Pharmaceutical News:

THE PERSONALITY DRIVERS AND HEART ILLNESS: SUMMARY

This overview is far from a complete synopsis of personality theory, but it should suffice to make several important points. First, it is obvious that psychological reactions to illness are varied and often complex. I trust, however, that I have clearly conveyed my sincere belief that, second, psychological change and healthy control of coping patterns are possible in coping with illness. Such positive adjusting is hard and sometimes confusing work, but it is work that each of us can do, with each other’s help.
Third, helping each other to cope healthily with illness requires (1) a basic understanding of each other’s coping patterns, (2) the courage to steer your own reactions in healthy directions, (3) the perseverance to put up with discomfort until new coping patterns begin to feel familiar, and (4) loving support of each other while you both are learning new ways of reacting.
The preceding pages can serve as helpful guidelines to you and your family in identifying the areas where emotional support is most needed as well as the riskiest pitfalls in the process of adjusting to illness. Read them and reread them. Discuss your reactions with each other. Pay particular attention to the descriptions that strike you as on target about your own or each other’s styles of coping, and check your impressions with each other. Such honest self-appraisal and open discussion might be uncomfortable at first, but remember that positive psychological change most often feels awkward until this new way of being becomes more familiar.
When all goes well with partners who are trying to cope with illness, they become more tender, patient, compassionate, and relaxed as they celebrate the goodness of their life together. Unfortunately, these psychological characteristics are contrary to those that exist at the foundation level of a unique breed of personality so often seen in cardiac rehabilitation settings: the Type A personality. Living with a Type A personality and being a Type A personality pose special tasks in the process of establishing and maintaining intimate connections. We now turn to a discussion of the dilemmas facing couples that organize around the Type A behavior pattern.

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