Comprehensive Cancer Centers understands a good place to build yourself back after cancer starts from understanding and addressing your experience.
Life after cancer treatment can be an adjustment for patients treated by Comprehensive Cancer Centers or other cancer centers. A good place to start to build oneself back up, can come from understanding that what they went through was challenging both physically and mentally.
As a patient it is important to acknowledge how difficult cancer treatment was to get through. When you give yourself credit for the full challenges of what you experienced, you can look for the specifics of the challenges, process them, and address them to build yourself back up.
From finding out you have cancer and working through your treatments, it is a complex process for patients to work through. While there is no singular approach to deal with a diagnosis and life after cancer, below are some suggestions.
Find Professional Help: Consider reaching out to a therapist or counselor experienced in dealing with critical or chronic medical illnesses. They can provide guidance and support tailored to your specific situation, as well as help you recognize the enormity of what you faced with cancer.
Focus on Support Systems: Surround yourself with supportive friends, family, or a support group. Sharing feelings and experiences with other people can be healing. Some have found it helpful to connect with groups, online for example, who have faced the same cancers and illnesses.
Prioritize Self-Care: It’s important to identify and prioritize self-care activities that help with mental and emotional well-being. This can include exercise, journaling, meditation, cooking and most important of all, getting sufficient sleep.
Get Educated: Learning about life after cancer is a great way to recognize and address its effects. This process can help one understand their own reactions to situations and behaviors that will help you navigate the healing process.
Realistic Goals: Once you have an idea of what’s important for you to get back to normal, be sure to write that down and figure out how to break down those goals into manageable steps. Celebrate your small achievements along the way, and be patient with yourself and others.
Get Creative: Many people post-cancer treatment finds great comfort in taking part in creative activities. This can include drawing, painting, writing or learning (or picking back up) a musical instrument.
(Re)Establish Routines: Look back to what you may have enjoyed before treatment and consider whether or not to reintegrate those routines in to your life. You can also think about new routines you want to add to your life. That can include something as simple as brewing special coffee at home to replace you daily coffee shop runs.
Mindfulness and Meditation: Many people learning to live life after cancer find rewards in practicing mindfulness, meditation, or relaxation exercises. These routines can also help you find calm and gratitude.
Watch for Triggers: There are things that will trigger memories of diagnosis and treatment. Maybe you found out you had cancer and went to lunch afterwards. That place you went may remind you of that time. If being there, or even driving by there, bothers you, you can avoid that until you’re ready. Big triggers come in often small packages. Be mindful of them to avoid getting upset, or work towards overcoming them.
Celebrate Yourself: It is important to celebrate your triumph over cancer and always keep in mind what you overcame and that you’re able to get back to the life you want due to your diligence and focus as a patient.
These suggestions are not a substitute for therapy or getting professional care focused entirely on your journey. If you, or someone you know, is struggling consider reaching out to a mental health professional for that kind of personalized guidance and support.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers Can Help
Physicians at Comprehensive Cancer Centers provide a variety of treatment options for cancer including chemotherapy, radiation therapy and clinical research. To schedule an appointment with the team at Comprehensive, please call 702-952-3350.
The content is this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.