David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Hope can play large role in mental health
by Helga Meyer, The Pueblo Chieftain
Hope is defined as the ability to look forward to something with confidence and positive expectation. It is more than a vague feeling of optimism - hope is "an active way of coping with threatening situations by focusing on the positive," according to author Robert Ornstein and Dr. David Sobel. Feeling hopeful creates positive feelings within us, and we know that when we feel hope, we typically feel happier.
Although we have presumed for quite some time that positive, hopeful feelings contribute to better health, researchers are now able to prove with scientific evidence that feelings of hope and optimism use the same neurological pathways in our brains as medications do to promote healing. This has opened up a whole new area of brain research, known as psychoneuroimmunology, and researchers are especially interested to learn the power of hope in creating a positive placebo effect. They have learned that hidden therapies - in which the patient is not aware of receiving treatment or medication - are not as effective as when the patient is aware of receiving medication or treatment. This clearly demonstrates the power of hope and expectation in treating a physical or an emotional disorder.
Feeling hopeful not only affects how well we recover from a disease, but it?s also beneficial in helping our immune system fight off disease in the first place, and can often make a difference in a life-or-death outcome for serious accidents or diseases.
Some people may believe that feeling hope with a bad prognosis (such as having a terminal disease) forces a denial of reality, or allows false hope to develop. However, there are some important differences between total denial, informed denial and false hope. With total denial, you don?t believe you?re ill, and with such a denial, you can?t feel hopeful for a positive outcome. But with informed denial, you accept your diagnosis and choose to feel hope for remission, fewer complications or less pain. Informed denial often inspires hope, which allows you to put your fighting spirit to work, confront a new challenge and utilize all of your internal strength and available resources to fight off the disease. False hope is more similar to wishful thinking and built on pathological denial. When reality hits, the false hope disintegrates, leading to feelings of hopelessness - in which there is a feeling of negativity and no expectation for good or positive things to happen in the future. With hopelessness, depression and illness frequently follow.
Psychologists have found that our lives are directed by three simple things: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for. Without any one of these, life becomes meaningless, so it?s important to work at fulfilling these basic needs.
Children who experience a significant separation or loss of a parent in their developmental years are more likely to develop feelings of hopelessness as adults. However, with talk therapy and feeling the unconditional love and support of another person, they can learn to change their hopeless feelings into feelings of hope. So, people who feel hopeless are not hopeless cases; it is possible to learn to feel hopeful. As Norman Cousins, former editor of The Saturday Review, once said, "Death is not the ultimate tragedy in life. The ultimate tragedy is to die without discovering the possibilities of full growth."
by Helga Meyer, The Pueblo Chieftain
Hope is defined as the ability to look forward to something with confidence and positive expectation. It is more than a vague feeling of optimism - hope is "an active way of coping with threatening situations by focusing on the positive," according to author Robert Ornstein and Dr. David Sobel. Feeling hopeful creates positive feelings within us, and we know that when we feel hope, we typically feel happier.
Although we have presumed for quite some time that positive, hopeful feelings contribute to better health, researchers are now able to prove with scientific evidence that feelings of hope and optimism use the same neurological pathways in our brains as medications do to promote healing. This has opened up a whole new area of brain research, known as psychoneuroimmunology, and researchers are especially interested to learn the power of hope in creating a positive placebo effect. They have learned that hidden therapies - in which the patient is not aware of receiving treatment or medication - are not as effective as when the patient is aware of receiving medication or treatment. This clearly demonstrates the power of hope and expectation in treating a physical or an emotional disorder.
Feeling hopeful not only affects how well we recover from a disease, but it?s also beneficial in helping our immune system fight off disease in the first place, and can often make a difference in a life-or-death outcome for serious accidents or diseases.
Some people may believe that feeling hope with a bad prognosis (such as having a terminal disease) forces a denial of reality, or allows false hope to develop. However, there are some important differences between total denial, informed denial and false hope. With total denial, you don?t believe you?re ill, and with such a denial, you can?t feel hopeful for a positive outcome. But with informed denial, you accept your diagnosis and choose to feel hope for remission, fewer complications or less pain. Informed denial often inspires hope, which allows you to put your fighting spirit to work, confront a new challenge and utilize all of your internal strength and available resources to fight off the disease. False hope is more similar to wishful thinking and built on pathological denial. When reality hits, the false hope disintegrates, leading to feelings of hopelessness - in which there is a feeling of negativity and no expectation for good or positive things to happen in the future. With hopelessness, depression and illness frequently follow.
Psychologists have found that our lives are directed by three simple things: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for. Without any one of these, life becomes meaningless, so it?s important to work at fulfilling these basic needs.
Children who experience a significant separation or loss of a parent in their developmental years are more likely to develop feelings of hopelessness as adults. However, with talk therapy and feeling the unconditional love and support of another person, they can learn to change their hopeless feelings into feelings of hope. So, people who feel hopeless are not hopeless cases; it is possible to learn to feel hopeful. As Norman Cousins, former editor of The Saturday Review, once said, "Death is not the ultimate tragedy in life. The ultimate tragedy is to die without discovering the possibilities of full growth."
