The miracles of modern medicine have created a new dilemma for millions of people with chronic illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and stroke. Prolonged illness, especially if potentially fatal, generates anxiety, tension and worry that may be more troublesome than the illness itself.
Those who have cancer are labeled "cancer patient" and often agree somehow to accept this new identity. Loved ones and friends treat you differently, not to mention employers, insurance companies and everyone else who hears the news that you have cancer.
You want to get on with your life. You want to feel and look normal. Your doctor has told you that you are okay now. But that's hard to believe when every trip to the doctor's office, even for a checkup, reawakens old fears. Anxiety will not disappear completely, but a way of thinking about and understanding the emotional stages cancer patients face will help you cope with the awareness of mortality that cancer evokes.
In our society, the prospect of dying makes most people shrink and hide from a significant part of life. But you have to think positively. You have to recognize the potential within each of us even during prolonged illness.
For some of us, the threat of death increases our creative energies. Friends and family ties can draw closer and long-standing conflicts can be resolved. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the prospect of suffering, life intensifies and takes on added importance. Time is telescoped, and greater sensitivity to the wonders of the world is often gained.
