Nearly 1 in 4 Women With Breast Cancer Report PTSD...

...and the other 3 out of 4 have PTSD and DON'T report it!

We could have told them that without the study!

I am with voracious on this. 1 in 4 sounds really low. I feel like I have had a relatively easy time of the whole thing. I did not have any serious complications or side effects from all the treatment, my doctors are for the most part OK, I was treated in a clean and up-to-date hospital, I have a wonderfully supportive spouse and enough money to eat well, take off from work, join a gym and pay for extras like lymph massage. It looks like we killed the stupid cancer, for now anyway. 

It could all have been way, way worse, but all the same I have weird anxiety attacks in certain medical situations and I really doubt that the unpleasant psychological after effects of this whole experience will ever completely fade.

I think the numbers may be more acccurate if we use the accepted definition of true PTSD. While I certainly get anxious and stressed about my situation I don't think it rises to the level of someone such as a soldier who has witnessed horrific conditions.



Mayo gives this definition:



Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.

Chickadee,

There certainly different degrees of PTSD.  I find it unimaginable what soldiers sometimes witness.  I've worked with veterans who have taken years to return to "normal" after what they have witnessed.  Still it should be recognized that others do get PTSD for any number of different reasons.  I was diagnosed in the middle of a fight to keep someone in my family alive from a severe psychiatric disorder.  It was a horrific 24/7 battle.  Oddly, in a complex way, getting BC and going through treatment has sped up my recovery from PTSD. 

Soldiers are subjected to horrifying events which they should not be. I am not likening my situation to theirs but this whole experience has been horrifying and traumatic and the irrational anxiety and days of not being able to do anything but think of these events are linked to the trauma. I went from being an extremely healthy and successful 30 year old to facing a deadly disease. Telling my parents, who already have my brother who is severely mentally and physically handicapped to worry about, was on its own terrifying. There are degrees of this syndrome and I know that I suffered from it. I have been working and I am coming out the other side. I know many, many others who feel the same.