AFTER CANCER: DECREASING FEAR
What Can I Do to Decrease Any Fear That My Environment Is Putting Me at Risk for Recurrence?
Get knowledge about the real risk to you from your diet, work exposures, and home environment. Then take any steps you can to reduce your risk. Our current level of knowledge holds more questions than answers about the risk of diet and environmental exposures. Yesterday’s advice is contradicted today, and today’s advice is contradicted tomorrow. Advice that may help your cancer risk may increase risks of other medical problems. At this time a practical approach is to
•follow advice that has been well substantiated and has withstood the test of time
• make changes that do not involve too many adverse effects (do not allow yourself to get malnourished by dietary changes that are too restrictive)
• make changes that bring you reassurance and comfort, not anxiety and strain
What Can I Do to Decrease My Fear of Recurrence If It Is Based on the Statistics about My Type of Cancer?
Statistics can cause you to feel increased fear of recurrence, even if they are favorable. That is because statistics present you with a specific time frame and a scientific-sounding percentage, such as 85 percent survival in five years.
Learn to interpret information to your advantage. If the statistics and your doctors indicate that your risk of recurrence is small, believe them and assume that you will do as well as expected. Remind yourself repeatedly that you can expect to do well and that recurrence is not likely. If your risk of recurrence is great, remind yourself repeatedly that statistics do not say anything about how you in particular will do. Find something special about you or your cancer situation that sets you apart from the statistical mass. Remind yourself repeatedly that you can be the one who does well.
If this sounds contradictory and calculating, it is because healthy survivorship is a frame of mind. Being a healthy survivor means learning to process the information around you in a way that is adaptive for your unique situation. What is reassuring and strengthening for one survivor, such as survival statistics, can be detrimental to another. Use what works for you.
Just as facts should lead to action that diminishes fear, use them to create an attitude that diminishes your fear. Train yourself to reassure yourself in a genuine way. If you have ready responses for your fears, you will gain more and more control over your fears. Reminding yourself that you know what to do (second opinions, researching options, mobilizing support) if you should develop a recurrence will eliminate the component of fear that is due to the sense of being totally overwhelmed and out of control. Remind yourself of individuals who flourished after being treated for recurrent cancer or a type of cancer with a poor prognosis.
You cannot change the statistics regarding your cancer, but you can change how you interpret them and their impact on your life. Use statistics to help you.
Is There Any Way to Eliminate the Fear of Recurrence?
Most people can never completely eliminate the fear of recurrence. However, you can diminish your fear and make it very manageable. You can tame your fear in such a way that it has very little impact on your day-to-day life. Accepting that there will be times of fear and anxiety, and that these times will pass, helps disempower the fear and minimize its impact.
Recognize your fear for what it is—fear. Reassure yourself that it is natural and acceptable to have fear, and then reassure yourself that you can do things to lessen and control it.
*163/32/5*
Related Posts:
Tags: Cancer