Forget About Your Diagnosis

I have a recommendation for you to consider that you may well think is outrageous. I admit it. It is outrageous. Forget about your diagnosis.If you follow my recommendation, you will be surprised and pleased with the result.

My suggestion – which costs nothing by the way – is to forget about the fact you have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimers or some other chronic condition. My recommendation obviously needs an explanation which I offer by way of explaining why some people recover from cancer and others do not.

Cancer Survivors

People who are more likely to recover from cancer have one trait in common. They forget about the fact they have been diagnosed with cancer. They focus their energy on making the changes in their life that are necessary to help their body heal.

They devote time and energy eating nutritious food, exercising every day and living their life to the fullest. They embrace their passions, especially those they have neglected.

People who do not recover from cancer focus their energy on the cancer itself.

They focus their thoughts and attention to where the cancer is believed to be located in their body.
They consider over and over again the methods that must be used to kill the cancer.
They spend their time in hospitals and clinics receiving invasive treatments.
They become intimately acquainted with the technical terminology used by medical doctors. In just a few weeks they sound like doctors.

When I just used the word “cancer” – did you feel a tinge of fear crawl up your spine? (I felt it!) Did you perhaps think to yourself …

Oh my! Having Parkinsons is enough for anyone. Is it possible I have cancer too?

Just reading about cancer is traumatic for people. Guess what? We all have
cancer cells in our body. Cancer cells are everywhere – in our toes and in our head. No one is exempt.

Most people give their cancer cells get far too much attention. It is this intense attention and fear that feeds and nourishes the cancer to grow rapidly and thrive. The intensity of the attention gives the cancer cells infusions of energy to multiply.

Who Recovers from Parkinsons?

Permit me now to apply the same ideas about cancer to Parkinsons. Did you go into fear like many others when your medical professional diagnosed you with “Parkinson’s disease”?

Your doctor has to make a diagnosis else they cannot prescribe medications.

I say : Forget about it.

Drain the entire experience of being told you have this “disease” town the toilet. I predict you will be much happier.

You will have more enthusiasm.
You will have more time to focus attention on taking the positive steps needed to reverse your symptoms.
You will enjoy spending more time with your family. You will regenerate a love of living life to the fullest.

Let the doctors and researchers agonize over a diagnosis. Let them worry which treatments to recommend for “Parkinson’s Disease.” That happens to be the work that they have chosen. Acknowledge that it is the job of medical doctors and researchers to sort through these issues. You are not being paid a handsome salary to think these thoughts. They are.

Centering your moment to moment thoughts on the fact you have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s need not dominate or ruin your life. Any diagnosis – yours included – is simply the opinion of one individual anyway. There is no definitive way for medical professionals to diagnose Parkinsons.

My research reveals that you may well not have what is diagnosed as classic “Parkinson’s disease.” You have something else. Why get depressed over a disease state you may have never have had anyway? Many people discover that second opinions offer differ from the first. Why get depressed about a diagnosis that may be dead wrong?

When you forget about it, you no longer have to think about whether a “cure” will be found in your lifetime. Right? It does not matter a flip.

Let the doctors and researchers worry about finding a cure. Again, that is their job. Your job is to get well.

You are not being paid to think about a cure – so why bother? It
just clutters up your mind with thoughts that you can do nothing about.

I believe when you forget about it, you have the opportunity to become more mindful of all the signals your body is sending to you moment to moment. Symptoms no longer have an overarching label of a static “disease.” They are simply discrete messages that your body sends to you moment to moment that change is required of some type for symptoms to resolve. Instead of trying to suppress the symptoms, why not listen to them? Allow your body is talk to you.

Perhaps you simply need to drink more water.
Perhaps you simply need to breathe more deeply.
Perhaps you need to stop using a cell phone.
Perhaps you need to stop eating sugar.
Perhaps you need more exercise.
Perhaps …

If you insist on attaching yourself to the proposition you have Parkinson’s
disease, you are much more likely to wait around for a “cure” than to realize that in the moment, all you may need to do to feel better is to drink water, breath more deeply and exercise and …

Focusing on a disease – Parkinson’s in this case – generates negative thoughts. It activates and sustains depression. Focusing on your passions opens endless possibilities of exploration and experimentation.

Want to live a happier life despite whatever symptoms you currently experience?
Want to reverse depression?
Want to have more energy to live your life to the fullest?

Certainly there are many ways to accomplish these goals. One of the smartest and might I add cheapest ways is to simply just to forget you have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Let your doctor worry about a cure. Get on with the business of healing and pursuing your passions.

You will be pleased you did.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Road to Recovery from Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinsons Recovery®