BREAST CANCER SURVIVAL STRATEGIES - Part 2

The “Cancer Personality” 

The idea of a relationship between cancer and personality type has existed for centuries. In the second century AD a Greek physician, Galen, famous for his astute observations of patients and for his accurate descriptions of diseases, noted that women with breast cancer frequently had a tendency to be “melancholic”.

Research with thousands of modern day cancer patients by Dr Douglas Brodie in the USA and UK clinics like the Bristol Cancer Center suggests that there are certain personality traits which are rather consistently present in the cancer-susceptible individual. These characteristics are as follows: 

• Being highly conscientious, responsible, caring, sweet-natured, patient, dutiful, obliging, hard-working, and usually of above average intelligence.
• Exhibiting a strong tendency toward carrying other people's burdens and taking on extra obligations. Often "worrying for others."
• Having a deep-seated need to make others happy in order to gain approval. Tending to be "people pleasers".
• Often lacking closeness with one or both parents, sometimes lacking emotional intimacy with spouse or others who would normally be close.
• Suppressing emotions, such as anger, resentment and/or hostility. Typically the cancer-susceptible individual internalizes such emotions and has great difficulty expressing them.
• Reacting adversely to stress, often becoming unable to cope adequately with such stress. Usually experiencing an especially damaging event about 2 years before the onset of detectable cancer. The patient is unable to cope with this traumatic event or series of events, which comes as a "last straw" on top of years of suppressed reactions to stress.
• Showing an inability to resolve deep-seated emotional problems and conflicts, usually arising in childhood, often even being unaware of their presence.

Typical of the cancer-susceptible personality is the tendency to suppress negative emotions, particularly anger. Usually starting in childhood, this individual has held in his/her hostility and other unacceptable emotions. More often than not, this feature of the affected personality has its origins in feelings of rejection by one or both parents. Whether these feelings or rejection are justified or not, it is the perception of rejection that matters, and this results in a lack of closeness with the "rejecting" parent or parents, followed later in life by a similar lack of closeness with spouses and others with whom close relationships would normally develop.

Those at higher risk for cancer tend to develop feelings of loneliness as a result of their having been deprived of affection and acceptance earlier in life, even if this is merely their own perception. These people have a tremendous need for approval and acceptance, developing a very high sensitivity to the needs of others while suppressing their own emotional needs. 

These good folk become the "caretakers" of the world, showing great compassion and caring for others, and going out of their way to look after the needs of others. They are very reluctant to accept help from others, fearing that it may jeopardize their role as caretakers or that they might appear to have too much self-concern. Throughout their childhood they have typically been taught "not to be selfish," and they take this to heart as a major lifetime objective.

  

This benevolence is highly commendable, of course, in our culture, but must be somehow modified in the case of the cancer patient. A distinction needs to be made here between the "care-giving" and the "care-taking" personality. There is nothing wrong with care-giving, but the problem arises when the susceptible individual derives his/her entire worth, value and identity from his/her role as "caretaker." If this shift cannot be made, the patient is stuck in this role, and the susceptibility to cancer greatly increases.

A consistent feature of those who are susceptible to cancer appears to be that they "suffer in silence," bearing their burdens and those of others without complaint. Through suppression, they internalize the problems, worries and conflicts, creating an underlying anxiety. The carefree extrovert, who is more optimistic, cheerful and not easily upset by criticism, seems to be far less vulnerable to cancer than the caring introvert described above. 

How one reacts to stress appears to be a major factor in the development of cancer. Most cancer patients have experienced a highly stressful event, usually about 2 years prior to the onset of detectable disease. This traumatic event is often beyond the person's control, such as the loss of a loved one, loss of a business, job, home, or some other major disaster. The typical cancer-prone personality has lost the ability to cope with these extreme events, because his/her coping mechanism lies in his/her ability to control the environment. When this control is lost, the person has no other way to cope. 

Major stress causes suppression of the immune system, and does so more overwhelmingly in the cancer-susceptible individual than in others. Thus personal tragedies and excessive levels of stress appear to combine with the underlying personality described above to bring on the immune deficiency which allows cancer to thrive. These observations have given rise to the term psychoneuroimmunology.  

One of the most difficult and most important hurdles to overcome is how to make major life-style changes, not only in the physical aspects of life such as eating habits, but in reactions to stress. The pattern of reaction to stress is due largely to the way people think about life. There can be no lasting changes of behavior without first having a change in thinking and in belief systems. 

