http://www.vaginadentatablog.net/archives/175 Careful she bites Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:16:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.vaginadentatablog.net/archives/175/comment-page-1#comment-218 Michael Story Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:52:42 +0000 http://www.vaginadentatablog.net/?p=175#comment-218 I recognise a great deal of this positivity nonsense from my own experience as a patient. The cult of positivity for women is linked to either thinking or talking in a way that paints a veneer over real emotions, rather than getting on with living despite difficult circumstances. Pressure is applied with far less force to men and depends on your social circle, but even in my case an insistence on reading statistics on treatment options was seen by some around me as a distraction from the terrifying Sisyphean task of ‘positive thinking’. Trying to identify and be thankful for the good things in one’s life can be a useful exercise at any stressful time. The cognitive dissonance that results from pressure to regard a life threatening disease as some sort of opportunity is potentially dangerous to one’s mental health. I recognise a great deal of this positivity nonsense from my own experience as a patient.
The cult of positivity for women is linked to either thinking or talking in a way that paints a veneer over real emotions, rather than getting on with living despite difficult circumstances.
Pressure is applied with far less force to men and depends on your social circle, but even in my case an insistence on reading statistics on treatment options was seen by some around me as a distraction from the terrifying Sisyphean task of ‘positive thinking’.
Trying to identify and be thankful for the good things in one’s life can be a useful exercise at any stressful time. The cognitive dissonance that results from pressure to regard a life threatening disease as some sort of opportunity is potentially dangerous to one’s mental health.

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