Stress

snowshoe05

Just seen PCP regarding being diagnosed with breast cancer and having osteoporosis and under alot of stress in last several months. Went over labs work everything good. Wants to put me on Paxil says it will take the stress level down. After reading about Paxil says you gain weight and some side effects and withdrawal is bad. Dont want to gain 40 or 50 lbs. 5 ft 2 and weigh around 105. Overweight and breast cancer do not go well together. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts? Doing thia chi, some yoga, walk 30 minutes a day. Surgery coming up on 2 weeks. Not sure want to deal with side effects of Paxil and then preparing for surgery. Maybe should wait until after surgery.

Yogatyme

As a retired mental health provider I can tell you that Paxil does help with depression and anxiety but there is generally weight gain and I had many pts who stated the weight gain was as depressing as whatever was driving their mood pre medication. I would encourage you to keep doing all the things you are doing, start taking deep breaths (like the yoga breathing) often and see how you are feeling after surgery. I think it is important to honor how we are feeling about what is happening to us (we should be feeling these things) and if you can manage it without medication it is one less medication w potential side effects. Going to a support group or seeing a therapist could also help. Hoping for a good path for you.

Moderators

Hi Snowshoe,

We're so sorry you're experiencing this. There's some great advice from Yogatyme above.

In addition, we wanted to point you to some articles from the main Breastcancer.org site that you may find helpful:

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Improves Quality of Life for Diagnosed Women
• Group Therapy Helps Ease Breast Cancer Stress
• Calm Your Mind, Boost Your Mood « Think Pink Live Green Column
• Specific Type of Stress Management Helps Improve Mood and Quality of Life Long-Term
• Podcast: What Is Mindfulness?
• Complementary and Holistic Medicine

We hope this helps and that you find relief soon!

--The Mods

snowshoe05

yogatyme

Thanks for the info. Going to support group. Made appt with a therapist which I think will help. She is a breast cancer survivor. I do have Lorazepam .05 dose which I split on in half at night. Helps to sleep. Took .05 this morning. I am pretty motivated but when talk about certain things I get a little teary eyed. Hoping this will becomes less as time goes on. Husband doesn't want to talk to me when like that. He is upset because I wont take Paxil. Cant seem to explain to him what it does to a person or when trying to come off it. I have faith I can get past this feeling. PCP said not depressed just stressed with things that are going on. So need to overcome the stress

marinochka

I was on lexapro before for different reasons and I am now because of breast cancer diagnosis. It works for me great, and I have never gained weight because of it.

I do gain weight easily, so it is important for me ...and i am very happy with Lexapro.

the only thing: you have to take it in the morning, because if i take it later in the day, i would not sleep.

during the day it would not make you sleepy and i have experience to stop it gradually after taking 6 months or even longer, no problem...

AliceBastable

I found it very helpful, right from the start, to deliberately schedule a lot of fun things between appointments, tests, surgeries, and treatments. Instead of finishing one appointment and having to think about the next, I'd have something good to anticipate. My fun outings ranged from concerts to picnics to day trips to short vacations, and not only did they break up the dreariness of several months of medical crap, they gave me great memories for later. When I look back on 2018 now, I think more about places I went than tests and surgeries.