Holeinone, you are not alone, I am a very proud Athiest too Should you feel like it there is a Facebook group you could join, for Breast Cancer people who don't believe in God. You could join "Breast Cancer Atheist Support Group" I don't know how to post a link but if you have Facebook it is easy to find

I am so glad I found this group. I too am an atheist, living in the Southern bible belt...it is not easy. I don't celebrate Christmas, but my coworkers who are all mostly christian insist on making me a part of all the goings on. I have reminded them that I am not Christian, but otherwise have been relatively quiet about it, but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, you would not believe some of the things people said to me.

I had one woman tell me that God gave me breast cancer as a punishment for not believing in Jesus. I asked her if God punishes all the Jewish and Muslims like that because they don't believe in Jesus either and she told me yes. She also told me the only way that I would be able to survive this would be to accept christian beliefs. Oh my goodness. Another women told me that God let this happen for a reason and that it would make me a stronger, more religious person for having gone through it, and that it would change me for the better.

I do wish they would just keep their opinions to themselves. I have been coping and dealing with this just fine and it has not changed me as a person. I am still me!

I had a biopsy a few years ago. A friend of mine told me she would pray for me, and even though I don't personally pray I usually appreciate the sentiment, so I think there is no harm in saying thank you for the effort since believers usually mean well. Then when the biopsy results came back negative, she sent me an email, "See, prayer works!" That was not appreciated at all and left me annoyed. Did she seriously think it was malignant until she prayed? Apparently so.

The irony is that I most likely did have my cancer at that time in the opposite breast, that hadn't been discovered yet because it never showed up in mammograms. I guess she didn't pray hard enough or wide enough. I haven't mentioned my diagnosis to her. I would have to say, "No thank you, please keep your failing prayers to yourself!" LOL

Welcome back Flannelette.

My mother died when I was 4yo and they told me the 'God wanted her in heaven' version. Then in Sunday school, when they talked about God's love, I thought 'he sure has a funny way of showing it'. None of it ever made sense to me.

Split-bean, Love the poster!

Hey All, I'm posting again due to a desire to vent plus a bit of insomnia due to crashing (after chemo #3 yesterday) for 8 hours from 5 pm.

So, during my chemo yesterday my nurse replied to a comment I made that I should try positive thinking. It "helps" according to her. Fine, I just smiled and let her say whatever. I didn't debate her or said anything to reinforce her opinion. But I'm curious if any of you in this discussion group agrees with the positive thinking concept and if that really helps. To me, positive thinking has a supernatural quality that I associate with visualization. And visualization techniques are an unreliable form of treatment. However, I know not all atheist/faithless/godless people think the same way.

I try to be optimistic about my future, but I'm also realistic. I thought it was highly unlikely that I was going to reach an older age without any chronic medical conditions. But I, with a new found love of living to the fullest (embracing the good, bad, ugly and boring), I'll move on with whatever is left of my life thanks to many things available now. One of them being me living in the age of information and advanced scientific/medical technologies.

Because of that, I've become more curious and hungry for knowledge. Information and knowledge is what has led me to my current worldview of secular humanism. It's also motivating me to do much more. And I find that it gives me a break from thinking of all the possible complications this cancer diagnosis may have for me.

Happy Winter Solstice and Merry Mythmas!

I don't think that "positive thinking" is a magical cure, but I do believe that depression can probably make things harder and worse. So I support the positive thinking line. I'm not so much into visualizations as appreciations. I get up in the morning and do a 30-minute walk/run. I make sure to appreciate the cats, the plants and my friends.

There is always someone worse off, that's what I say. I don't have the most fantastic life, but it's the only one I've got and I am sure as hell trying to make the best of it. I am grateful every day for my amazing kids, that helps. I smile at everyone and try and be positive and make people happy, this attitude helps me amazingly. Peace to all

I'm not into visualisation or affirmations but I am almost always positive and upbeat. I grew up with a Mother who was mostly down and never found much joy in life. I thought that was a sad, wasted life and vowed to never be like that. Of course I have the odd down, teary or angry moments, especially since my diagnosis. We all go to a "dark" place occasionally but I don't dwell there. What would be the point? What would it achieve? It would only rob me of the joy of today. Every day may not be a good day but there is something good in every day. So yes I believe in the power of positivity.

There is a thread floating around here somewhere by some ladies with Stage IV discussing possible contributing factors. A lot of them said they were going through periods of heavy stress when they recurred. It's good to know that stress reduction is important, but we don't want to feel so much pressure to eliminate stressful situations that we cause more stress for ourselves, because that's not always in our control. As I said, I think that's where the positive thinking comes in. You don't even have to call it positive thinking if that term feels too faith-based to you. Think of it as improving your coping skills so stress doesn't get to you as easily, which anyone would benefit from.

I think that moderate drinking of wine would not be that much of a risk factor. I'm sure someone could find a study somewhere that says it does,,, but I bet you can find a study saying carrots cause BC too. I vote for laughter and some good merlot.

The meditation helps me, but I'm terrible at the quiet mind thing so I have to do guided meditations where I can focus on someone else's calming words, since trying to blank out my mind is futile. I've tried a bunch of them and I have found the recordings by Glenn Harrold to be the most effective. He has an awesome soothing voice, but it's also the quality of the recordings that stands out from the others. You listen with headphones and the sound kind of echoes from ear to ear, which makes you feel surrounded and like floating into the abyss. He has CDs, MP3s and apps for iPhone and Android, and offers some free sample apps so you can try before you buy. The paid ones are reasonably priced, around $5 for Android.

so good to see some new faces here. Flanelette, hi there Wren too.. I just have considered myself as a non-theist. I have no desire to spread the word. One thing that I did during active treatment was to try to get some relief from worrying. I set up one chair designated as my "worry chair " I I started to worry about something, I had to sit in that chair and do it. Somehow that worked for me. I also had a stress reduction routine. If I could feel the stress building, I would take a very deep breath while silently and slowly counting to 10. I would hold that breath for a slow count of ten and then slowly let it out again counting to 10, but backwards. I would do this 3 times. I could feel my body relaxing.

This works for me still and it has been 15 years.

And a smile can work wonders.

I forgot to mention that you do the breathing exercise every time you feel the stress. Do this for 3 weeks and it becomes a conditioned response.