Embracing Cancer-Looking at the Positives
Barbara Enrenreich:
"Breast cancer, I can now report, did not make me prettier or stronger more feminine or spiritual. What it gave me, if you want to call this a 'gift,' was a very personal, agonizing encounter with an ideological force in American culture that I had not been aware of before-one that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate."
✦Cancer encourages positive thinking.
✦Cancer allows one to embrace and enjoy life more.
✦Cancer creates feelings of being united and having constant support.
✦Cancer is rewarding.
Patient: "Positive thinking seems to be mandatory in the breast cancer world, to the point that unhappiness requires kind of apology."
Patient: "The cheerfulness of breast cancer culture goes beyond mere absence of anger to what looks, all too often, like a positive embrace of the disease."
Patient: "If I had to do it over, would I want breast cancer? Absolutely. I'm not the same person I was, and I'm glad I'm not. Money doesn't matter anymore. I've met the most phenomenal people in my life through this. Your friends and family matter now."
✦Cancer is a gift.
Lance Armstrong: "Cancer is the best thing that has ever happened to me."
Patient: "Cancer is your ticket to real life. Cancer is your passport to the life you were truly meant to live."
Patient: "Cancer will lead you to God. Let me say that again. Cancer is your connection to the Divine."
Camper: "Cancer is a gift because I get to go to the best place in the world, Camp Boggy Creek."
"Breast cancer, I can now report, did not make me prettier or stronger more feminine or spiritual. What it gave me, if you want to call this a 'gift,' was a very personal, agonizing encounter with an ideological force in American culture that I had not been aware of before-one that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate."
✦Cancer encourages positive thinking.
✦Cancer allows one to embrace and enjoy life more.
✦Cancer creates feelings of being united and having constant support.
✦Cancer is rewarding.
Patient: "Positive thinking seems to be mandatory in the breast cancer world, to the point that unhappiness requires kind of apology."
Patient: "The cheerfulness of breast cancer culture goes beyond mere absence of anger to what looks, all too often, like a positive embrace of the disease."
Patient: "If I had to do it over, would I want breast cancer? Absolutely. I'm not the same person I was, and I'm glad I'm not. Money doesn't matter anymore. I've met the most phenomenal people in my life through this. Your friends and family matter now."
✦Cancer is a gift.
Lance Armstrong: "Cancer is the best thing that has ever happened to me."
Patient: "Cancer is your ticket to real life. Cancer is your passport to the life you were truly meant to live."
Patient: "Cancer will lead you to God. Let me say that again. Cancer is your connection to the Divine."
Camper: "Cancer is a gift because I get to go to the best place in the world, Camp Boggy Creek."
Dreadful Costs with Cancer-The Negatives
✦First denial of understandable feelings of anger/fear
✦Anger becomes resentment or depression. Fear turns into panic. Sadness yields to hopelessness.
✦Questioning how to recover? How to fight? How to win?
✦Patients blame themselves-VICTIM BLAMING.
✦Patients have thoughts, such as: "If I get scared or sad, my tumor will grow faster."
✦If there is recurrence, the immediate thought is: "I have failed," or "What did I do wrong?"
Camper: "At camp, I want to have fun so when I am at my chemo treatments next week, I think of fun times and my friends instead of the pain."
✦Anger becomes resentment or depression. Fear turns into panic. Sadness yields to hopelessness.
✦Questioning how to recover? How to fight? How to win?
✦Patients blame themselves-VICTIM BLAMING.
✦Patients have thoughts, such as: "If I get scared or sad, my tumor will grow faster."
✦If there is recurrence, the immediate thought is: "I have failed," or "What did I do wrong?"
Camper: "At camp, I want to have fun so when I am at my chemo treatments next week, I think of fun times and my friends instead of the pain."