Psychiatrist Dr. Elie Isenberg-Grzeda is familiar with symptoms of what’s been called the “tyranny” of excessive positivity. Often what drives people with cancer to his office isn’t the diagnosis itself, but the angst and stress of trying to remain unrelentingly positive, which, implicitly or explicitly, people diagnosed with cancer are told they are supposed to do.
People arrive with what looks like severe anxiety, “and, for many of them, when you unpack it and figure out what’s going on, they’re anxious about needing to stay positive — it’s kind of an impossible task to do, 24/7,” said Isenberg-Grzeda, a specialist in psychosocial oncology at Sunnybrook Hospital’s Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto. After acknowledging their distress “and how challenging their situation is,” Isenberg-Grzeda will often ask whether they would be open to hearing what the literature shows. Some say yes, some no.
“Some are such fierce believers in the (positivity) mindset they really don’t want to know, and it’s often counterproductive to try to convince someone of something they are not ready to hear.” The idea that cancer progression or disease survival can be influenced by a positive attitude or by keeping up a “fighting spirit” isn’t grounded in scientific evidence, he and other doctors said. Anecdotally, however, “you’ll hear from people, ‘I beat this because I was positive, I had the right thinking, the right attitude,'” Isenberg-Grzeda said.
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