Managing stress is especially important for those with cancer
Stress for Success
November 13, 2012
It’s vitally important for those with serious illnesses to manage stress well because chronic stress causes body tissue to adapt to higher cortisol levels - a stress hormone - so it loses its effectiveness in regulating inflammation. Unceasing inflammation aids the development and progression of heart disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, and cancer.
Unless you’ve experienced a serious disease, like cancer, you can’t understand the stress of it. But here’s a small peek into the life of my Symphonic Chorale “palo-alto,” Mary Ann Elder. Her experience with cancer doesn’t speak for others with cancer. This is simply part of her story.
Mary Ann said, “I was exercising when the first symptoms occurred four years ago. Then there was the crisis of going to the ER in intractable pain, the tests and then the news.” With no warning signs, she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive uterine cancer with a poor prognosis; it acts like ovarian but it’s not as treatable. Therapies routinely approved for ovarian are denied uterine cancer patients so she has also experienced the stress of fighting insurance denials.
Mary Ann was approved for SSDi very quickly after the first recurrence, which, she says, “was sobering since one criteria is having a terminal illness. I’m now in treatment for the second recurrence. Three of my online friends, diagnosed around the same time, have died in the last year.”
Mary Ann, a social worker, has practiced healthy lifestyle habits and sees herself as a strong person with a “can do” attitude. She proceeded to educate herself on her disease and its treatments.
“Early on I read O. Carl Simonton’s classic book, “Getting Well Again”. His premise is that stress contributes to illness and we need to change how we react to it to get and stay well. It helped me learn about the mind-body connection. I did his exercises, taking note of my stressors in the 18 months preceding diagnosis, analyzing my feelings and thoughts and discussing these with a counselor. I learned meditation and guided imagery techniques and used them faithfully. These helped me get through the initial treatment, which I weathered well.” She stayed active in hobbies and worked full time.
Mary Ann came to an early awareness: she didn’t want to own or be defined by cancer. She gave it a name and now refers to it as “Chester.” She chose to continue to live her life.
She talked about three stages of abuse victims’ recovery:
1. Victim;
2. Survivor;
3. Thriver;
It’s not good enough for Mary Ann to see herself as a cancer survivor, as cancer media promotes. She’s a thriver. When asked where she was now that she’s back into treatment, she said, “I guess I’m a victim again.” But these three stages create a road map for her: she may be a victim right now who needs to move into the next stage to “survive” additional treatment. Then she can move into the thriver stage again.
Knowing her, I have confidence she’ll do just that.
Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S. is an international speaker and a Stress and Wellness Coach. Order her book, Let Your Body Win: Stress Management Plain & Simple, at http://www.letyourbodywin.com/bookstore.html. Email her to request she speak to your organization at jferg8@aol.com.
