Mental health and cancer. How to overcome difficulties?

Cancer affects not only the body, but also the mind. Many people with this experience significant changes in their emotions and mental health. Sometimes they might an obstacle in everyday functioning, demotivating and depriving us of the will to act. So how do you deal with difficulties?

Psychological effects of cancer

A diagnosis of the disease can affect the emotional health of both patients and their loved ones. Common feelings you experience as a result are anxiety, stress, and depression. They affect many spheres of life — relationships with loved ones, work, and even daily duties. It is worth remembering that each person reacts differently to stressors and handles emotions in their own way. An important step in working through your emotions is to identify them.

Denial
The diagnosis is often difficult to believe and accept. For many people, it triggers a repression mechanism that provides time to adjust to the situation. Sometimes, however, this stage takes too long, making treatment impossible. In such a situation, the help of a psychologist is necessary.

Anger
This feeling is strongly related to fear, panic, frustration and also powerlessness. Showing them is extremely difficult, which is why many people keep them within themselves. Accumulating negative emotions is bad for health and can cause sudden outbursts of anger that affect the environment. Often such feelings cannot be released, even with the help of a specialist. However, you can learn to accept them and deal with them.

Fear
This is one of the strongest emotions that arises at the time of diagnosis. It is caused by malaise and concern for loved ones, work, finances, and the fear associated with the vision of death. One of the ways of helping you deal with fear is knowledge. It is crucial both before, during and after treatment. Awareness will prepare you for possible disease scenarios. When looking for information, one should search for reliable and proven sources.

Anxiety and uncertainty
The stress associated with diagnosis can cause a feeling of fear and mental discomfort, as well as a series of reactions that interfere with normal functioning. The anxiety resulting from stressors manifests itself, inter alia, in faster heartbeat, headache, lack of appetite, jitteriness, chest tightness, insomia. As a result, the effectiveness of oncological treatment may be limited. High doses of stress also increase the risk of panic attacks.

Loneliness
This is the emotion that comes up most often. Many people believe that they are alone in the diagnosis — they will have to face the disease themselves and no one understands what they are going through. One way to deal with this feeling is to join a support group, e.g., in the form of a Facebook group whose members have struggled with similar situations.

How to deal with stress?

There are many ways to deal with stress. This gives you the opportunity to choose the technique that will best suit your needs. For many people, yoga which has grown in popularity in recent years. A technique that draws a lot from yoga is autogenic training, which involves inducing feelings similar to meditation or hypnosis. The goal of the session is to lower blood pressure and slow down breathing, which are the body's natural relaxation response. Many people get great pleasure from listening to relaxing music. Compositions in this category are based on the soothing sounds of instruments and a slow tempo, as well as the sounds of nature.

More information in the article: Relaxation techniques — effective ways to de-stress

How to support a person with cancer?

The diagnosis may also turn out to be difficult for the environment. Many people, often unconsciously, withdraw from their relationship with a sick person, fearing to commit a blunder or simply not being able to find their way in this situation. For many people with cancer, one of the greatest fears is loneliness, exclusion and misunderstanding on the part of those around them. So how do you support a person with cancer? If we want to support a person close to us who is struggling with this disease, we should first carefully observe and listen. Help such a person can be of various types — from a simple telephone call to doing the daily duties.

Depression in cancer patients — how to deal with it?

Depression affects many cancer patients. It is very important to recognize changes in the psyche as early as possible and then seek help. It is accompanied, among others, by long-lasting feeling of sadness, nervousness, numbness, apathy, feeling helpless, difficulty concentrating, lack of interest in everyday life, thoughts of suicide. In addition to changes in behavior and emotionality, physical changes, such as sleep problems (insomnia or a constant urge to sleep), chronic fatigue, weight gain or loss, headaches, and digestive problems (e.g., diarrhea).

In many cases, trying to deal with depression on your own is doomed to failure. In a diagnosed disease — depression, drug treatment as well as psychotherapy. Often activities, such as walking or being surrounded by nature, are elements that can only support the fight against depression. They are in no way a remedy for it.

Psychological support for cancer patients

Scientists investigating this issue indicate that oncological treatment should also include routine psychological examinations. When reaching for psychological help, it is worth choosing a specialist in the field of oncological patient support, i.e., a psycho-oncologist. Contact with them usually involves an interview and diagnosis, as well as jointly defining work goals. The work model is adjusted based on the individual needs of the patient, which largely result from the stage of the disease and its course. The help of a psychologist results in a better understanding of emotions, a more efficient transition through treatment and the emerging difficult moments.