Posts Tagged ‘stress management’

What is Distress?

Distress is a word that has lots of meaning.

Here, we use “distress” to describe unpleasant feelings or emotions that may cause problems for you as you cope with cancer and its treatment. Distress is also common in the family members and loved ones of people with cancer. It can make it harder to deal with all the changes in your life caused by cancer in someone you love.

Saying that you are distressed can mean that you feel:

* Sad
* Hopeless
* Powerless
* Afraid
* Guilty
* Anxious
* Panic
* Discouraged
* Depressed
* Uncertainty

The stress of dealing with cancer may affect areas of your life other than your feelings. It can affect your thoughts, your behavior, and how you interact with others.

Some distress is normal

A certain amount of distress is normal when you or a family member has cancer. Cancer causes distress, in part because of the attitudes and fears people have about cancer. For example, one of the big fears people have is that cancer means death. But the idea that cancer always leads to death is wrong. About 11 million Americans are alive today who have had cancer.

Of course, people are upset when they learn they have cancer — no matter how much progress has been made in treating it. There are many things that suddenly seem uncertain. People have fears and concerns about what may happen to their bodies. They worry how their loved ones will cope with their cancer and all the things that may happen to them. And they have fears about what the future will be like. People often wonder, “Am I going to die?” and “Why is this happening to me?”

Once you learn that you or a loved one has cancer, you may no longer feel safe. You may feel afraid, exposed, weak, and vulnerable. Such feelings often last through treatment and may be joined by anxiety and sadness.

It is normal to worry when you are waiting for the first treatment. “The worst time for me was waiting for that first chemo treatment,” said one patient. “Once it was over, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, I was OK. I felt better because I was finally doing something about the cancer.” Waiting for surgery is also a time of major concern. People often worry about the operation itself, but also about whether the cancer is growing while they wait for surgery. Fears about the changes in your body that surgery will cause can be a major source of distress.

Then there are concerns about work and home life and how they will change as a result of cancer. Insurance and financial issues often add to the worries.

Important about Stress

Nowadays, because of the overabundance of stress in our modern lives, we tend to ignore its signs and symptoms. Hence, the environment we are living now is constantly interchanging, so is our ability to respond to stress in a way that it affects the individual’s capability to cope within its environment. Stress -as a matter of fact, is a natural force, a reaction of an individual to the external world.

Oftentimes this is perceived as a negative experience, but, in a biological point of view it can also be a positive or neutral experience. People perceive stress as a physical, mental, or emotional strain felt by somebody that is usually caused by anxiety or more often by overwork. It may also cause such symptoms as raised blood or depression. Read more…

Alternative Tips to Avoid Stress

Without realizing it you can be rushing around your home as if you are still at the office and every task has to be done yesterday. It can be a challenge to wind down from a hard day at work. You need to notice when this is happening and take some steps to relax.

When you get dressed for work in the morning you also put yourself in the working frame of mind, changing into more comfortable clothing will help you change your frame of mind. First make sure that you change out of your work clothes when you get home, maybe even have a shower. Read more…