Professor Lewin argues that replacing the mistaken beliefs that many people have about heart disease, ‘cardiac misconceptions’ as he calls them – with more realistic facts is one of the most significant ways in which you can help yourself recover.
‘Few people believe which were the real risk factors responsible for their getting heart disease. They say things like, “I might have smoked, but it was the stress that got me.” This is extremely damaging because it leads people to rest as much as possible. That is the worst thing you can do, because the less you do the more likely you are to experience angina and the more likely you are to become depressed,’ he observes.
He believes that everyone who has had a diagnosis of heart disease should be given accurate information about their condition, its outlook and the changes they need to make, preferably in a structured counseling session. ‘Just talking about feelings is of absolutely no benefit,’ he says. ‘People need to rid themselves of misconceptions or be given some way of coping with them.’
Most people will not have such a session, but there are things you can do to help yourself develop a more positive way of thinking. In the vast majority of cases the heart heals rapidly, even after a heart attack. You should be aware that these days a diagnosis of heart disease is far from being an automatic death sentence. The fact that you now are under medical surveillance means that any problems are likely to be picked up and dealt with before they become life threatening.
It pays to bear in mind that by far the biggest causes of heart disease are not stress, worry and hard work but identifiable factors such as smoking, high cholesterol, lack of activity and so on, and that these are things you can do something about.
If you are having difficulty convincing yourself of any of this, it may be helpful to take some steps to improve your knowledge by making a special appointment with your doctor or calling a cardiac helpline such as the ones run by various hospitals or heart charities. You could also check out a few of the books on heart disease. If you decide to seek information from medical books from a library, however, make sure that the ones you choose are up to date. Knowledge and treatment is changing all the time and books written even five years ago may be a source of wrong or misleading information which can make you unnecessarily gloomy.
