Fear of cancer, carcinophobia, psychiatrist advice
Today, in the media, reports have begun to appear quite often that this or that star has died of cancer. Zhanna Friske, David Bowie, Alan Rickman … People involuntarily begin to fear this serious illness. There is even such a mental illness – cancerophobia (fear of getting cancer). How to get rid of it, the editorial office of Woman’s Day was told by the psychotherapist of the clinic K + 31 Yulia Plyukhina.
There has really been a flurry of scary messages lately. In the past three days alone, the world has lost David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Rene Angelil to this disease.
During this summer we lost Zhana Friske, and then we learned that Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Andrei Gaidulyan, Zurab Sotkilava, cyclist Ivan Basso and Viktor Tsoi’s father faced a serious illness.
Here, even without being an alarmist, you will think: what is happening? Is this the plague of the XXI century, from which no one is immune?
First of all, when you read the information that a star died of cancer, you do not need to immediately try on this situation for yourself. You need to understand that there are no two identical people in the world, each person is individual, each has an organism with its own characteristics. And if someone died from a terrible diagnosis, this does not mean at all that the same will befall you. Common sense must be included.
Secondly, you need to think: “What can I do to prevent this from happening?” And it turns out that the main thing is to monitor your health. And this means that every person should make it a rule to consult a doctor once a year, undergo a routine preventive examination, take a blood test, do fluorography and x-rays of the lungs.
It is also very important to eat right, observe the daily routine, and play sports. In addition, each person himself knows where his vulnerability is, what chronic diseases he suffers from.
And if, for example, he has gastritis, then he must visit a gastroenterologist and do the appropriate examinations, and then follow all the recommendations of his attending physician. And just being afraid is a waste of energy.
Thirdly, proper nutrition plays an important role. Food is a kind of building material for our body, and our health largely depends on the quality of this material. Therefore, you need to think over your daily diet so that it contains a balanced amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, and only high-quality foods make up its basis.
Fourth, you need to stop worrying. An adult should understand that anxiety and constant stress just provoke the development of cancer. In a stressful situation, the adrenal glands release adrenaline breakdown products into the bloodstream, which negatively affect the body, increasing the risk of malignant tumors.
As a result, a person is in a vicious circle: he is worried that he will develop cancer, and does not notice how he himself contributes to this. Yes, there is also a factor of hereditary predisposition to this disease. We all heard on the news how a Hollywood actress performed breast removal surgery because there was such a case in their family.
But these are rather extreme measures. Even if you have a genetic predisposition, don’t panic. You need to understand that fear takes a lot of energy and strength from us. It makes no sense to think that you can get sick with it. It is better to make every effort to prevent this from happening, and to be able to get distracted from these thoughts – to play sports, yoga, dance, draw, sculpt from clay, find a favorite thing that would distract from negative thoughts.
Fifth. When you have something sick, you don’t need to immediately search for symptoms on the Internet and diagnose yourself. There are doctors for this. Contact your doctor with your problem, go through the examinations that will be prescribed for you, and only then draw conclusions.
Everything in the body is interconnected. And very often what we fear happens to us. Some diseases have a psychosomatic nature. So, people with an increased level of anxiety most often develop serious diseases on a nervous basis.
There was even a scientific study, as a result of which scientists proved that women with an increased level of anxiety are susceptible to breast cancer twice as often as others.
Sixth. You need to understand that death is inevitable. But, thinking about it constantly, we worsen the quality of our life, make our life faded. You need to be able to live every day of your life, realizing that it is unique and will not happen again.
Everyone has their own term, and we cannot change anything. But we can make every effort to maintain our health, to live our life comfortably and joyfully.
You need to fill your life with positive emotions, do more good and be able to enjoy every day. And with our unfounded fears, we take away from ourselves today.
Seventh. You need to love yourself and your loved ones. You need to not be isolated in your fears. A person’s motivation plays a very important role. Each doctor will be able to give you dozens of examples when a patient recovered largely due to his positive attitude and cheerful spirit.
Tearing and mourning yourself will not help in this situation. And when a person loves life, when he realizes that he needs to live for the sake of his loved ones, the body turns on hidden resources, and the person recovers.
You need to be able to adequately assess the situation and look at your fear from the position: what can I do to prevent this from happening? Follow simple rules – see a doctor, eat right and monitor your mental health.
And be able to put an end to your fears. If you can’t stop your pessimistic imagination, then this is already a reason to turn to a psychotherapist.