Maintaining a positive attitude towards a disease can significantly improve prognosis, reduce symptoms of the disease, and even serve as a learning experience. When a disease is serious, we may feel that our world has collapsed. The first reaction is usually: “Why with me?”?”
We may not have experience with this feeling, and when it appears, it can be very difficult to handle, we may feel very vulnerable and weak to the news, asking us questions we didn’t know and seeking hope in the most unusual places. These emotional states can deplete our energy reserves, lower our self-esteem, or interfere with sleep.
- Maintaining a positive attitude is beneficial in all aspects of life.
- In case you have to deal with a serious illness.
- This is something that becomes essential.
The truth is that behind every disease there is suffering, suffering that requires proper management of emotions, these are times when choosing a proper coping strategy can make the difference between healing, chronicity or the complication of the disease itself, as well as significantly influencing the quality of life.
In general, maintaining a positive attitude towards the disease offers many physical, cognitive, emotional and social benefits, so a relaxed environment promotes prognosis.
Patients who do not accept the diagnosis usually suffer much more, simply because, in life, it is essential to regain emotional harmony.
Next, we’ll look at some of the benefits of maintaining a positive attitude to a disease. Maintaining an optimistic attitude is easy when the dynamics around us are also easy. however, the issue gets complicated when luck becomes our enemy and nothing seems to go as we want.
The number of problems, both for those who think positively and negatively, is generally very similar, however, what facilitates positive thinking is the solution of these problems, focusing the process of finding solutions in the person, is an orientation that makes us stronger. and stronger, more resilient to difficulties.
It is recommended to incorporate tasks that help us maintain optimism in our routine. Writing a journal, creating a blog, filling our living space by listening to music or coming into contact with people who have gone through similar situations makes the range of emotions not limited to those of negative values.
Acceptance of the disease creates a starting point, only then can we start working to improve, if not, what is the point of exercising or taking medications if we do not understand that there is a problem that we have to solve?
On the other hand, acceptance has nothing to do with the catastrophism practiced by some, it is about accepting what exists, not anticipating negative events that do not necessarily have a reason to happen.
While this may seem contradictory, the presence of a disease is an excellent opportunity to separate the important from what is not. Absorbed and deceived by an accelerated, often superficial rhythm, the disease can serve as a strainer to the reality lived by the person. .
Values are supported and underpinned by the principles and priorities that help us make decisions, in this sense, traumatic events, personal crises or illnesses can lead us to rething our existential factor.
In a survey conducted by the University of AlmerÃa, Spain, in 2016, the objective was to identify the possible change in personal values before the diagnosis of a serious illness. The survey found that 87% of patients expressed a change in prioritizing their values, with greater emphasis on personal relationships, family, pleasure and well-being; they also showed higher rates of assertiveness, empathy and dedication.