Uncontrolled emotions-

[Joan M]

Dana,

Thanks for letting us know about your experience, and I'm sorry that you had to be subject to the situation. And we all take offense sometime.

The "positive attitude" people can be really annoying. Not that it isn't good to be positive (may as well be happy when possible), but some how they get that mixed up with being positive as a cancer preventative or cancer cure.

Lance Armstrong said it best in his book, It's Not About the Bike, when he noted that he'd seen very positive people succumb to cancer and negative people beat it.

My maternal grandmother, who was a miserable person, lived to be 96 and in pretty good health up to the last year of her life.

I feel better and can handle things better if I remain positive, but that's not to be confused with a guarantee of perfect health.

Joan

[Barbara2]

Well said, Joan! I think most people are well intentioned when they say things such as "stay positive" or "your positive attitude will help you beat this," etc. etc. They want to be encouraging and feel they have to say something, but they have no idea how such comments are received by someone with cancer. It puts more pressure on us to appear happy or actually be happy, which, in their opinion, will help us to stay well!

The fact is, that many "fighters" and "positive thinkers" have not been able to beat cancer. My dad is one of them. I know of no one who loved life more than he and people loved him in return. He lost his fight but it most definately was not due to his attitude.

Life is easier if you have more ups than downs, but it is not being happy or being sad that will make the difference of beating cancer or not.