Cancer affects every patient both physically and emotionally.
When diagnosed, you are automatically faced with statistics about your specific cancer, your individual chances of beating it, and the financial burden that the disease will take on you and your family.
If you choose “conventional” treatments, then your body will be subjected to physical therapies such as anticancer drugs and surgeries, which might kill the cancer and give you more time with your loved ones. Or, as is often the case, the “treatments” might actually make you sicker and sicker and give you less time, killing you faster than the cancer actually would have.
Due to its unpredictable nature, people diagnosed with cancer experience fear, anxiety, depression, uncertainty, and so much more. The quality of your life changes drastically as medical issues consume many of your waking hours.
Cancer can feel all-consuming as it tries to steal the light and air from your daily life.
A support system of friends, family, and experts is crucial to helping you fight cancer on the physical as well as the emotional battlefield. Thoughts have power – that has been proven by countless studies conducted by institutions around the world.
Keeping your thoughts focused on fighting cancer – and winning – is the first step to recovery.
Cancer’s Emotional Roller coaster
- Anxiety
Patients feel anxious as they wait for a diagnosis of cancer, go through various treatments, or worry about a second cancer site developing. Feelings of dread, sadness, vulnerability, and even panic are common.Anxiety affects your ability to be optimistic, it may cause you to miss appointments or treatments, and be unable to sleep. Even low levels of anxiety are counterproductive to health so learning to manage your feelings of stress before they get out of control is crucial to your success.Certain factors have been shown to heighten anxiety levels in cancer patients
– Fear of the unknown.
– Difficulty performing regular daily activities.
– Dealing with the side effects from various therapies.Many patients experience a relief of their anxiety when they speak to a mental health professional, religious leader, or social worker. - Depression
Depression is more than simply feeling “sad.”As many as 30% of cancer patients are diagnosed with clinical depression as they experience the stress caused by the disease. Fear of death, changes in daily routine, financial or legal concerns, grief, and intense feelings of sadness are normal reactions when diagnosed with cancer.Depression can also be caused by anemia, hormone deficiency, insufficient folate or vitamin B1, unbearable pain, or the side effects of cancer therapies.Emotional problems are also experienced by family members of those diagnosed with cancer. Open communication within your family as well and talking to a mental health professional or religious leader can help to relieve the very real (and often emotionally contagious) feelings. - Post-Traumatic Stress
Researchers discovered that cancer survivors often have intrusive thoughts, heightened arousal, and avoidance behaviors. These are symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Facing a life-threatening illness – even when it is beaten – is an incredibly traumatic event for the patient and their loved ones. Emotional stress can remain high for months, even years, placing you at risk for post-traumatic stress.Although clinicians have not yet developed a specific therapy targeting cancer patients with PTSD, the therapies used for non-cancer victims of PTSD are being implemented with excellent results.
Don’t be afraid to ask for support from your family and friends. Cancer can be terrifying and no one should have to go through the experience alone.
Never ignore feelings of emotional distress or they will steadily worsen.
There is no shame in asking for help. If you or someone you love is struggling with the emotional burdens caused by cancer – or other severe illness – it is important that you seek help immediately. The sooner you talk to a mental health professional, the sooner they can find the therapy that is right for you…and get you back to the positive life you deserve.
My wife has stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. We are doing everything we can to stop it. The alternative treatments cost us around $200 a week. We have slowed its progression but we cant stop it. I am watching helplessly as it consumes her. The cancer is all the way through to the chest muscle and has broken through the skin of her breast (google fungating tumor if you feel daring) . It feels like all I do now is work and deal with her cancer. She has to change her dressings twice a day. This can take an hour and last night took 1.5hrs. Then there’s all the supplements and special foods and the endless research.
Sometimes its hard to do anything. I feel debilitated from it all. I find it especially hard when she has hospital stays. They have no proper wound care facilities there and have no idea about nutrition so I have to prepare food and take it into her.
My wife is fighting hard but shes so tired. She can’t get out and about so well at the moment. Part fatigue and part the necrosis is not a pleasant smell, its there despite all our efforts to cover it up.
I have started watching the truth about cancer. hopefully I will get time to finish it.
I am a RN. Your wife needs the wound care nurses to come to her,,,there is a wound care nurse in public hospitals here,,,
light incense for odour control
Do u have services like home nursing there? Please get them through Govt agency
God bless you both ??✝️
I can’t find my login on here so I’m replying using this account.
My wife passed away in September this year. She had an infection and the doctors refused to treat it properly. It got out of control and she passed away in Hospice care. I’m left picking up the pieces now. Trying to juggle work and a 10 year old autistic daughter.
I didn’t think we had a wound care team here as there had never been mention of them until I wrote to Smith & Nephew asking for help and advice. They were great but it was too little too late when they showed up. And they were hampered by budget constraints. Health care in this country is free but sometimes its quite lacking as its under funded and hampered by bureaucracy.
It’s hard I know am fighting too, against Drs on chemo – it’s hard but follow TTAC. In UK Drs I find are more intergrative – hope U can find this in US. Penny
My darling husband died in 2015 of cancer It broke my heart,,literally,as now I have CAD,,valVe sclerosis,,,,of all valves ,,,prognosis bad,,I still have the experience of his presence in my bed at night,,as if he is talking to me,,it is so real,,,I miss him so much I wish I had died too