We see a lot of advertising proclaiming that serious, life threatening illnesses can in some way be "beaten", "defeated" or "conquered".
That either individually or collectively, we are "undefeatable" or some such like.
Or placing us "versus" or "against" the diseases in question, as if suggesting there will be an identifiable winner and loser at the end of the day.
But ultimately, we as both a society and as individual sufferers have to live with the fact of our mortalities and with the debilitating impact these conditions can have on us and those around us.
At times, our best hope of doing so is to effectively manage our physical and emotional responses to the conditions in question with as much courage and perspective as we can muster, often where conditions are tragic, irreversible or terminal.
This is not to be negative - it is rather a simple fact of reality that some sufferers cannot and will not recover from these types of serious conditions and, even if they do, relapse is often a distinct possibility.
The dangers of denial are described in our post entitled "The Dangers of Denial to StressBusting™".
So the wording of messaging related to these matters is therefore really important for the reasons we explain in our post entitled "Extend your Vocabulary to Stressbust™".
We need to remember that sitting behind the direct symptoms of any life threatening condition itself, there is also the immense stress caused by it to the sufferer and those around them, which is of course of interest to us here at StressBustingExpert™.
And we feel it is important to recognise this very real secondary impact and not to undermine sometimes heroic efforts on the parts of sufferers, their families and carers by use of the type of language referenced above.
Should family and friends really consider a terminal cancer sufferer who has passed away to have failed because he or she didn't "beat" the cancer?
Of course not, which is why language ought in our view to be positive but at the same time respectful of the reality of the conditions every one of us might some day or other face.
Our views of course intend to direct no criticism to what organisations and advertisers are trying to achieve.
This is entirely admirable, and it is obviously driven in many cases by the need to raise much needed funds to facilitate research and improved treatments.
Our comments merely seek to emphasise the importance of managing the expectations and deep sensitivities of sufferers as well as the families and carers they turn to for reassurance on a daily basis against the backdrop of such wording.
And of not inadvertently imposing a corresponding stress burden on them during an already extremely difficult period when fear and guilt can be at high levels.
Support and encouragement, not the setting or stating of unreasonable or unachievable objectives, ought arguably to be the order of the day.
For other info relevant to the above, please see our posts entitled
"Coping through a Managed Bereavement Process"
"Identifying & Stressbusting™ Panic Attacks"
"Stressbusting™ during & after Cancer"
"Using Grief as a positive Self Improvement tool"
And please consult our "Legal Notices" page for further direction if affected by any of these issues.
SYMPATHETIC LOVE
MikeyM™&LouLoU™ 😊😍💛💕 xxxx