Well, so much for that. For so long now everyone has been saying that a positive attitude helps in combating illness. And I, traditionally a skeptic, bought it too. Today the Winnipeg Free Press is reporting on a study that says this just isn’t the case.

At the end of the day, the results of studies like this don’t really seem that important to me. After all, why not have a positive attitude, even if it isn’t going to make you better? Who wants to be a miserable lump for the last six months of their life? I remember being relatively positive about everything when I was sick, but that wasn’t a conscious attempt to manipulate my healing. I was honestly thinking, “well, here are my options, let’s get on with it and do the best we can.” Which was really a remarkable revelation for me, as I tended to be a bit cynical before this.

I suppose the only benefit of this study is if it, as the article suggests, removes some of the guilt from cancer sufferers who aren’t peachy positive all the time. After all, the last thing someone with cancer wants to hear every day is someone piping in their ear telling them to be positive.

“Come on, be positive, you can beat this thing!”
“I have cancer, jackass! Leave me alone!”

Now those obnoxious people don’t have any empirical evidence to support this behaviour (and I mean “obnoxious” in the nicest way, of course).

Don’t get me wrong, cancer patients need support. But from my perspective, support doesn’t mean telling us things we already know. And we know it would be better to be positive. We get it.

How about telling me a joke or go get me a nice magazine to read. Oooh, maybe some ice cream!

Thanks.