Many people with cancer will feel worried or anxious about this situation feeling frightened and anxious is a natural reaction to an uncertain situation not knowing what is going to happen may make you feel irritable, angry, and frightened. Feeling that some of us have control over our lives makes us feel secure, this allows us to enjoy the things we do and make plans for the future. Being diagnosed with cancer can take away from that feeling of security, it can make you feel uncertain about what will happen but if it affects your ability to cope with day-to-day life help may be needed. Symptoms of anxiety may include not being able to concentrate irritability being easily distracted, restless and a constant feeling of dread you may also have physical symptoms including tense muscles, feeling short of breath, feeling dizzy, sweating having a dry mouth, being unable to sleep, feeling tired or digestive problems.
The difference between the two is Joseph, his mind is constantly racing and it's racing with negative thoughts. He worries about everything from saying the wrong thing to a friend to wondering if he will lose his cell phone to questioning if he is eating healthily enough he also thinks about the bigger problems like if his daughter is safe at school or how to make sure that she has a good future. These may seem like typical worries that everyone has but for Joseph, they consume his life and he is in constant anxiety and fear. Caroline also worries quite frequently, she is in a high-stress job that demands a lot of her time. She is also a parent the worry and stress are natural but sometimes she becomes overwhelmed and breaks down, becoming ill for a short period of time, and Caroline, and I both decide it is high time to go and see a doctor. They want to better understand and help, put an end to these unwanted feelings. The doctor tells Joseph he has been diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder also known as gad while Caroline was diagnosed with panic disorder. Before the diagnosis they never knew the difference between the two gad and panic disorder are both anxiety disorders with unique differences, gad is a mental condition that is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about everyday life events and the future, and panic disorder is characterized by panic attacks that can occur for seemingly no reason at all. They both can also happen during or directly after a traumatic event, there is not one single cause for gad. It is believed to be caused by a complex interaction of genetics brain chemistry, personality factors, and the environment in which the afflicted were raised. Traumatic experiences and stressful life events can also trigger a person to develop gad, the symptoms for gad are as follows:
constant high levels of worry about everyday things
or things that do not normally warrant anxiety.
Inability to let go of your worries even if you know they are irrational or unrealistic feeling restless irritable or on edge problems concentrating problems with sleep either difficulty getting enough sleep or sleeping too much being easily frightened or startled. People with gad may also experience the following physical symptoms:
high levels of tension in your muscles,
regular headaches and nausea,
low levels of energy or constant fatigue,
increased sweating trembling or heart rate.
Panic disorder is defined as having recurring and regular panic attacks often without any apparent cause panic attacks, bring about a sudden rush of intense fear and panic whereas general anxiety disorder is a slowly increasing and constant feeling of apprehension and unease about both the present and the future signs of a panic attack are intense feelings of panic and stress trembling and shaking sweating, increased heart rate difficulty breathing numbness or tingling in hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, chest pain feeling unreal or detached from yourself, due to the terrifying nature of a panic attack and the feelings of pain in the chest area many people experiencing them for the first time think they are having a heart attack or that their life is in danger. An attack can last from a few minutes to an hour after it's over. Some people recover quickly and never experience another, others may start to have them more regularly and the experience can be so frightening that they constantly worry about when the next one will occur the symptoms of general anxiety disorder and panic disorder can successfully be reduced or controlled using medication for gad therapy and counselling can be helpful in becoming aware when your worries are unrealistic or exaggerated along with instilling positive thoughts instead of negative ones for panic disorder medication and therapy can help manage symptoms so that you can calm yourself down when you feel an attack is coming on. Anxiety disorders can affect anyone no matter how strong or successful getting treatment, for anxiety does not mean admitting weakness but means choosing to live life on your own terms without letting those worries hold you back if you know someone who struggles with anxiety telling them to stop worrying or to get over it will not help oftentimes they know that they are overreacting and behaving irrationally however the fear panic and feelings of anxiety are still very real don't judge and let them know that you are there to support them without adding any additional pressure simply spending time with them and showing that you value them despite their anxiety will have a bigger effect than you can imagine this video is supported by better help which is a website where you can talk to one of over two thousand licensed therapists right away. when you have cancer you may feel sad at times you may feel this way at diagnosis during or after treatment this is normal and for most people, these feelings of sadness go away but for some people a low mood may continue or get worse this may mean they have depression and need help or treatment to be able to cope depression is common and can be caused by different things or may be related to cancer or it may happen for other reasons it can be difficult to know whether you are sad and worried about cancer or whether you have depression sometimes other people notice your symptoms and suggest that you might need help symptoms of depression are different for each person they can include feeling low and moved or sad most of the time losing interest in things you used to enjoy like your hobbies or social life changes in sleeping, eating or concentration, feeling helpless or vulnerable problems starting or finishing tasks thinking about self-harm or suicide. My name is alfred cook i'm 66 years of age and i'm suffering with prostate cancer when i was first diagnosed with cancer I just couldn't believe it and so your body just accepts it but then the following day and the follow the following morning when i woke and i thought oh dear what's wrong with me and then subsequent mornings from there on it took me a lot to get going and a lot to come to terms with what was really wrong with me depression is a very dark thing it's a very personal thing it's a thing that is very hard to explain you lose interest in everything you lose your appetite just nothing seems to give you a lift anymore and you wonder why because you know it should do depression is is taboo with a lot of people because basically they don't understand it they think if you're fed up you're depressed being fed up is nothing to do with depression whatsoever once you're in this bubble it's a job to get out of it it's a job to see out of it and it's a job to explain to anyone who's never experienced depression it's very important to talk to other people especially people that know about depression. I realized that I wasn't on my own with this depression feeling you know with having cancer it was all explained to me very very clearly very plainly that it would go away and indeed I'm feeling lots better due to the advice that I've had the first problem I wanted to get sorted out was the early morning depression that I suffered so I spoke to the psychologist and found out that fatigue and depression are quite normal with this condition that I have my health has improved I do a lot of walking I do about nine miles a week three miles at a time but fast walking and jogging and when I come in from that the depression is gone another thing with depression is you must keep yourself busy, you must keep your mind occupied, try and stop thinking about yourself. It's no good at all even small tasks washing up, cleaning up, gardening, washing your van anything to keep your mind off the depression, I take a light antidepressant pill once a day whether this is helping me or not. I don't know really but I still take it but I don't like to think I'm reliant on tablets. If you need your depression sorted out, the psychologist is there to help you, and believe me you're not on your own I understand fully where you're coming from and they're the ones to see you've really really got to go and see them because without them it's even more difficult to do on your own and you're not alone they know all about what you're going through for information help.
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