Rethinking our Response to Stress: PTSG

PTSG. I know you all think this is a typo. It is not. I will get to it. Read on.

We all know that life experiences can lead to PTSD. The symptoms of PTSD including anxiety and depression amongst others, can creep up seemingly out of nowhere. You may be aware of triggers that take you back to a traumatic time in your life such as when you heard the words “you have cancer”. The feelings can be triggered by scents, tastes, a particular date, or you may not even know what sets them off. I hope that if you do experience PTSD, you find or have found the support you need through therapy, medication, support groups, exercise, family, and friends. Remember it is a process. It is a rewiring of the networks that lead you to this negative associations.

If your PTSD comes from your cancer diagnosis, try to think about how far you have come in your treatment. Remember how you showed your resilience in getting through each step. Think about how you are an example of the strength of the human spirit. And how you are setting this example for others. Think about how you appreciate the small things and how you do “stop to smell the roses” now. Think about how you reconnected with people after being too busy. Think about how friends, acquaintances and new people in your life have rallied around you – some unexpected. Think about how you may be re-evaluating your priorities.

A patient of mine once said that with her diagnosis came the realization that this was nature’s way of making her slow down. She was on a high-speed train her whole life and felt that she needed to do everything for everyone all the time. She always refused help or people assumed she was so self-sufficient that she did not need help. Her cancer diagnosis forced her to slow down. She realized there were so many stops on the train that just went by in a blur and that she was now enjoying. I am not talking about regret. That is not a useful emotion in this situation. But realizing and forging a different, unplanned, and daunting path is a new beginning. Life experiences can be categorized as good or bad. You can be a glass half-empty or glass half-full type. You can see your diagnosis and prognosis and say, “why me” and it is a completely understandable response. You can read statistics and think there is no hope or say, others make it. Statistics show that. “Why NOT me? Why can I not be in the group that survives?” Think of your cancer journey as Post Traumatic Stress Growth. PTSG.

Rewrite your narrative.