33 - "STRESS BUSTERS" - MAYBE YOU NEED ONE?

It is normal to feel depressed some of the time when dealing with cancer. It is bad stuff. Only someone in total denial or a crazy person who is out of touch with reality doesn’t have some depressed feelings. Normal people occasionally feel like they are losing heart, getting burned out, just too tired to even think, too exhausted to even try, and too discouraged to even consider the possibilities of what I am saying. That is the time to tell your doctor. He can't fight this battle for you, but he can help with medications that I call "stressbusters." These raise the level of natural neurotransmitters in the brain that help us cope with stress and to feel better in spite of it all. They don't eliminate the stress any more than a burst of adrenaline gets rid of the bear that is chasing you. However, the burst of adrenaline helps you outrun the bear. When the bear is cancer, it can keep chasing you day after day, month after month. The burst of adrenaline is gone, so you need these other brain substances to rise and stay up to enable you to keep running, avoid burnout, sleep well, deal with the illness, and then run some more. Not all of us have enough neurotransmitters to meet the needs that cancer creates. If you are one’ get some medicinal help and get back in the battle for your life.

Pharmaceutical companies call these medicines antidepressants because they work well for that too, but don’t let that name disconcert you. Seeing that cancer bear chasing you is depressing. That’s If a little medicine will help you run faster, why not use it? It is not forever. Better running will get you in better shape to cope with all the bear issues now and get you in such good shape that you won’t need it.