The futility that pessimists envision, he says, often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They won't want to put up with the side effects of a treatment that can cure them. While Mari Rude, a cancer nurse specialist at Methodist, hasn't conducted formal research, experience has shown her that positive thinkers also seem to suffer less than pessimists while undergoing treatment. They're slower to recover from surgery, and they aren't able to go on with their normal lifestyles. An optimist approaches an illness differently from the start, says Rude, and you usually can tell from the questions they ark.
Pessimists focus on how they'll suffer rather than how they can cope.
They usually talk about how weak they're going to be. Unfortunately, our attitude to life is formed in childhood and difficult to alter. Contact Information Copyright 2001 Methodist Health Care System, Houston, Tx. All Rights Reserved. Please read our disclaimer and privacy policy .