Mental Health Awareness Month, which runs through the month of May, seeks to raise awareness about mental wellness and illness. These both play significant roles in the lives of cancer patients and their loved ones.
Physical and mental health go hand in hand. Cancer survival substantially improves with mental health treatment during the cancer journey. Below is some advice to keep in mind as you go through your cancer journey, whether you are a patient or caregiver.
Mental Health for Patients
The cancer journey can certainly take a toll on patients’ mental health. Both cancer diagnoses and treatments may lead to or worsen depressive symptoms. Depression rates in cancer patients are up to three times higher than the general population.
A recent study investigating US veterans with lung cancer revealed that cancer-related mortality rates decreased by about 25% after mental health treatment. Although the cancer journey can be a painful, unpredictable process, there are resources that patients can use to take care of their mental health and promote their physical well-being.
Mental Health for Caregivers
Caring for someone with cancer can be emotionally challenging, whether you grapple with a loved one’s diagnosis, help them go through chemotherapy, or prepare them for an operation. As you support them, you may end up setting your own needs to the side.
Caring for someone with cancer is a demanding process that can make it difficult to take a step back and evaluate your own needs. Still, it is important to take care of yourself and attend to your mental health.
4 Methods to Start Improving Your Mental Health
There are many ways to care for your mental health in the face of cancer. While many people think that mental health care is costly, it does not have to be expensive, and can simply involve taking smaller steps to change your daily routine. You do not have to spend much money to keep your mental health in check.
1. Reach Out for Support
A strong support system is important to keep up with your mental health. Support can come in many forms, including your family, friends, or a support group for cancer patients or their loved ones.
A therapist or psychiatrist can also be a helpful, judgment-free source of support. Although therapy can sometimes be expensive, there is also sliding-scale therapy, which adjusts how much you pay for therapy based on your income.
2. Use Meditation or Prayer
Some people find solace in their religious communities and the sense of purpose they can derive from organized religion. Additionally, a hospital chaplain can listen to you and help you think through your experiences. Even if you are not religious, a hospital chaplain can help you make sense of what is going on in your life.
3. Get Plenty of Sleep
Sleep is essential to restoring many physical and mental imbalances. However, cancer can often disrupt sleep due to the physical changes caused by cancer and chemotherapy. If falling asleep is difficult, meditation or relaxation exercises can help. Supplements, including melatonin, can also help, but you should consult with your physician before taking medications to help with your sleep.
4. Set Realistic Goals
This is one of the most important points, because your journey with cancer, as a patient or caregiver, differs. The stage you are at in your journey, your mental well-being before cancer, and much more can all affect your mental health.
Your Mental Health Requires Time & Attention
As a cancer patient, monitoring your mental health can be challenging. To keep certain aspects of your physical state in balance, you may find you have to keep many balls in the air.
The unpredictable nature of cancer care and the time treatment can take up in your schedule can leave you with little time to attend to your own mental health needs. Although it can be difficult to focus on your mental health when also dealing with cancer treatment, just remember it is certainly possible to achieve.
