by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

The freshly-diagnosed heart patient has plenty of opportunity to start thinking thoughts that are new, bizarre and often frightening. Any life-altering medical condition can throw us off-balance emotionally, but after a cardiac diagnosis, even the tiniest twinge of new chest pain can paralyze us. Is this something? Is it nothing? Should I call 911 again? As Australian cardiac psychologist (and more importantly, a heart patient himself) Len Gould likes to say: “Before a heart attack, every twinge is just indigestion. After a heart attack, every twinge is another heart attack!”

It’s only much later when we can truly reflect on how exhausting this twisted thinking is. Before they settle in too comfortably, let’s try to untwist the most common of these responses.  .       Continue reading “What I wish I knew back then: “Twisted thinking vs. the new heart patient”” →