Dr. Ellen Langer

Okay, so if you have three weeks to heal and now you're approaching the second week has passed, what are you doing?

And this is what you might be doing.

When people are given a diagnosis of a chronic disease, they tend to think that the symptoms are going to stay the same or get worse.

Nothing moves in only one direction.

There are always little blips.

It's sort of like the stock market.

If it's going up, it doesn't go straight up.

Goes up, goes down, a little up, okay?

Or down, depending on it.

Sure, sure.

And it's the same thing with any measure you're going to take over time.

There are fluctuations.

Now, what happens is

There are times you're feeling better, but you're not paying any attention to those times.

Because your expectation is it's only going to get worse.

What happens if you pay attention?

So what we do, we start by calling people every day, twice a day, sometimes three times a day at various times.

Let's say you have chronic pain, for example.

Nobody needs stress.

It doesn't matter what it is.