Women who perceive that breast cancer is their chief enemy actually never assess their risk factors for cardiovascular disease. They persist in smoking when we know that's the single most important thing that they are doing to ensure that they will have severe and premature heart disease. They allow themselves to get heavy and expose themselves to a lot of stress with which they never really deal. It is generally accepted in the medical community that depression, the kind of emotional pain for which there seems to be no relief and a sense of hopelessness, are all predictive of early disease and death from coronary artery disease. Hopelessness is an important risk factor.
Physicians ought to ask their patients about the quality of their lives.
Change one's perspective, find another interest or eliminate the problem entirely. Many parents exist, for example, in relationships with their adolescent children that are just intolerable because setting limits is too difficult and withdrawing from the child is too painful or frightening. Both men and women often stay in jobs full of impossibly difficult demands or tolerate marriages that bring them no comfort or happiness. Yes, it can, especially unsolved, excruciating emotional distress, particularly if accompanied by a sense of being trapped or hopeless. It is never too late.