Taming fear is one of the most important tasks you can tackle to help yourself and those around you after completion of cancer therapy. There are many ways to help tame your fear of recurrence. Some will help you more than others. Different things will help at different times. Find out which ways help you tame your fear. Some things that help include
•obtaining knowledge about your situation so that you do not worry about things that are not likely to happen
•obtaining information about how to minimize your chance of recurrence by modifying your diet, exercise, medications, and whatever else applies to your situation
•obtaining knowledge of how to participate in the surveillance of your condition (what things to look for that could indicate a problem)
• being willing to have potential problems evaluated
• distracting yourself from the fear by focusing on today and on things you enjoy
• accepting the reality that fearful thoughts will occur
• training yourself to shut off the fearful thoughts (“If I have a recurrence, I will deal with the circumstances at that time”) or to distract yourself from fearful thoughts by thinking about something pleasant or neutral
•reminding yourself that recurrence is not a death sentence; that you were treated successfully before and can be treated successfully again; that although the idea of repeat cancer treatment may be overwhelming right now, you could handle it again if faced with recurrence; and that advances make cancer treatment more effective and tolerable every year
•ventilating your fears to appropriate others, such as cancer survivors, loved ones, clergy, or professional counselors.
Fear will not help you today or tomorrow. Untamed fear ruins good times. The taming of fear frees you to live a better life.
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