Shannen Doherty Shares This Common Post-Cancer Fear
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Shannen Doherty announced in April the “overwhelming” news that she’s in remission from breast cancer after undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, and a mastectomy. Now, the actress reveals that she deals with constant fears about her health due to her experience with the disease.
According to Doherty, every ache or pain she experiences sends her into a mental tailspin. “You find yourself going, ‘Oh, I have that pain too. Does that mean I’m getting bone cancer?’” she told Us Weekly. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wake up going, ‘Oh, is this normal?’ And then I sort of slap myself and go, ‘OK, you’re being silly.’ ”
Doherty also says that being able to rise above those thoughts is an important part of her recovery. “The thing about cancer is that you have to just keep plowing through because it can really sort of overtake you,” she says.
This type of anxiety is very common among cancer survivors.
“Once you’re faced with a life-threatening illness, the worry is automatic…you just think the worst,” Alison Snow, Ph.D., assistant director of Cancer Supportive Services at Mount Sinai Downtown Cancer Centers, tells SELF. Snow says that “pretty much everybody” she sees will have either regular worry about headaches or pains or will stress out about follow-up scans or imaging that are routine among patients who have beaten cancer. “Those times can be really anxiety-provoking for people,” she says.
Although it's not totally clear how often these persistent worries develop, Simon Rego, Psy.D., chief psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, tells SELF that it's not uncommon for former cancer patients to have some kind of fear around their health, even after they’ve gone into remission.
For someone with cancer, anxiety predictably spikes when they get their diagnosis, but it can also come back right after they finish treatment, Kristen Carpenter, Ph.D., director of women's behavioral health at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. For one thing, patients are no longer actively doing anything to fight the cancer when they're in remission, which can be a scary change after prolonged treatment. And, because they’re still so close to their battle, the anxiety from earlier in their treatment lingers, Carpenter explains.
“If you go through treatment and are in remission, it doesn’t erase what you went through,” Rego says. “For a lot of people, it can take some time to recalibrate.”
Not everyone will feel the same level of anxiety after going through cancer treatment.
Many people will experience fear and worry, but others may develop panic attacks, which cause sudden, intense fear followed by several uncomfortable physical symptoms, such as a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, or feeling dizzy or shaky, Lora Thompson, Ph.D., a psychologist with the supportive care medicine program at Moffitt Cancer Center, tells SELF.
Some cancer survivors may even have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their illness, which can contribute to anxiety. One of the diagnostic criteria for PTSD is feeling that your life was in danger at some point, Rego says, something that people can definitely experience with a cancer diagnosis.
Talking about your fears can help you work through them, Carpenter says, but the conversation may require talking to someone who isn’t super close to you. The idea of your cancer coming back may be too much for friends and family members, so they may be dismissive of your concerns, which can feel isolating. If you find you aren't getting the support you need, talking to a therapist may help.
It can also help to keep a journal and write down your concerns, Snow says. “Sometimes the act of writing what the anxiety is can help people,” she adds. And, of course, if you’re having frequent panic attacks, persistent trouble sleeping, are restless or tense, or are struggling to control how often you worry about cancer-related concerns, it's probably time to seek professional help, Thompson says.
If you’re having actual symptoms of an illness, that's obviously concerning. That's partly why patients are often given survivorship treatment plans that tell them the health signs related to their form of cancer that they should look out for, Snow says. You can also ask your oncologist to write something up for you if they haven't already.
But it's important to remember that the anxiety gets better. These worries tend to get less intense over time, Carpenter explains. And, eventually, you won't connect cancer to every little ache or pain.
This story originally appeared on Self.
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