Did having a stressfull life cause your breast cancer?

wallycat

The only way to know is to relive it without stress and see if the same outcome occurs.

My mother went through a HORRIBLY stressful life (world war II/concentration camps, blah, blah) and died in her 80s without any cancer. My father, being Jewish, during that time and losing most of his family, also very stressful and no cancer.

Anonymous

We will never know for sure. I don't like the idea of blaming myself for the dx. I could not avoid the stress I've had in my life, because...it's LIFE. I do like to believe that because I did try to take care of myself as best I could, the dx wasn't worse than it was.

Claire in AZ

juneping

i read the book Anticancer a new way of life.

In the book it says stress itself has no correlation with cancer. But it's the way we feel about stress, it's that HOPELESSNESS that weakens the immune system.

I too went thru a stressful time and felt very depressed from 06-07....had chronic insomnia. And I truly believe those were the cause.

Allyme

Stress could be a cause of my bc. I have no family history of cancer of any kind in my family. My genetic testing was negative. I ate healthy and exercised regularly. I did have a child, who I did breast feed. I thought I was doing everything right to avoid this type of diagnosis.

But my job has always been in the medical field, and I deployed to Iraq as a medic. I was dx with stage 4 bc within 4 years of returning from my deployment to iraq. Do I think that deployment may have had a hand in my dx? Perhaps, it was a very stressful time for me. Others have also been dx with cancers after coming back from deployments. It may be coincidence, but we can't know for sure.

Would i still have bc if I hadn't deployed to Iraq? I'll never know. I'm not even sure I'd like to know the answer to that at this time or not. Hope this helps some.

farmerlucy

This is very interesting. Anecdotally I have talked to several ladies who had gone through major stress with life threatening illness of a loved one then turn up w BC. My mom had a terminally ill child in her mid twenties and Bc at 27. Me not so much re: stress. But then again my Bc didn't show up til 51

Chloesmom

I beliwve it is a catalyst. As a child I was sexually abused and have lived for 45 years in a frozen fight and flight state. Only in he past 2 years have been able to acknowledge and voice this. It certainly hasn't helped. Have always had lousy immunity. Anxiety can be a big issu

Bren-2007

Mostly, I don't think stress had a lot to do with getting cancer.  I could be wrong as I went through a very ugly divorce and move to two other states just before I was diagnosed.  Maybe stress was the catalyst ... who knows.  One thing I do know, I am not in any way responsible for the fact that I got breast cancer. 

(((( chloesmom ))))

hugs

Bren