Did you know that psyche is involved in cancer process?

Anonymous

Did you know that psyche is involved in cancer process?

santabarbarian

The danger of this approach is it can feel like "blame the victim"... which it should not. If we blame the stressed victim, we *increase* their stress!

However, as a person who works with foster youth, I am WELL aware of the connection between childhood traumas/toxic stress and later adult diseases (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc). The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACEs study, done by Dr Vincent Fellitti at Kaiser in the 90's) has made that connection crystal clear.

An abused child is in "fight or flight" much of the time -- which means a lot of adrenaline and cortisol coursing through their body. In the animal kingdom 'fight or flight' is meant to be brief-- a surge of adrenaline/ cortisol (to run from a predator) that's swiftly resolved when safety is reached. In an abusive home, safety is never reached and the cortisol is unremitting. This is not what nature intended. It is corrosive on our biophysical systems AND our coping systems.

So I imagine this connection is very real -- but it is not as simple as "de-stressing" or being more self-loving today, to undo the damage of a lifetime of cortisol. And the proactive approach that he advocates is extremely hard for a formerly abused person to achieve. Abuse effects self-efficacy which is the feeling you can improve your own situation through effort. Fatalistic thinking is a common legacy of early life abuse. As is poor self care.

Also, a very big omission in this theory: what about the environmental and genetic factors, that have nothing to do with trauma or psychological stress? Stress is not the ONLY source of systemic illness.

Also, what about health habits like smoking, or working with heavy metals or pesticides?

I think it would be better to say toxic stress can produce such high amounts of cortisol/ adrenaline that they can be carcinogenic just as other poisons or toxins are.

WC3

I removed my post, per forum rules, because I made it thinking this thread was in the "Recommend Your Resources" forum.

edj3

I had a long post ready to go and then I read Santabarbarian's post and will instead just say co-sign a million.

MountainMia

"A tumor is just the tip of the iceberg. Its unseen basis is inability to cope with the problems of life, psychological traumas and intrapersonal conflicts, arising from unmet needs. Aggravated by repressed or suppressed negative emotions, this leads to chronic psycho-physiological stress, which suppresses the immune system and other systems providing anti-cancer protection. The result is an existential crisis, leading to the loss of the will to live and initiating a program of unconscious self-destruction."

Yes, this is blaming the victim. The "inability to cope" is the source of cancers, apparently. No wonder those hysterical women get cancer!

To me, this looks like the OP joined up in order to sell books.

AliceBastable

MountainMia, yes! There's a similar, older post touting the same crap.

MinusTwo

Agree - NOT YOUR FAULT !!! Not my fault either. There should be NO blaming.

SimoneRC

I shall let me pathogenic gene mutation know about this one off report;-)

Maryjv

Well stated santabarabarian!!!

edj3

SimoneRC you tell that pathogenic gene mutation what's what!

Peregrinelady

“Predisposition in the womb?” Seriously?

blah333

So is heredity.... my grandmother, mother, and me all got breast cancer and we have very different personalities and approaches to life. I thought my healthy lifestyle/diet and not working stupid meaningless jobs would help me stave off cancer and protect me, but no. But thanks for the lecture about how my psyche did this. This post seems written by someone who has never had these experience, as does this book. I tried to answer all of the questions about "why" and calculate all the things I did wrong, but at the end of the day - I now understand that there are a lot of things that happen for no reason at all. Things happen that are random, and that happen regardless of your own choices or attitudes. This book sounds condescending. And needing to form explanations "everything happens for a reason" is just a form of wanting to control a situation. But real maturity includes understanding that many things are outside of our control.... not going to try and grapple what's wrong with my psyche. There are psychotic people, psychopaths, hateful people running around who are are in fine physical health. Please take these garbage posts/product promoting trash somewhere else.

1redgirl

Well, I do blame myself. The person that smoked and got cancer should blame themself for not caring about their body. I let high levels of stress over decades eat away at me which I knew was happening. I just did not stop it. I took on way more than I should have. I said yes too often. I let family stress fester for most of my life. It is why my animals became so important to me and how their passing left such a void. Nobody but me can fix that. We cannot stop some bad things from happening to us, but we can choose how to react to it. I did poorly there.

However I am not mad. So my blame is more acceptance of my failings. I do not dwell on it, but I certainly have changed internally. The other night I had to make what I knew would not be a positive phone all. I knew a lecture was coming. So when that person began that lecturing, I cut her off and asked to change the conversation otherwise we are done. I love that person, but she is a bully. It worked. We changed the subject and things were fine. I should have done this decades ago. I refuse to hang around negative people anymore. I cannot change them, and it just upsets me internally.

I have a lot going on in my life right now. Normally I would be unable to sleep from worry. I worry about it for about 10 min and then keep busy doing other things that make me laugh or I find interesting. How I am responding to things that normally would bother me a lot, has drastically improved also because my diet is so different. I ate a lot of sugary items. No more. So frankly I just do not get triggered as I would before. A plant based diet seems to agree with me.

My 2 cents.

Krose53

I'm curious why you don't have your diagnosis listed. Is there a reason you only post to push this book and author? Vicitim blaming isn't helpful. It seems with this theory, every holocaust victim would have been riddled with cancer.

MinusTwo

Interesting that there are now two threads going with this same ridiculous stuff. I'm posting on the other one because I'm SURE that stress caused my tooth decay - and NOT the candy bars, or cokes, or cookies or not flossing. Sigh. Yeah, right !!!

All of us agree we should try to chill & do healthy shit on a regular basis - but we did NOT do cause our breast cancers - whether by stress or any other way.

blue22

The original post is toxic.

Thank you for the victim blaming.

If stress alone causes cancer, humans would not exist.

AliceBastable

Blue22, exactly!

Rosiecat

Blaming breast cancer on stress or our management of stress does sound a lot like victim blaming. My doctors asked me about lifestyle, HRT, family members who might have had breast cancer and so on, however, not a single medic asked me about stress. I think santabarbarian has it nailed. The causes of breast cancer are many. Stress may be an indirect factor, but genetics, an older population and exposure to modern toxins seems to be a more likely cause, particularly as breast cancer rates are rising rapidly. In 1999 one in 9 women were likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. The figure is now one in 8.

Stress could be a contributory factor in so much as women who are under severe stress may adopt unhealthy lifestyles to help get them through. However, according to my research (Google!) links between cancer and stress are unproven and according to some studies unlikely.