Post Traumatic Stress in Cancer

People experiencing Post Traumatic Stress due to one or more traumatic events, like having cancer, often feel like they’re crazy or weak because they “can’t get over it.” What we now know about trauma is that it’s less an emotional reaction than it is a physical one, even though its biggest symptoms are panic, anxiety and depression. What happens during the traumatic even is that all the systems in your body went into fight, flight or freeze mode, and your body and brain released a huge number of chemicals to help you be more alert and survive.

Sometimes, though, those chemicals interfere with the normal processing of events that the brain generally does on a daily basis. So the traumatic event doesn’t go to the back of your mind like the time you stubbed your toe did. The traumatic events stay “stuck” in the front of your brain, causing you to relive the images, smells, sounds that happened during the event. Anything can trigger that reliving, and panic attacks, even anger and rage attacks may happen as a result. The body and brain believe that you are actually living through it all over again and you’re not safe anywhere.

What we now know is that you were and are acting normally in response to an abnormal event. The events of war, rape, assault and other traumas are not normal events, but your brain and body responded in a totally normal way to protect you, but that now the events are frozen in your immediate recall memory. Post Traumatic Stress is a normal chemical and physical response to abnormal events.

Research shows that Post Traumatic Stress will slowly resolve for most people (as many as 85%) over time. In other cases, especially if you experienced physical injury as a result of the trauma, you may need professional help to recover fully.

Next time I'll give you some tips for dealing with Post Traumatic Stress.

All the best,
Judith Frost, MSW
www.cancer-coach.com