Carcinophobia, that is, an obsessive fear of getting cancer, most often appears in people who have somehow encountered an oncological disease. For example, relatives or friends.
Doctor-psychotherapist “SM-Clinic” candidate of medical sciences, Potapova Tatyana Fedorovna told Zdorovye Mail.ru what we most often fear when we think about cancer.
1. The inevitability of death. This is the biggest fear that people experience. Although cancer is no longer a sentence. Many oncological diseases, especially if they were detected in the early stages, respond well to treatment. And those that do not give in, modern medicine can turn into chronic ones, you can live with them for many years, periodically undergoing treatment.
2. Fear of uncertainty. Most diseases have clear treatment and rehabilitation schemes. Another thing is cancer. This word hides dozens of different diagnoses with different approaches and forecasts. The patient and his family are under serious stress, floundering in a stream of conflicting information. They have a lot of questions about treatment protocols, the development of the disease and how they feel. That is why there is a feeling of uncertainty, which is quite difficult to withstand without slipping into depression.
3. Pity of others. Treatment and the course of oncological diseases often leads to changes in appearance: to excessive thinness or fullness, to hair loss and other troubles. Few people want to feel the stares, pity and embarrassing compliments of others.
4. Fear hurts. Often, tumors do not manifest themselves at all in the early stages: nothing hurts a person, and he lives, unaware of the danger. But the appearance of pain is a marker that the process has gone further. That is why it is worth visiting doctors for prevention, and not waiting for discomfort to make an appointment.
5. Job loss. People are afraid of becoming disabled, losing their income or seriously lowering the family’s standard of living, including due to the cost of medical treatment.
6. Problems in the family. This fear is more inherent in women: they are afraid of her husband leaving after voicing the diagnosis, so they do not go to the doctor until the last. Here, sincere and trusting relationships between spouses are very important, which will be stronger than any health problems.
Read also: How to reduce the risk of cancer – 11 steps
What 12 foods are rich in vitamin C – find out from the video:
2023-06-29 08:46:09
#therapist #explained #afraid #afraid #cancer
