How Cancer Patients Should Cope with Psychological Stress

Stress is normal to people who suffer from cancer. In fact, the degree of psychological stress is high that it has an effect on the quality of their lives. They need to find approaches to deal with this or it will only add trouble to them. Here are a few of them:

1. Family and social support

Cancer patients demand help of their own families for support. They need them so as to deal with their lives - from treatments to prospective recovery. They really need their loved ones to drive for them and go with them to the hospital and during surgical procedures. These simple things will make them feel positive even with the number of treatments because they have their families in their battle against the disease. Otherwise, if some people who have no blood relations will do these for them, they will truly feel alone and worse, find no meaning to keep on.

Precisely the same support should also come from the people around them - their friends, co-workers or schoolmates, neighbors and even the whole community where they live in. This will make them feel socially connected; hence, they will still love to mingle with them even with their condition.

2. Talk therapy

Numerous Japanese researchers made a review of the outcome of half a dozen of studies with more than 500 patients with cancer and suffering from depression as the respondents. The result: Talk therapy proves to contribute in reducing or removing signs of melancholy. It is for this same reason that this method somehow builds link with several efforts in finding alternative cancer treatments.

Talk therapy primarily consists of interpersonal therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT. CBT looks at the patterns of unfavorable thoughts and how they impact the moods of the sufferers. The therapist will assist them along the way as he or she will help them learn how to turn these massive doubts, as well as behaviors, into something positive. Interpersonal therapy, on the other hand, lets the therapist to confirm how individuals with cancer communicate and mix with others. He or she will assist them in bringing positive changes in order to grow their personal relationships with others.

3. Exercise

Various research shows that increasing the physical activity of cancer patients reduces the risk of recurrence of cancer and paves the way for longer survival. Specifically, it cuts down on incidence of fatigue, advances self-confidence, lightens mood, offers positivity and lowers the potential risk of having another medical condition like diabetes. Patients with this disease can start with stretching to promote mobility. If allowed by their doctors, they can perform some aerobic exercises like swimming and jogging. Weight training is also suggested to some afflicted persons because they are necessary to their general health. Through the advice of their oncologists, they can search for exercise experts to make the appropriate workout program for them.

In the efforts of cancer patients to find alternative cancer treatments, they come across strategies that will help them relieve cancer symptoms and stress. These bring positive changes in their lives thereby improving their quality of lives.