considering it isn't a focus of study for me. Like I said, I am basing my comments primarily on personal observations (which admittedly could be completely coincidental), however I do remember reading some things supporting my argument. |
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| Theresa |
Lin, H.-R. and Bauer-Wu, S. M. (2003), Psycho-spiritual well-being in patients with advanced cancer: an integrative review of the literature. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 44: 69–80. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02768.x
Look that up. I can't link it because as soon as you click on the link, it asks for my University log-in. Anyway, it talks about the influences of everything from "faith" to a "sense of meaning" etc. in terminally ill cancer patients and how this affects their quality of life and progression of illness. It's a massive articles (like 180 pages long massive), so I am not going to paste it here. Anyway, there is a lot of data there suggesting that positive influences and resources do benefit the terminally ill patients. There were a few other articles I found, but this one was the most interesting and most inclusive from what I read. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| You're simply assuming that the severity of the illness is a reflection of the person's attitude rather than the other way around. Why? Illness can progress for reasons entirely apart from positive or negative thinking, and this progression can itself have effects on a person's physical state and therefore on their attitude. |
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| Theresa |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
You're simply assuming that the severity of the illness is a reflection of the person's attitude rather than the other way around. Why? Illness can progress for reasons entirely apart from positive or negative thinking, and this progression can itself have effects on a person's physical state and therefore on their attitude. |
Good point. If you can, read the article I posted in my last post. I am no expert in this particular subject matter, but from what I have read, there does seem to be evidence that attitude does impact the progression of illness.
I am trying to find another article that is shorter and more succinct that I can copy and paste for those who can't pull the last one up. |
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| Theresa |
Here is another good article:
Clarke, D. M. (2007), Growing old and getting sick: Maintaining a positive spirit at the end of life. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 15: 148–154. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2007.00867.x
I am also finding a bunch of articles that correlate the meaning a terminal patient attributes to their illness, and their spiritual well-being. The results show if they attribute positive meanings, they have a better spiritual well-being.
Anyway, there are thousands of articles out there that support my point and since I am not writing a research paper on it, I'm not going to spend any more time sifting through thousands of journals. :) |
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| Silky Johnson |
Please Theresa, off. :stongue: :stongue:
Just as you don't have time to sift through "thousands" of articles, I don't have time to sit here and summarize four years of my degree to prove that you don't know what you're talking about. I know you're wrong, and that's that. |
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| Zyklon_Jay |
| the "i read psychology books" thing is happening all over again. |
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| Theresa |
| quote: | Originally posted by Miss Pie
Please Theresa, off. :stongue: :stongue:
Just as you don't have time to sift through "thousands" of articles, I don't have time to sit here and summarize four years of my degree to prove that you don't know what you're talking about. I know you're wrong, and that's that. |
I cited sources that support what I am saying. It's not like I am pulling stuff out of my ass. Maybe their research is wrong... I don't know, but personally, I believe that it has some weight.
With that being said, I am open to different perspectives. Do you have any articles that support what you're saying?
EDIT:
Forgive me for not just taking your word on it, but I'd like to read it for myself. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by Theresa
I am also finding a bunch of articles that correlate the meaning a terminal patient attributes to their illness, and their spiritual well-being. The results show if they attribute positive meanings, they have a better spiritual well-being. |
But I thought we were talking about the correlation of mental attitude and physical wellbeing. The whole "attitude has a big effect on progression of illness" bit. |
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| Theresa |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
But I thought we were talking about the correlation of mental attitude and physical wellbeing. The whole "attitude has a big effect on progression of illness" bit. |
Yes, which the other article I cited talked about. I was just noticing that there is a lot more work done supporting the spiritual well-being part, and made note of it. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| The default state of scientific opinion is null hypothesis ("variable X has no effect on variable Y"). Support for null hypothesis is not needed unless someone does studies that contradict it, but the papers you linked deal with things like depression and attitude toward death, not effect of attitude on physical state. |
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