cancer and stress

So how many people think that stress can cause cancer? I guess my real question is, if someone makes a decision which causes them 5 years of stress and then they got cancer, would that same person have gotten it if they had have made a different decision that resulted in 5 years of no stress.... or, would they have gotten it anyway?

Anybody here ever have cancer and feel that it was caused by stress?

Also question #2

Knowing that many of us here often feel that our lives are not really worth living, if you were diagnosed with cancer, would you fight it with all your might, or would you give up with a sense of relief that you will finally be put out of misery.

stork_error said:

So how many people think that stress can cause cancer? I guess my real question is, if someone makes a decision which causes them 5 years of stress and then they got cancer, would that same person have gotten it if they had have made a different decision that resulted in 5 years of no stress.... or, would they have gotten it anyway?

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That seems almost like a philosophical question since it's impossible a lot of times to figure out what caused a cancer. Unless you were a heavy smoker and got lung cancer or spent time around Fukushima after the nuclear plant disaster, it's hard to draw a straight line between one variable like stress and cancer.
I read somewhere that stress causes an inflammatory response in the body, which can cause all kinds of trouble but I'm not sure if cancer is included.
Your question also implies that a cancer patient could be to blame for their own condition - making a bad decision leads to years of stress which leads to cancer. I'm just not sure I can connect those dots. A lot of shitty stuff including cancer is, in my opinion, just due to bad luck.

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stork_error said:

Also question #2

Knowing that many of us here often feel that our lives are not really worth living, if you were diagnosed with cancer, would you fight it with all your might, or would you give up with a sense of relief that you will finally be put out of misery.

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I can't say for sure what I would do but I have a child who depends on me. I'm hoping to live a long life. I would fight it if I had a chance of winning but if it was terminal, I might say "no" to treatment so I could enjoy my life as much as possible until the cancer took over.
Again, it's hard to say unless you're in it. I personally know people who have fought it to the painful end and who decided "no treatment" and I don't judge any of them.

-Teresa

It is too hard to say whether or not the person would have got cancer if they had made a different decision. I think that for many people life is highly stressful whatever they decide to do, and that generally there are other factors which have a big impact on whether or not a person gets cancer.
I had cancer in 1995 and I fought it then, though I was twenty years younger then than I am now (so I had more hope that things might work out for me) and my parents were alive. If it comes back, I won't fight to stay here.

I know someone who has fought cancer four times. They where told by a an Oncology Professor who treated the first at the time rare cancer, that it takes in alot of cases it takes two things to cause cancer. It takes two triggers to cause cancer to manifest.

They say it is common for people who experienced with a lot of stressors in their life to experience serious illness.
Louise Hay says also (if I remember correctly) that it is one's approach to life events to determine wherever bad luck translates to bad health, for example one could spend years in a concentration camp and yet put all the blame on the Nazis and not get sick, while someone else with the same experience would be overwhelmed with guilt for surviving and get sick.
To me it sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo but my impression is that there is for sure a relation to one's emotional life.
Knowing that, I fear daily that something (else, cause I already got health issues) like cancer will show up.
I have been fighting another illness for already many years, if it came right now I have no reason to fight it, but I don't want to bring anyone down with this kind of statements.
For many something like cancer can re-awaken the will to live. Personally, I am just tired of fighting, maybe it's just a phase.

Peaches-you are not bringing me down with your statements. I am really sorry you feel this way, but at the same time it is good to know I am not the only one who is tired of fighting.

Tiina (hug), I think there are loads who are tired of fighting, but it is also to be said that these feelings are contagious, so even reading them one gets discouraged further.
And in the same way, courage is contagious, and I wish I could say something along that line now, but now I can't. Maybe the next poster will?

Im not sure what I would do either. Its hard enough even finding the motivation to eat healthy, take vitamins, loose weight and exercise now.

Maybe that motivation could be triggered by an actual confirmation diagnosis?

Imagine one fighting cancer all by oneself, no support systems, no family... thats seriously scary.

Maybe that motivation to fight gets triggered when you actually face the idea of either fighting or dying.

Its expensive to eat healthy and time consuming to exercise, but I don't think its logical the way I've been living as of late. I need to take back my life before it takes me.

I do agree that having a support system of some sort helps, even if it's just one person.

I also have to say that many times before, I believed that my high stress levels when I was teaching for a couple of years did trigger my first cancer. But now, having to face it a second time, after not as much stress as I used to have, I think for me it's largely based on genetics cos my dad had multiple cancers and it probably needed just one thing to trigger it and stress was probably that for me.

Like the others say, there are many factors that derive from stress that could lead to unhealthy habits and thus causing the risk of developing cancer. Heck, eating today's commonly sold convenience food could just be a risk factor too. But I think some people are just more susceptible to getting cancer depending on a variety of factors as well, I suppose. You can only try so much... if it's gonna happen, it'll happen.

I was healthy, I ate right, I worked out, I was active, didn't do drugs, didn't smoke and all that jazz.. honeysuckle still happened.

ladyforsaken said:

I was healthy, I ate right, I worked out, I was active, didn't do drugs, didn't smoke and all that jazz.. honeysuckle still happened.

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This is so true. We have less control over what happens to us than many want to believe. However, your healthy habits will have given you a better fight-back ability which someone with a body ruined by heavy drug use and very out of shape will not have to the same level, so you have done the right thing by looking after yourself.

One of my earliest memories is of my mother withering away from the treatment of a particularly aggressive cancer. There was no history of cancer in her family, she wasn't a high-stress person and she kept in shape. If she hadn't ignored the pain for as long as she did, she might have pulled through it, or maybe she might not have. It's impossible to say. So much of it is genetics or stress or, in my mother's case, luck of the draw.

In regards to your second question, if it was bad enough and if it meant going out with some shred of dignity and peace, I might very well refuse treatment. I don't see it so much as giving up on life as embracing what life you have left to live. As the song goes, we're here for a good time, not a long time.

Yeah. Cancer is just a *****. And that statement is underrated.

I worry about this all the time, both for myself and my family members. We're all under stress from problems that are primarily due to not having a lot of money, as well as some other things. I personally get frustrated a lot with life, and also experience bouts of despair. I worry what that does to my health. I also worry what constant worrying, stressing, and arguing has done for my family's health even when it does not involve me, but I particularly worry that me not having a job for so many years (and struggling with motivation in college before that) has caused so much stress on my family that it has caused premature aging in them. I'd feel terrible if I was mostly the cause of that.