Another patient saw chemotherapy as a chance to make friends with the nurses she's never met otherwise.
Optimists stay positive and expect the best outcome regardless of their limitations.
Pessimists, on the other hand, assume the worst will happen and that they are powerless to alter their fate. McCarthy and other Methodist physicians and nurses attest that patients who arm themselves with optimism are better able to battle illness and strengthen their immune system. That attitude affects illness has been acknowledge nationally. Using standardized psychological tests to distinguish the optimist from the pessimist, doctors have shown a distinct connection between healing and frame of mind. Of the 25 most optimistic, only six died.