Do you think that a positive mental attitude can help face physical problems?
No, I don’t think it makes any difference at all. There isn’t any scientific evidence to show that a positive attitude has any effect on disease. It can’t hurt, of course, and you may feel better for being cheerful and positive – but there’s no evidence that it has any effect on the progress of disease, and it’s difficult to see how it could. When I was being treated for cancer I suffered very badly from depression. There were many times I was sure I wouldn’t survive, and times when I didn’t want to. People urging me to think/feel/stay positive made me feel worse – I felt I OUGHT to be positive, and felt guilty because I just couldn’t. Here I am six and a half years after diagnosis with stage 3 grade 3 cancer, fit and well and in complete remission, with no sign of cancer at my most recent check-up. Being a curmudgeonly old bat didn’t do me any harm! There is evidence that a positive attitude doesn’t affect the progress of disease; a report in the British Medical Journal explodes the t
