- With Mayo Clinic oncologist
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
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Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Edward Creagan, M.D.
"The magic of the electronic village is transforming health information. The mouse and keyboard have extended the stethoscope to the 500 million people now online." — Dr. Edward Creagan
The power of the medium inspires Dr. Edward Creagan as he searches for ways to share Mayo Clinic's vast resources with the general public.
Dr. Creagan, a Newark, N.J., native, is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice medicine and palliative care. He has been with Mayo Clinic since 1973 and in 1999 was president of the staff of Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was honored in 1995 with the John and Roma Rouse Professor of Humanism in Medicine Award and in 1992 with the Distinguished Mayo Clinician Award, Mayo's highest recognition. He has been recognized with the American Cancer Society Professorship of Clinical Oncology.
He describes his areas of special interest as "wellness as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-financial model" and fitness, mind-body connection, aging and burnout.
Dr. Creagan has been an associate medical editor with Mayo Clinic's health information websites and has edited publications and CD-ROMs and reviewed articles.
"We the team of (the website) provide reliable, easy-to-understand health and wellness information so that each of us can have productive, meaningful lives," he says.
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Stress blog
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April 17, 2013
Be open to solutions and silver linings
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
When I talk about being optimistic, what do I mean? I don't mean that you should pretend everything is great when it's not. Nor do I mean that you should ignore hard truths.
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Rather I see optimism as a way of coping with life. Optimism leads us to look for solutions and silver linings when hardship strikes.
In his book on learned optimism, Dr. Martin Seligman describes characteristics of optimistic people. At the risk of oversimplifying, here are a few of them:
- When optimists have a setback, they confine it to the specific event and don't allow it to contaminate every aspect of their life. For example, if optimists get lost while trying to read a map, they may feel frustrated because they're poor map-readers. But they don't take it as a sign that they're inadequate in all aspects of life.
- Optimists don't take every negative event as a personal insult, and they don't allow themselves to be devastated when something goes wrong. Nor do they blame themselves for life's misfortune.
- Optimists experience disappointments just like everyone else, but they're able to view them as temporary events. They see them as speed bumps to be gotten over or road blocks that must gotten around.
Optimism isn't burying your head in the sand. If you're stuck in a quandary about a relationship or an obligation and you're not sure what to do, it's only common sense to turn to professionals for help. It's no different than when you're confronted with a complex medical problem and seek care from an expert. A cardiologist for a heart problem. A nephrologist for a kidney problem. It's a sign of good judgment and maturity to acknowledge that you're struggling and to turn to a professional who can provide guidance.
So the discussion is about more than whether the glass is half full or half empty. Please weigh in since we are all struggling with these issues.
Follow me on Twitter at @EdwardCreagan. Join the discussion at #Stress.
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