Join Acharya Shunya's Online Global Satsang on the first Sunday of each month. An Invitation to Enlightened Vulnerability
05:20 min
CLEAR ALL
“For your husband, your illness may have made him acutely aware of not just your mortality, but also his own.”
You not calling, as a friend, can actually compound the grief and loss they are feeling. Just pick up the phone, even if you get it wrong, just have a conversation and do your best. Your friend with cancer is still the same person they were before.
A cancer diagnosis brings a wealth of psychological challenges. In fact, adults living with cancer have a six-time higher risk for psychological disability than those not living with cancer.
Coping with cancer is hard. It is an emotional ordeal as well as a physical one, with known and somewhat predictable psychological responses. And yet, patients often feel isolated and alone when dealing with the stress, anxiety, depression, and existential crises so typical with a cancer diagnosis.
This compassionate book presents dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a proven psychological intervention that Marsha M. Linehan developed specifically for the impossible situations of life--and which she and Elizabeth Cohn Stuntz now apply to the unique challenges of cancer for the first time.
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Includes Frequently Asked Questions about how to communicate and cope.
Although being in a close relationship during the cancer journey can dramatically improve outcomes, the stress of treatment and the diagnosis itself can take a toll on couples, sometimes in a negative way.