Tag Archive for: coping methods

Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Recommended Coping Methods and Mental Health

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Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Recommended Coping Methods and Mental Health from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and care partners find coping methods? Watch as expert Dr. Catherine Lai shares advice and resources to help with mental health and ways to cope with AML over the long term.

See More from Best AML Care No Matter Where You Live

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What Role Does Telemedicine Play in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Care?

What Role Does Telemedicine Play in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Care? 

 Does Acute Myeloid Leukemia Prognosis Vary by Age?

Does Acute Myeloid Leukemia Prognosis Vary by Age? 

 Advice for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients Seeking a Clinical Trial

Advice for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients Seeking a Clinical Trial 

Transcript:

Sasha Tanori:

Right. So a silent side effect that people facing cancer don’t always talk about is mental health. Are there any treatments or coping methods that you recommend for patients and care partners?

Dr. Catherine Lai:

Yeah, so I would say to get social work involved early on, I think there’s also…it’s silent, because there’s a lot of stigma around it, is that is something that we should be talking about or not talking about or…I can handle it, that sort of thing, so I introduce our social worker very early to know that she is a resource for the patients, no matter how big or how small, just to try to get them used to that idea. What I would also say is just talking with as many people as possible as I’m sure you realize that the network and the community is small, and everybody is willing to help each other out. So once you put yourself out there, you’ll realize that there are other resources out there, and you’re not alone in this journey, and what your cancer team offers you is different than what other patients who have gone through exactly what you’ve gone through can offer, and so I know that there are other resources out there in terms of societies that connect other patients who have the same diagnosis. So I would say it’s really just about education and talking and knowing that it’s okay to talk about your diagnosis and no matter what format that is, or if it’s a little bit now and a little bit later, and also just normalizing it, in the sense of the feelings you have are valid and normal. And if you don’t have those feelings is actually when I get worried about patients because you’re supposed to have certain reactions, you were a young patient and you were diagnosed with cancer.

That’s not a trivial thing. And we’re just…we’re all here to help you and help the patients go through everything.

Lung Cancer Advocate Shares Importance of Staying Hopeful During Pandemic

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Lung Cancer Advocate Shares Importance of Staying Hopeful During Pandemic from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can lung cancer patients stay hopeful during a pandemic? Watch as lung cancer patient Jill shares her advice on coping methods that have been helpful for her during the COVID-19 pandemic.

See More From Lung Cancer TelemEDucation

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Related Programs:

 
Lung Cancer Patient Shares Why Telemedicine Is an Important Tool

 Understanding Telemedicine Pros and Cons for Lung Cancer Patients

 Lung Cancer Patient Shares Why Telemedicine Should Be a Long-Term Tool

Lung Cancer Advocate Shares Why Telemedicine Should Be a Long-Term Tool

 

Transcript:

Jill:

These are really hard times, and we need to recognize that we’re not alone, that we’re not the only ones, we’re not the only one going through the hard time, and it’s so important to reach out to others, to reach out to someone, to ask for help, and we hear some really, really sad stories of things like people being turned away from the ER or we can have a lot of fear about what might happen. And I think it’s really important to not let those fears rule our lives, that can be really challenging to do, it’s very easy to say, but it takes a lot of skills to live without letting fear take hold at times. So, reach out for help. Talk to people, ask them, how do they cope? What do they do? For me, I talked to friends and my friends help remind me of what’s real and what’s true, my friends helped me hold on to hope. I’m a person of faith, so I believe in Jesus, and I read the Bible and I pray, and that really helps me too.

But each person finds their own ways to hold on to hope and let go of fear, and fear is, fear is not our friend. Good things don’t come from fear. So the other thing is we need to be advocates for ourselves, sometimes we need to ask for what we want, and if we believe in something, we need to fight for it, we can’t just sit back and expect things to be dropped in our lap, so they’re gonna be tons, when we’re going to have to really, really work hard, and that could hurt and in my life is an advocate, I find there’s a lot of pain and a lot of hard work, but there’s also a lot of real joy, and I get to meet some of the most amazing new people, and those are people who helped me have hope, so grab a hold of the people who help you have hope and don’t let go, call them up and reach out to them, lean on them.