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Is there a negative side to positive thinking?

Letty Cottin Pogrebin in her book, How to be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick, says, don’t pressure a terminally ill person to practice positive thinking. Positive thinking cannot cure Huntington’s disease, ALS or inoperable brain cancer.  Telling a terminal patient to keep up the fight isn’t just futile, it’s cruel.  Insisting that they see the glass as half full may deny them the truth of what they know and the chance to tie up life’s loose ends while there’s still time. As one hospice patient put it, “All I want from my friends right now is the freedom to sulk and say goodbye.”

So remember that positive thinking isn’t always positive.

For more advice on how to be a friend to a friend who’s sick, go to Letty Pogrebin’s book, How to be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick.