Coming to Terms With Advanced Cancer: 6 Ways to Stay Positive

Receiving a positive cancer diagnosis from the doctor is a life-altering experience. If you have advanced or terminal cancer, it can be challenging to look on the bright side. Doctors often encourage cancer patients to be positive, but that isn’t always easy. It’s natural for you to feel upset and frightened when fighting this disease, and you might feel worried about your future.

What Being Positive Means

Being positive means you’re confident, hopeful and think of the good aspects of a situation rather than the bad. You can still believe or acknowledge the harmful elements of cancer while being optimistic about the future. Hope can help you cope during this time and ease some stress.

No one blames you for feeling discouraged or scared. In fact, feeling these emotions can be a sign of strength as it shows you’re aware of your situation and know the ramifications of the diagnosis. Feeling numb is more concerning than feeling anything at all, even when your emotions are challenging to handle or hard to process. You haven’t given up yet, and that’s good.

You can help yourself stay positive by thinking of what you can do at this moment instead of what you can’t, like researching treatment options and expressing your feelings.

6 Ways to Stay Positive Despite a Cancer Diagnosis

1. Search for Treatment Options Available for Advanced Cancer

Even in the late stage, there are options patients can take to relieve their symptoms or reduce the number of cancer cells in their body. Plenty of people have come back from late-stage cancer by using the following advanced cancer treatment options.

• Chemotherapy: Drugs administered by injection to kill cancer cells.
• Radiation Therapy: Uses radiation to shrink, slow, or kill tumors or cancer cells.
• Immunotherapy: Boosts the immune system to find and kill cancer cells.
• Surgery: Surgeons remove tumors through man-made incisions.
• Targeted Therapies: Can work to prevent further mutation of cancer cells.
• Clinical Trials: Doctors administer experimental drugs to the patient.

A combination of these treatments may be used on a patient at once or separately. Ask your doctor if any of these treatment options could be used effectively to manage cancer symptoms.

2. Express Your Feeling to Someone you Trust

Speaking to your loved ones about your recent diagnosis can help you relieve the pressure you’re taking on by yourself. Many cancer patients are worried that they’ll scare their family members, spouse, children, or friends if they talk about their fears, but they want you to keep them updated. They’re here to support you and speak to you through this difficult time.

3. Express Your Feeling Alone Through Exercise and Music

Whether you speak to your loved ones regularly about your anxieties or not, you’ll eventually have to spend time alone. It’s okay to get angry when you’re upset, start crying when you’re sad, or express your frustration to yourself in the mirror. You could try listening to loud music and singing or exercise at home to relieve this stress, anger, or frustration you’re feeling.

4. Stop Negative Thoughts at the Source

A good rule to follow is to stick to what you know is true, but it can be hard not to delve into disastrous thinking after a cancer diagnosis. It’s normal to have negative thoughts about your life or mortality after a cancer diagnosis, but if you’re beating yourself up, follow these steps:

• Replace negative words like “never” and future words like “should” out of your vocabulary. Instead of “I’ll never go on that vacation, I should have done it when I had the chance,” think, “I will be able to go on that vacation when the cancer is gone.”
• Practice coping with disappointment. Getting your cancer diagnosis made you feel awful, so take care of yourself by indulging in a hobby you enjoy or talking to someone.
• Identify negative thoughts when they happen. Sometimes our mind can get the better of us, and we don’t realize we’re disasterizing a situation. If you feel awful by a thought you put into your head (like, “I’ll never get better”), replace it with a positive thought.

Don’t prevent yourself from feeling a negative thought. At the same time, don’t let your negative thoughts rule your life. You can control your emotional reactions with a bit of practice.

5. Take Notes for Cancer Treatment and Positive Thoughts

Cancer patients have created the term “Chemo-Brain,” which points out how chemotherapy has negatively impacted their memory. You may experience this phenomenon as well, so write down every test, every meeting, and every phone call with your doctor, so you don’t forget any essential details. Keeping good records can help you make better decisions about treatment.

At the same time, notebooks are helpful for remembering positive things that happened to you during the week, so you can refer to them when you need them most. If a barista smiled at you or a dog was happy to see you, write that down! On your worst days, reading about the kindness of strangers can lift you up and make it easier for you to think about other positive moments.