Having a belief  that postive thinking or negative negative thinking will control an outcome is a false dichotomy. That is: "thinking postively is the only way to heal, and thinking negatively means I will not. Therefore, I must think positively." When actually it is more important to simply bring mindfullness to whatever it is that I am thinking so that I can allow my feelings and not be ruled by them or caught up in them. If I am having a lot of negative or obsessive thinking where I am perseverating about the same things over and over, well then I think this is a useful thing to notice. Noticing without judging is a path to freedom from unhelpful thoughts that take over my thinking. In quieting these thoughts by releaseing them or not dwelling on them, I have a calmer mind. I believe it is possible to create new outcomes (not specific ones, just ones not expected) by not putting all my energy and thoughts into the same place all the time. 

Hi Deir,
I know exactly what you mean. 'Keeping positive' is an extra pressure that is just not needed. I found that this pressure came from others too, which was just horrible. When I was extremely ill, others around me decided that I was not being positive enough and just kept on banging on about that. In fact, what was happening is that the physical problems were outweighing the psychological by far. I was acutely aware that I was in the grip of very physical suffering and already knew that keeping positive would not make a slightest jot to the physical illness AT THAT TIME. As such, I had no choice but to ride it out and see what happened. I did not know that I would feel better and, like many of Dr. B's patients, I definitely did not believe it.  I just existed (barely) for a very long time. I am able to 'do positive' now that I am feeling better. Don't put that extra pressure on yourself. This is SO physical but your body will change. Nothing stays the same. It may take until you reach peri-menopause, it may take some other physical event but things WILL change for you. Keeping positive? I think that we are able to do it only at certain times.  You do what you have to do at that particular time. However, I also understand what Mimi means. Being mindful and having awareness of both our positive and negative thoughts is an important skill and can be very useful. If you catch yourself feeling very negative and are able to turn it around... well... that’s a great skill to have (but I could never do it when the physical was so overwhelming). I used to see an acupuncturist who was a Buddhist master (trained since childhood - not sure what the actual title is) and he had trained himself to overcome physical pain with mindfulness. His colleague was able to treat people using electricity running through the body (I kid you not) which he generated via his mind and own body (ask my husband as he went too. It was pretty impressive - and real). This CAN be done and is incredibly inspirational when you achieve it (I guess) but we mere mortals do need to stop laying the pressure on ourselves (and personally, I wish others would do). You WILL get better (because the vast majority of people with IC do, so the stats bear this out) but in the meantime, lighten your load.