What Roles Do Personality and Perception Play in Cancer Treatment?

Is cancer a case of mind over matter? Can we engage one to more positively affect the other? And if so, what roles do personality and perception play in cancer treatment?

Here I am in sunny Goodyear, Arizona, at a Bloggers' Summit sponsored by Cancer Treatment Centers of America. The weather is fabulous, especially given all the chilly winds and white snow I left behind. Last night I sat out under the stars with the group of fellow bloggers, almost all of them cancer survivors. We laughed for hours, sharing stories. There wasn't a Shrinking Violet or Vinny among them. Each has his or her own story about cancer, and in coming together, it was an engaging banquet of food for thought.

Which makes me wonder about the power of personality and perception in fighting cancer. We can't really change personality. People are who and what they are. Each of us sees the world in unique ways, and once you understand where we're coming from, you can adjust your message to be better heard. But it's never one-size-fits-all. Men and women tend to process information differently,but within that construct, individuals are sometimes stronger in some areas than others. When I say the word "cancer", your perception of the disease is based on your own personal experiences with people you know who have battled it, but also on what you know about the public information that's out there. What pieces of the puzzle are you missing? What you don't know can and will hurt you and your loved one, especially if you're wrong in your perceptions.

As a cancer caregiver, you can't change the personality of your loved one, nor should you, but will an understanding of him or her help you provide the right kind of support? It makes me wonder if there should be a different approach to cancer for a Type A personality than for a Type B personality. Maybe people who are go-getters will do better if they are armed with information they can use to motivate themselves -- statistics, goals, and your basic business plan. That's just how they roll in real life and we should respect that. Maybe people who are go-with-the-flow-ers will do better if they are allowed to function in the way that enables them to do what works for them -- forget about the details and the Devil, and just live in the moment. That's how they do things and there's nothing wrong with that. To each his own.

Over and over again last night, I heard a similar theme. Cancer patients and survivors get treated differently than people without. Right there, you know that's going to have an impact on life. We aren't at the point where we ignore cancer once it's happened. It's like stink on a skunk, trailing behind the cancer patient. One whiff and folks disappear. The last thing anyone wants is to feel people pulling away emotionally, mentally, and sometimes even physically. That's a lot of stress to live with when you're already trying to get back to the new "normal".

What does it take to rise above that and engage the mind in the healing process? If you think about the role the brain plays for the human body, it's really a head game in many ways. The head operates the rest of the body systems, so tapping into that energy and directing it in positive ways should make a difference, shouldn't it? If it's the head making the decisions about what happens, how does the brain move through the decision-making process to the best advantage?

We sometimes seem to forget the brain is divided into two hemispheres, right and left. Concrete and creative. That's where perception comes into play. Perception is information-based.  And when there's a lack of information, the creative brain will fill in the blanks. That's sometimes dangerous, because we can begin to believe things that just aren't true. The body will act on the misperception. If you input more information and expand the knowledge of a subject, the brain will adapt to accommodate the change, but only when there is recognition things have changed. The mind has to send a signal -- "Hey, guys! We've got new intelligence on this thing. Look it over and make adjustments." The more you know that is evidenced-based, the more rational the decision-making. You can actually change a person's emotions by changing his or her perception of the subject. All the more reason to make a positive effort. So, what does happen when you have strong personalities that can weather the storm and see beyond it? That's when your mind works with your body to overcome the challenge that is cancer. You have to believe that what you're facing is "doable", and even more importantly, worth doing.

The people I sat with last night are the living proof the battle is worth it. Vibrant and alive are two words that describe them. But their cancer experiences surely played a role in awakening the personality to take on the fight. For several people, it seemed that cancer put a focus on their lives they didn't have before. They no longer waste time on people who waste life. They take more chances because they want the chances they take to mean something. They live a far more intense experience because of cancer, not in spite of it. Maybe they would have done the same if their lives had been challenged by some other life-transforming moments, because it would have given the personality a chance to strut its stuff. In that sense, it's the challenges, not the cancer, that benefited the individuals.

Maybe the more we understand how cancer works, the better we can teach cancer management. We can begin to understand that cancer didn't just appear over night. It took it's time setting up shop in the body, hiding out, lurking. When the concrete mind begins to pay attention to new symptoms, when the creative mind begins to believe it's possible to change the outcome, won't the mind be better able to direct the body to focus on what's important at each moment in time, whether it's taking the difficult cancer treatment that will make a difference or learning to relax and not let the fear fill your head?

A house divided can't stand. The structure, the foundation, will eventually fall. A cancer patient at war with his creative and concrete minds will be struggling to understand what the immediate picture is and what the future picture can be. What you believe about cancer is every bit as important as the scans, blood tests, and other measures of the disease within the body. If your perception is based on a fantasy, that cancer can be wished away magically, the concrete mind isn't likely to buy that claim. If it's based on evidence that what is done can and will have a more positive outcome, the creative mind can begin to look for ways to work with the concrete mind to get the body what it really needs. Does the personality help to determine how that perception plays inside the head?

As cancer treatments have evolved, our understanding of the types of effective medications, radiology, and surgery have also expanded. We know cancer isn't one disease -- there are hundreds of types of cancer. The more we hone how well specific treatments work on specific cancers, the better the outcome. I believe the same is true for the cancer survivor's mind. The more we understand individual differences in human beings and how their brains process information on cancer, the better we can help and support our loved ones to fully engage according to their ability to perceive the disease. Some people are always going to want to know every little detail, others are not. When we respect our loved ones' comfort zones and apply our care to fit their real needs, we're giving them the real support that will help them face this foe.