Polio Survivors and Type A Personalities
TYPE A? NO WAY!
SLOW AND STEADY IS THE PACE FOR POLIO SURVIVORS.
There are some who refuse to believe that polio survivors are Type A. These folks won't hear what we have found again and again: polio survivors are more Type A on average than the general population, 18 points more Type A than people who have had heart attacks. Why is it such a problem to be Type A? Way back in our 1985 National Post-Polio Survey, we found that the more Type A polio survivors were, the more PPS symptoms they had and the more severe the symptoms were.
Our surveys of more than 2,000 polio survivors, as well as decades of clinical data, support the thesis that polio survivors show more Type A behavior because being Type A protected them from the emotional and physical abuse they experienced as children. What are the rules polio survivors painfully learned?
“Do for others before they do unto you.”
“I can’t just be as good as everyone else. I have to be BETTER than everyone else to survive.”
In treating polio survivors, I feel deeply the fear many have when giving up their Type A, selfprotective behavior. That's why we say feeling guilt and anxiety show that polio survivors have stopped being Type A and are finally doing for themselves, no longer doing only for others and trying to be “better than the best.”
Bottom Line:
Being Type A makes PPS worse. Slow and steady self-care, regardless of what others think and want - is the way!
From Dr. Bruno’s Article: Type A Behavior and Polio Survivors: “It is exactly because of everything polio survivors have already experienced that they will survive in spite of PPS. To do this, polio survivors need to read these words again and again and take in the full depth and breadth of their meaning:
“I am a polio SURVIVOR!”
If polio survivors can acknowledge the truth to their suffering they have survived, there is no question that they can cope with the past and make the physical and emotional changes necessary to survive and thrive with PPS.”
For more articles on this subject, look under the topic “Psychology” in Index of the ENCYCLOPEDIA of POLIO & PPS