Nattering Nabobs of Negativity

William Saffire's coinage of former US Vice President Spiro Agnew's saying seems to fit my friend, whom I will call "Jan," to a T. Ok, sure, she had an abusive childhood and was out on the street fending for herself by her late teens. But, she managed to get herself through Vasser and later worked with high-level government contractors.

Sure, as a chief technology officer she has taken some pretty big career hits after the dot-coms became dot-gones. But, she still managed to buy a house in Texas and pay for a bunch of surgeries.

Sure, she's struggled with transgender issues all her life, but she's managed to complete many surgical and hormonal modifications so she now can work without people knowing she was born male.

Sure, she ballooned up to over 300 lbs. after her thyroid was destroyed by radiation surgery to treat hyperthyroidism, but she has a good doctor who is getting her stabilized.

I sure would like to drop off this "gloomy gracie" at someone's office and hypnotically cure her of her chronically morbid negativity. Forget glass half-full, I would settle for her seeing any water in her glass at all. Can hypnosis change someone's general attitude toward life and their body image, and motivate them to care for themselves? She's lacked a constructive childhood, so I'm not sure she has ever developed the ability to think optimistically. She has morbidly poor self-esteem and has vaguely voiced suicidal thoughts. Yet, somehow, she has doggedly survived and clawed her way through life and through gender transition and after dumping on me for an evening she'll call and ask if I want to go to a movie, never giving much weight to her gloomy complaints.

Suggestions?

We live within blocks of one another in San Diego.