Rehabilitation
 

How to become healthy once again

This page was made on the basis of the „Cancer patients and relatives suport guide” by Carl Simonton, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton si James L. Creighton, 1978.

Starting point: „the will to survive”

Why some patients regain their health while others die, even though their are diagnosed with the same disease? In the early 70s, Carl Simonton, a resident physician, specializing in oncology at the Oregon Medical University (USA), has become interested in the answer to this question. He noticed that patients stating that they want to survive, many times acted in an opposite manner. Patients suffering from lung cancer refused to stop smoking, patients with liver cancer didn’t reduce their alcohol consumption, or some of the patients didn’t come on a regular basis for treatment. In many cases, these were the patients whose diagnosis indicated that they may live fo rmany years if they followed treatment. Although they stated they have numerous reasons to live, they were indifferent and profoundly depressed and they had an attitude of renounciation higher than other patients diagnosed with the same disease, but in terminal stages. On the other hand, Carl Simonton was surprised to notice that a small group of patients in terminal stages of their diseases, sent home with a minimal treatment, continued to come back a few years later for checkups, in a better health state.

Carl Simonton asked them how they could explain their good health, and their answers were similar: „I cannot die until my son finishes highschool” or „They need me too much at work”, or „I will not die until I settle the issues I have with my daughter”. The common point of this attitudes was the faith that they have power in influencing the course of the disease.

The essential difference between these patients and the ones who didn’t cooperate was their attitude towards the disease and the positive mentality on life. Along the years, Carl Simonton and his wife, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, noticed that the patients that:

• participated actively to maintaining and regaining their state of health

 
• found reasons and purposes for living

 
• were able to identify the things that bring them joy and fulfillment – had a better and longer life.

Unity of mind and soul

Based on the observation of these extraordinary patients, Carl Simonton developed a psychological therapy program that revolutionized the scientific world of USA and Europe in the 70s-80s. The basic assumption that Simonton starts from, is that the disease is not only a purely physical problem, but a problem of the entire human being, including not only the body, but also the mind and the emotions. Both mental and emotional state lead an important role in vulnerability to illnesses, including cancer, and to cure. Simonton emphasizes the role of psychological factors in the beginning and evolution of cancer. The way in which the patient responds to problems and stressful situations unleashes a series of physiological responses that lower the efficiency of immune systems and favours producing abnormal cells.

Unquestionably, the most important assumption of the Simonton therapy program is that "Each person participates continuously to its state of health or its illness". Most of us believe that the curing process represents something coming from the outside of us. Consequently, when we have a medical problem, we think that our responsability is just to go to the doctor or to be admitted, and receive treatment. The truth is that each of us contributes and participates continously to creating our state of health, through the way we think, we fell and we see ourselves to problems of life, as well as through direct actions, such as, physical exercise and diet. In addition, the way in which our body responds to medical treatment is influenced by our belief of the efficiency of treatment and the faith we have in the medical staff.

The road to being healthy

All pshychological treatment methods for cancer are adjuvant methods complementary to medical treatment. They have many roles, but can never replace the medical treatmnet that the cancer patient receives in oncology treatment facilities.

The first step on the road to being healthy again is understanding the disease and accepting a new lifestyle. Searching for a meaning for the illness, answering the question „Why did this happen to me?” represents an essential step in the treatment. For many cancer patients, the body becomes an enemy. It has betrayed them because it is sick and endangers their life. These patients feel they are separated from their bodies and do not trust its capacity to fight disease. By learning to relax and influence their physiological processes, patients are helped to re-accept and re-value their body and become conscious of the ability of working together with the body for being healthy again. The body will become, this way, once again, a source of pleasure and confort, and a trusting indicative of the quality of the person’s life.

The next step is finding a way to influence these responses to enhance the treatment of the disease. Based on the relaxed state, the mental imagery tehniques can be used to create positive belief that can train the immune system of the body against the disease.

The mental imagery tehnique

The relaxation and mental imagery tehniques created by Simonton, adapted by Vargha and Dafinoiu (2003).

Creating the future: establishing purposes

There is no doubt that it takes a lot of courage to live as though life is truly worth living, after being diagnosed with cancer. It takes a lot of courage because, if life is worth living, then it means you have a lot to lose once you stop living. Many people believe that they will be announced that they have a life-endangering disease and will begin to do all the things they have postponed until then, will be everything they couldn’t be, will live to the fullest the months they have left. Actually, the majority will do exactly the opposite: stop living. Life will become neutral, conditional. Somehow, this reaction may represent an unconscious way of preparing oneself for dying, because if life is lived at a low speed, then losing life cannot be too long.

Once the cancer patient begins thinking about dying as something close, he will tend to think that the family’s resources should be spent to improve the quality of life of another family member, of someone who „will be part of the family for longer”. Actually, these patients that „stay around longer” are exactly the ones who make life worth living and get involved in accomplishing important goals.

By asking patients to establish goals for themselves, we help them become conscious of the reasons they have for living, help them reconnect with life. It is a way of saying there are things that you want from life and for which you want to make an effort. It is a way of transforming emotional, mental and physical needs in a „pro-life” behaviour, it is a way of investing once again in your own life. The will to live is high when there is something to live for. Establishing goals has many benefits for the cancer patient:

• Establishing goals prepares you mentally and emotionally to be engaged in regaining health. You say that you expect to become recovered.

 
• Establishing goals shows that you trust your capacity to accomplish the objectives set. This way, you state once again that you are in control of your own life and that you can get things moving in the direction you want. You are the one acting on the events, they do not happen under action of external forces, that lack your control. The importance of this active attitude consists of fighting feeling of helplessness and the lack of hope that contributed to developing cancer.

 
• The fact that you feel in control of your own life leads to forming a better self image. Establishing and following your own goals represents a way of stating that you and your needs are important. By fighting to accomplish your goals, you say that you are a valuable person, who matters very much, at least to yourself.

 
• Establishing goals offers you a direction for your energy to ve invested in. You establish what your priorities are. When life is conditioned, goals give you a direction and reasons for living.