Some people react to the knowledge that they have heart disease by putting on a brave face, underplaying what has happened to them, refusing to acknowledge that there is anything wrong or being falsely optimistic. Psychologists refer to this type of reaction as denial.

Denial is the mind’s way of coping with the initial shock of any adverse event, which is why it is often common immediately after people have had a heart attack. When I started to get all these strange symptoms I half thought that there was something wrong with my heart,’ Gill says. ‘When I went to the doctor I joked that something was wrong with my heart and in the office a few times when I came over strange I said I think I’m going to snuff it, but at the same time I didn’t really believe it.’

Clive says: ‘With angina, psychologically you are fighting to say that it’s not there. It’s important to me to deny it, because otherwise I get very paranoid and frightened.’ As Clive points out denial can be a way of refusing to let an illness get the better of you. It is only if you are finding it difficult to take medical advice that this can become more problematic.

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