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Just read someone's intriguing post about learned helplessness. Forever, I have had what I would call a bad attitude stemming back from my childhood...I was raised by my father, a true pessimist. He always blamed others for the bad things that happened to him. When someone on this board posted about this I looked it up on Amazon and ordered a book from Seligman. Thank you. I have been in treatment for sometime and probably should have been done with treatment some time ago. I would definitely say that I am a fighter and an "A" type personality. I swing wildly back and forth between good and bad, cheating and not cheating, health and not health. I know that I have a bad attitude towards myself and this whole IC thing at times and try to maintain a good attitude, but because I was never given those tools to keep optimistic as a child, it makes it hard for me to stay positive. Many of us post about things that make no rhyme or reason sense. i think IC is horrible for people who "have" learned helplessness because the uncertainty and lack of rhyme or reason fuels that learned helplessness. Anyhow, I just wanted to post on this because I had read that many people who have learned helplessness have impaired immunity as well. I will let you know how it goes when I get my book. Many people on Amazon said it changed their lives.
It was me
I've studied (& am fascinated by) Seligman's positive psychology movement (he has a masters program at UPenn), and I highly recommend not just his learned helplessness writings but also his newer positive psychology writings -- Learned Optimism is the main book. It shows how even if you were "born & bred" around pessimism, you can learn the tools optimists employ without even realizing it. It's not sugar-coated optimism either but reality steeped in tremendous research. I too grew up w/ parents modeling extreme pessimism, but also the abuse I endured caused me to develop a pessimism-offshoot defense mechanism ("expect the worst to cushion the blow of inevitable hurts & disappointments") which was a helpful survival skill in childhood but once in adulthood only hurt and hindered me.
You're so right about our attitudes and expectations affecting our illness, or in the least our experience. I've read many studies for instance about those with cancer who maintained hope vs. those who didn't and the difference it made. But when you're in a dark, scary place like with the invisible illness of IC and this "unconventional" treatment, it can be so hard, esp in the beginning. I do feel Learned Optimism helped me in that regard re: IC, though it's probably time for a second read... like many things, if you don't really put it into practice you only get so far.