It is often difficult for people to make substantial changes in these ingrained patterns of thought. However, self help techniques like EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) make it easier for people to work on these issues themselves quickly and painlessly. 

STRATEGY4.    CHANGE REACTION TO STRESS WITH EFT

After many years of training and practice as a Hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner I understand, and, more importantly, believe in the incredible power that the mind has to influence the body, our health and our emotions.  

There are countless reports of spontaneous remissions when patients were mistakenly informed that their test results had been mixed up and they weren't about to die after all. 

All of our body's cells are replaced every few months, so how does an illness persist unless we maintain it through our belief that it exists? ”Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just wish our cares away", as Robert Palmer sings? 

Even though I believe that I am an immortal spirit and, therefore, have no fear of death, I have to get on with the business of living within the physical body and its limitations while I’m here. I can get the best out of my body by caring for it well, giving it the best possible chance of being healthy through physical strategies, and by empowering my self-healing processes via the power of visualization. 

STRATEGY 5.    VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES

Now, many people think that they are no good at visualization. So try this…. Try not to imagine a pink elephant. You see? Everyone can visualize. It’s what we naturally do when we think, even if we are not consciously aware of it. We do it all the time, automatically. The trouble is that because we do it unconsciously (i.e. in a spontaneous and uncontrolled way) it is often pre-programmed with negativity, like when we imagine how painful something is going to be.  

To start you off there’s free book for you to download and read. It’s one of the first ever written on the power of positive thought, so the language is a little dated (man = mankind) but you’ll discover some gems if you read it through. The links inside the pdf will take you to a website where you can also access more free resources.

STRATEGY 6.    LEARN PAIN CONTROL

As a Hypnotherapist I attended a day seminar held by an expert in hypno-anesthesia. He had taught hundreds of his clients to go through labour, dental procedures and even surgery without any drugs whatsoever. I was intrigued to discover his techniques, and when volunteers were required my hand shot up. 

I was one of three guinea pigs due to have a sterile needle poked into our gums after he had demonstrated three different techniques for achieving anesthesia (numbness) using only guided visualization. I was first and followed his instructions faithfully, even though I was skeptical. I was relaxed, in a light hypnotic trance, but totally conscious, and fully expected to feel pain when the needle was stuck into my gum. To be honest, I looked at the audience for confirmation that the needle really had been stuck into my gum, as I felt nothing other than gloved fingers lifting my lip! 

When it was the second guinea pig’s turn, I was right next to her and watched ever so closely to see that the needle really did go into her gum. The third lady was so relaxed, in a deep trance, that by the time her turn came it was possible to push the needle through skin lifted up on the back of her hand, AND get her to open her eyes and look at it, without any pain NOR any bleeding. 

After learning those techniques I practiced until I was able to have dental treatment without the need for any injections. I could make my gums go as numb as if I had been injected with anesthetic and had to remember to reverse the process afterwards, to get the feeling back. THAT IS THE POWER OF THOUGHT AND VISUALISATION AT WORK and the great thing is that ANYONE CAN LEARN TO DO IT!!! 

One of the most important things that I learnt about pain, when I was training as an Ericksonian Hypnotherapist and NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) practitioner, is that you can divide pain into thirds: Remembered Pain, Anticipated Pain and Actual Pain. 

The actual level of pain only forms a third of our overall experience of pain, the rest being bolstered by memories of previous pain in similar situations and the anticipation of similar pain to come. 

How does this insight help? Here’s how: 

The actual pain can be reduced by relaxing and breathing deeply, visualising drawing the breath into and soothing the area of concern (apart from using specific hypnotic techniques).  The remembered pain can be tackled in a number of ways, depending on how strong the fear element is:

• By simply rationalising that just because something hurt in the past, it doesn’t mean that it is going to feel the same this time
• By using visualisations to release the memories of past pain and let them go
• By using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) to work on past memories that are stuck

The anticipated pain can, again, be rationalised (unless you are especially pain-phobic) and you can use visualisation to imagine - and pre-programme your mind – that the procedure will be quick and easy. (I don’t recommend using the word “painless” because although it is the opposite of pain it brings your mind to think of one or the other, or different levels of pain. You need to steer clear of the thoughts that you don’t wish to visualise and concentrate on words like “soothing”, “comfortable”, “restful”, “pleasant sensation”… Get the picture? Literally? This really does work, and is a strategy that will help you to feel empowered as you go through the many procedures involved in your medical treatment.