Breast Cancer Anxiety and Stress
The National Cancer Institute PDQ cancer information summary about Anxiety and Distress states the following:
Anxiety and distress can affect the quality of life of people with cancer and their families.
People living with cancer feel many different emotions, including anxiety and distress.
- Anxiety is unease, fear, and dread caused by stress.
- Distress is emotional, mental, social, or spiritual suffering. People who are distressed may have a range of feelings, from sadness and a loss of control to depression, anxiety, panic, and isolation.
People with cancer may have anxiety and distress when:
- Being screened for cancer.
- Waiting for test results.
- Hearing a cancer diagnosis.
- Being treated for cancer.
- Worrying that cancer will recur (come back).
Anxiety and distress may cause problems such as nausea and vomiting before each treatment, having more pain than usual, and sleeplessness. People may decide to delay cancer treatment or miss check-ups when they feel anxiety and distress.
Even mild anxiety can affect quality of life for people with cancer and their families and may need to be treated.
People who are in distress can be helped by different kinds of emotional and social support.
Studies have shown that people who are having trouble adjusting to cancer are helped by treatments that give them emotional and social support, including the following:
- Relaxation training.
- Counseling or talk therapy.
- Cancer education sessions.
- Existential therapy (focuses on the human condition, including what humans are capable of, as well as their limitations).
- Social support in a group setting.
Benefits from these therapies include having lower levels of depression, anxiety, and cancer- and treatment-related symptoms, as well as feeling more hopeful. People who have the most distress seem to get the most relief from these therapies.
Read in full National Cancer Institute
Updated 2024