The power of mind healing to succeed the traditional treatments

Lorenza, sorry but I am going to have to disagree with you.  Not everyone can make it.  And while the power of the mind may be helpful in some rare cases - I'm sure it is - in most cases it makes no difference at all.

I've been on this board for a few years now.  I have seen way too many women die.  All of these women had many things to live for and in fact many of these women were young and had young children and they desperately wanted to live to see their children grow up.  The attitude of most of these women could not have been more positive.  Their desire to live could not have been greater.  So while I'm delighted that your treatments were easy on you and went so well, and while I appreciate that you and your doctor attribute your positive attitude to these results, I think that it is a terrible disservice to all the women who have died from breast cancer to suggest that everyone can make it if only they have the right attitude.  I've seen lots of women who've had the most positive attitude possible, and yet they died from this terrible disease.

And by the way, I also don't think there is anything wrong with being down and being upset at having breast cancer.  It's okay and even emotionally healthy to sometimes allow yourself to have a "bad" attitude.  Breast cancer is not a normal situation, it's not something any of us would have ever wanted, it is a life-threatening disease that tears apart our lives, and frankly, it just plain stinks. So being angry and upset, at least some of the time, is normal. I worry when we suggest to women with BC that they should have positive attitude.  That puts needless pressure on them at a time when they should be allowed to just feel what they feel.  The last thing I want is for someone who is newly diagosed and upset about her diagnosis to start worrying that her attitude is going to negatively affect her results. 

Just my opinion.

Note:  Edited for typos only.

I am going to echo Bessie and say "congratulations!"  However, positive thinking does not cure cancer.  I have lost dear friends to cancer.  Friends who fought with every fibre of their being.  They were fighters who did everything to beat cancer.  This included chemo, rads, bone marrow transplants, positive thinking, natural  products, etc. To say, "if I could make it, EVERYBODY CAN MAKE IT"  does not take into account Staging, mets, lymph node involvement, etc.

We all want to hear inspirational stories, but we must be aware that women die everyday of BC not because they weren't positive, but because BC, and cancer in general, is a vicious disease.

Lorenza, while I have no doubt that keeping a positive attitude and focusing the power of your mind can help minimize the side effects of treatment for many women, apparently including yourself, but unfortunately, no one has come up with anything that works for everyone.  There is no drug, or surgery, or alternative treatment with a 100% success rate.

There are threads here that deal with alternative and complimentary medicine, and that might be a better location for the discussion you are trying to start.  Your methods may be just what some of the women who are searching that area are looking for, and it may help them the same way it helped you. 

We each need to do what works for us.  It is great that you found something that worked for you, and wonderful that you want to share what you have learned, but to imply that it could work for everyone if only they had the right attitude is just wrong.  It does a huge disservice to the women who fight so relentlessly and couragously and don't wind up with the same good outcome you did.  As Beesie said, some of those women have an extraordinarily positive outlook, in spite of the lousy hand they've been dealt.

Lorenza,

You didn't offend me.  There's lots we don't know about curing cancer but I believe attitude can make a difference.  You might want to read "The Biology of Belief".  It was written by a doctor and gives some convincing evidence of how our brain is the master computer and can have an influence on our healling.  Stay positive.

Roseann

So let me ask you Lorenza. When your cancer rears it's ugly head as mets somewhere in your body...who are you going to "blame"? Will you sit in a corner and meditate away your new cancer or will you get the treatment your body really needs?

I find your thread offensive and think the ladies have been very kind in their responses.

Right now there are two beautiful, strong women in hospice who will die any day now. They are both leaving small children behind as well as loving husbands. They certainly aren't "giving up", or trying to get out of housework!

If you have such a rainbow attitude, what "gave" you cancer in the first place?

I haven't read Lorenza's blog but I don't have a problem with her positive attitude - whatever works for her is great!  

In fact while I worry about putting 'the pressure to feel positive' on anyone who is ill or anyone going through a difficult time, I do think that overall it is easier to get through breast cancer, and through life in general, if your attitude is positive more than it is negative.  That just makes sense to me.  As to whether attitude can cure, personally I doubt that it can cure cancer, but I suspect that it can lessen the effect of side effects.  It may be that the same side effects are there, but someone with a positive attitude might not notice them to the same extent, or might not attribute them to their treatment.  Someone with a negative attitude, on the other hand, might attribute every ailment or ache they have to their treatment.  I see that all the time with Tamoxifen.  I'm not on Tamoxifen yet I have many of the same "side effects" that women on Tamoxifen have.  That's because many of the side effects are normal problems for any woman going through menopause. So while one's attitude might not change the side effects that you have, it certainly might impact how you view the impact of the treatment.

My concern with Lorenza's posts are not her attitude but the statement that she is "not special and if (she can) make it, EVERYBODY CAN MAKE IT."  What works for each of us is great, but I think it's concerning when any of us suggest that what worked for us will work for everyone else.  And like many of the others, I also worry that the implication of her statements is that those who do not survive this disease simply didn't have the right attitude. That's a horrible burden to put on someone and that's what really concerns me the most.  But as for how Lorenza feels, good for her for being so positive!

Lorenza, thank you for removing the post. I had the same problems covertanjou had with the way things were said in it. Having a positive attitude is great - it can make treatment easier, but saying that treatment succeeded because of it has the flip side of blaming the victim - it implies that those for whom treatment didn't succeed or even those who had a hard time during treatment contributed to that by their negative attitude.

I had a very positivie attitude. I knew my cancer was very early stage and one for which there are very effective treatments. I had confidence in my strength and healing ability and I was taking a "lighter" chemo. I went into chemo prepared and unafraid. I've stayed positive but that didn't keep me from having nasty side effects due to chemo. 

That didn't keep my white or red cell counts up. I had plenty of SE during chemo. At least I was lucky and may not have any long term side effects - my creatinine is still elevated partly due to a drug trial that I got off of about a month ago but other tests say that there is probably no long term kidney damage so that should come back down. I was more fortunate with radiation and had an easy time there.