I have recently been seeing a few people posting their opinions on a video regarding depression and how much it is “allowed” to take over one’s life, and people have been sharing many different opinions on the subject. Some have said that you can change your perspective to lighten the load a bit and not let depression become part of your identity, but others have been saying that there is simply nothing at all that can be done about it. This sparked my interest in thinking about how much perspective really matters. Personally, I have always thought that perspective is really everything. I still firmly believe that. When it comes to mental illnesses, I am not here to share my opinion (though to some degree I think you can infer what that might be), but I am going to offer my thoughts on why I think perspective is the most important thing to consider in the quality of your everyday life.

Growing up Christian, there was always a push to look at everything in a positive light. Whatever God intends is what is going to happen in some form or another even though the path might be rocky at times. I think this concept is important for everyone of every religion (or lack thereof) to hold onto. Things will happen as they are meant to, but keeping a positive attitude and looking at the world in a positive light is never a bad thing to do. As humans, it is often difficult for us to be able to do this because of general stressors present in our everyday activities, but we must realize that keeping up a negative attitude can ultimately change the outcome of each and every day. We have the innate ability to alter our lives and our minds in any way that we choose if we work at it and hold ourselves to it.

On the scientific side of this, there have been studies that note the improvement in the quality of life in those who have altered their frame of mind to be more positive in different situations. In one study, patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) were split into 3 groups and instructed to change their ways of thinking in three different ways by swapping negative thoughts and worries with positive thoughts. Before beginning their main tasks, they took a series of tests and filled out questionnaires that determined their base level of worry and how negatively they tended to think in general. The study concluded that, no matter what the kind of positive ideation, those who were able to stick to their plan for the duration of the study achieved a more optimistic mindset during that time (Eagleson 2016). Another study came up with similar results in a different setting with different participants.

While many people learn to cope with finding out that they have a serious illness that will last a lifetime, others are not so successful. In these cases, many people become depressed, and others simply “quit” their battles with their ailments. In Iran, a study was conducted amongst patients with coronary artery diseases to see what effects a positive attitude can have on their spiritual well being, if any. Prior studies had already suggested that positive thinking reinforcement can have a profound effect on the speed of the healing process following surgery, but they aimed to study the psychological effects that had lighter scholarly support. Using both a control group and an experimental group - each with 45 patients - the researchers gave each participant 2 different questionnaires, each with their own purpose. The more important of the two was using Ellison and Paloutzian’s spiritual well being scale. This scale rates one’s spiritual well being on a scale based on responses to questions in different categories ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The results of the study were unsurprising to me as they echoed the other studies I researched. The results of this study showed that after one month of positive thinking training sessions, the scores on the spiritual well being scale increased significantly as opposed to those in the control group, whose scores actually slightly decreased on average (Ghodsbin 2015).

I didn’t have nearly enough time to summarize all of the literature on the subject, but everything is pretty much the same. Positivity goes a very long way in all trying scenarios. In your everyday life, many challenges can seem unsurpassable, but keeping up a positive attitude is often the only way that any steps in the right direction will occur. Take a moment to think about a recent struggle and how you overcame it. What was your mindset? You most likely weren’t living in the wreckage of the future, which means that to solve the problem, you had to maintain an optimistic mindset. This is the case for most people, even though you may not have thought of it that way.

Perspective is everything. How we view things and how we let that affect us can alter our lives drastically. Those who look at their lives and see all of the bad and only snapshots of the good miss out on so many wonderful opportunities to better themselves and spread their positive attitudes to others.

By writing this, I am trying to get some kind of response out of my readers. The short and sweet point that I am trying to get across here is that no, being optimistic will not cure everything, but there is even scientific evidence that it helps in difficult situations. When we are referring to illnesses like anxiety and depression, we must remember that they cannot fully consume you and become you if you don’t let them. Trying your best to maintain a positive mindset is therapeutic to overall well-being and it can be the difference between you being depressed and feeling depressed.

References:

Eagleson, C., Hayes, S., Mathews, A., Perman, G., & Hirsch, C. R. (2016). The power of positive thinking: Pathological worry is reduced by thought replacement in generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 78, 13-18.

Ghodsbin, F., Safaei, M., Jahanbin, I., Ostovan, M. A., & Keshvarzi, S. (2015). The effect of positive thinking training on the level of spiritual well-being among the patients with coronary artery diseases referred to imam reza specialty and subspecialty clinic in shiraz, iran: A randomized controlled clinical trial. ARYA Atherosclerosis, 11(6), 341-348.