Caring for Your Mental Health while Fighting with Cancer

Depression in numbers

According to data from the World Health Organization, depression is the fourth most serious disease in the world and one of the leading causes of suicide. 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression, including 83 million in Europe. The data presented by the National Health Fund show that almost 3% of Poles suffer from depression. Despite the fact that it is the lowest percentage in all European countries, experts warn that these statistics may be understated, as not all of them report their problems to a specialist. In Poland, women most often suffer from depression, constituting 73% of people treated for this disease. In the United States, the number of diagnosed patients is increasing by 20% year-on-year; this applies to people of all ages – from teenagers to seniors.

How to recognize the first symptoms of depression?

It is worth remembering that depression is not a temporary depressed mood, but a mental disorder that requires specialist treatment. This means that telling a sick person to pull themselves together will not bring results, and may only make the situation worse. Each of us has worse moments and states of low mood in life, but if they last for several weeks, we should go to a specialist, because it may be depression. The most common symptoms of depression include:

• Feelings of sadness, self-doubt, and depression;
• Emotional hypersensitivity (such as sudden breaking out into tears);
• Increase or decrease in appetite, weight loss;
• Insomnia or excessive sleepiness;
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, and making decisions;
• Pain symptoms: drug-resistant headaches, abdominal pain, neuralgia.

Depression in patients with cancer

Neoplastic disease is a huge stress factor that constantly accompanies the patient at every stage of treatment, from the appearance of the first symptoms, through diagnosis, cancer treatment plan, convalescence and until the end of therapy. It happens that, despite a complete recovery, a person who has had a difficult experience of having a cancer, still feels an increased tension. Often there are fears and fear of getting sick again. Both depression and anxiety constitute a serious medical problem in more than half of cancer patients, hindering oncological treatment and adversely affecting the course of the disease. They often concern not only the patient, but also his family and relatives.

How to self-help for depression?

Though fighting for recovery from depression is a specialist treatment, there are also some ways that can help us during this fight. It is worth being good to yourself and taking care of yourself, especially in the period when the body is facing the challenge of a cancerous disease and its treatment. Those are the things that you should focus on the most:

• A properly balanced diet, rich in protein and wholesome products;
• Physical activity – adapted to the condition and current capabilities of the body (for example taking a walk)
• Taking care of the right amount and quality of sleep – when we are nervous and stressed, this point may seem particularly difficult, so in addition to traditional pharmacological treatment, it is worth helping yourself, for example, by listening to relaxing music, meditating, visualizing yourself when you recover fully;
• Hydration of the body – the body of an adult human being consist of 60-70% of water, and its proper level participate in key processes that are taking place in the human body.

You should also remember, that you are not alone in this – it is good to join a support group for people that are in similar situation. Today's development of technology makes it possible to be in contact with people, that are separated from us by a long distance, but whom while having very similar experience, can understand and support us better.