Hi guys, my dad was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. We don’t have an estimated time line as he didn’t want to know but I am really really struggling with it. Has anyone ever been prescribed antidepressants while dealing with something similar? Or any other tips would be great!
thanks in advance x
Hi ,
sorry to hear about your father; I can totally get your issues with no time line as my wife (incurable Leiomyosarcoma) was always totally clear she did not want a prognosis and with a young son I found that incredibly difficult. One of the problems with a prognosis of course is that they are at best a guess based on historical averages and of course there are two significant problems in this - who is this average anyway and cancer treatments move on all the time.
When I was really struggling I came across the living with less stress course with Maggies. Two key elements on the course really helped me. The first was learning to live in the present - appreciate what we have every day rather than try to anticipate the future since most of my fears never materialised anyway and we have been living with cancer now for over 6 years. The second was around conscious breathing Macmillan even have a CD called relax and breathe - it is great to help when anxiety starts to take over especially when something comes at us totally out of the blue.
I did end up in a situation too where I got really stressed at work to the point that HR actually sent me home, when I spoke to my GP he prescribed eco-therapy - going for a walk.
The NHS has some really good information about coping with anxiety that might be helpful to you here.
Do post on here whenever you want, someone is always listening and of course the more people talk about these things the more normal the conversation can become.
<<hugs>>
Steve
