Revised April 2007
“There were so many times driving to the Cancer Centre that I felt sick to my stomach. I remember thinking, “I can’t take anymore appointments, tests or meetings”; I just wanted to run and hide from everything”.
What is stress?
How you react to change can be called stress. These changes can come from feelings, situations, and people. Anything that causes a change in your life causes stress. It doesn't matter if it is a "good" change, or a "bad" change. Even “imagined” change is stressful. For example, if you fear that your cancer will come back, that can create stress.
Whenever you experience change, your body attempts to adjust or adapt. This takes energy. If the stress is severe, lasts for a long time or if there are many stressful things happening at once, your body starts to run out of energy.
Stress can directly and indirectly contribute to general or specific problems with your body and your mind. It can have a major impact on the physical functioning of the human body. Stress can impact your heart rate, breathing and respiration, blood pressure and can create more physical stress symptoms.
There are so many changes and challenges associated with cancer. The likelihood your stress will increase at various times throughout diagnosis and treatment is high. This increase could be connected to family adjustments, treatment symptoms or pushing yourself too hard if you are the caregiver.
When do I need to do something about it?
Whenever the level of your stress starts to interfere with your quality of life, you need to stop and consider if you need to address its impact. Quality of life is having the ability to live your life in a way that is healthy, enjoyable and meaningful to you. This is different for everyone.
What can I do about it?
Everyone experiences and handles stress differently. Three things we can all do to manage our stress are:
1. Learn to read your stress signs
You can learn to read your body signs for early signs of increasing stress. Noticing the early signs of change means you can decide what you want to do about it before you start feeling burnt out or unable to cope. If you aren’t sure what the signs and symptom may be, we have developed a fact sheet called Common Signs and Symptoms of Stress
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2. Exchange your stresses
Keep your stress level lower by "exchanging stresses". If a new stress comes into your life, then make room for it by eliminating or postponing another stress. This way, your total stress level remains low. Our natural tendency is to let our stresses pile up rather than exchanging them. So, if you are going to be driving in every day for radiation treatments, you may need to have somebody else in the family get the kids to school.
3. Use your tool box
Identify what tools you already use to handle stress.
Learn and practice new ways to manage the stress. Use these methods more during treatment. If you practice often, then when stressful times increase, you can relax more easily and manage those times better.
Check to see if they are working. Be aware of your stress and notice what is working and what isn’t.
Remember that you may need help from others to manage increasing stress.
Take a look at our fact sheets that deal with stress
We've provided some Fact Sheets that give you some "how to" techniques for dealing with stress:
Deep Breathing
Active Relaxation
Positive Thinking
Problem Solving
What's available in the cancer centre I go to?
Some of the resources that might be useful for you include:
What’s available in my community?
Your local library will have some good resources about stress and ways to manage it.
Your local community or recreation centre usually offers many workshops and courses that focus on relaxation and stress. Give them a call.