When you are given a diagnosis of cancer, you have two main problems: first, of course, there is the physical illness itself; and second, there is the terrible emotional turmoil you are thrown into by the diagnosis, along with all the fear and upset that it creates in you and those close to you. Many people with cancer have said that their physical problem has been manageable, but that it is their peace of mind that has been completely shattered. Your emotional needs and state of mind are just as important as your medical treatment, and it is vital that you receive the support and encouragement that you need. It is also important for you to identify and change the negative beliefs you have about cancer, so that you don’t risk buying into these beliefs and giving up before you even start.
You are up against three things straightaway. The first is your own negative beliefs about cancer. You may have heard upsetting stories, or have a view of cancer that is entirely based on the collective fear we all have about cancer in our Western society. Second, you have to face the reactions of those close to you, and all the upset and fears that they may be experiencing in relation to your diagnosis. Third, you may have gathered some statistics from your consultant on the average survival times with your particular kind of cancer. He may even have given you a prognosis in terms of the number of months or years that this ‘average person’ with your condition might be expected to live, based on the medical treatments available when the research was done – often many years earlier.
However, statistics never apply to individuals, and the course of your illness is unique to you. There are over 200 types of cancer and the way it develops or regresses is different in everyone who has it. Challenge your negative beliefs. Make sure you have really taken on board the encouraging information presented at the beginning of Chapter 1, and keep repeating it to yourself until you truly believe it! People do actually survive with every sort of cancer, and there is no reason why that should not include you.
Getting into the Right Frame of Mind
It has now been shown that there is a major survival advantage associated with getting yourself into a good state of mind, using positive coping strategies and learning how to use effective mind – body approaches that can reactivate your immune system and your body’s ability to fight back against cancer.
The way you react to a diagnosis of cancer comes down to four crucial factors:
• the beliefs you and others who influence you have about cancer
• the way you feel about your life
• how frightened you are about death and dying
• whether you believe in your own power to affect your health.
The hardest place from which to deal with your diagnosis and illness is where you are depressed, ambivalent about your life, fearful of dying, fearful of cancer and feeling impotent in terms of changing your state of health. But, I assure you, if you are prepared to look at and work with these things head on, with the right support, you can turn the situation around completely. The diagnosis of cancer inevitably throws you into a process of asking yourself and others the big questions about the meaning of life, the purpose of your life and what it is like to die. Certainly, if well facilitated, thinking about your relationship to living and dying can completely alter your ability to cope with your diagnosis and even turn it into a positive experience.
When you become aware of the many things you can do to enhance your chances of survival with cancer, your fear of cancer will start to diminish. You will begin to feel bigger and more powerful than the disease. You might even think of the diagnosis as a much needed wake-up call to enable you to go through a complete health and life revival, moving you step by step towards a life that really excites and fulfils you. As you do this, your attitude towards life will change and you will feel happier, spiritually stronger and more uplifted. The best thing is to see the illness as a message from your body that all is not well, and to use the illness as an opportunity to get your health and lifestyle onto a better footing.
By developing inner strength and thinking deeply about the true nature of life and death, it is likely that you will change your attitude towards dying, too. I do not say this lightly. It is said on the basis of having watched thousands of people with cancer go through the process of using this crisis of illness to completely transform their health and lifestyle. Strangely, a combination of becoming far happier and fulfilled in life, developing inner peace through self-help practices and looking at the question of death head-on almost always results in individuals being freed from their fear of dying. Often, with this release comes a profound new love of life and the realization that, previously, a great deal of life energy was being lost through a deep and somewhat unconscious fear of dying.
However, while you are going through your reaction to the news, it is very important to be aware of how you really feel and to find the support you need to express your emotions; then, as the shock subsides, you can work out how you are reacting and coping (or not) with the diagnosis. Your reaction can make a big difference to your prognosis, and some reactions will be helpful while others will not. There are also some underlying states of mind that can either boost or impair immune function. There is help available to change the way you are coping and to lift negative states of mind so that you can get into the best frame of mind for recovery.
The Psychological Basis for Remarkable Recovery
Caryle Hirschberg: The Role of Belief
In 1995, Caryle Hirschberg, a medical researcher, and Mark Barasch, a journalist who had cancer, published the findings of their Remission Project at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in America. Their book Remarkable Recovery was the first-ever publication on what it is that survivors of cancer have in common (rather than those who get cancer)!
In the questionnaire she sent to these survivors, they were asked which they felt were the most important of 30 self-help practices that had made them well. The practices ticked with the greatest frequency (by over 50 per cent of the participants) were:
| Prayer | 68% |
| Meditation | 64% |
| Exercise | 64% |
| Guided imagery | 59% |
| Walking | 52% |
| Music and singing | 50% |
| Stress reduction | 50% |
They were also asked which they felt were the most important psychospiritual factors in their recovery. Of the 26 items on the list, those reported with the most frequency (over 50 per cent) were:
| Belief in a positive outcome | 75% |
| Having a fighting spirit | 71% |
| Acceptance of the disease | 71% |
| Seeing the disease as a challenge | 71% |
| Taking responsibility for the disease and its outcome |
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