The Cancer Survivor's Companion: Practical ways to cope with your feelings after cancer

Description

Coping with life after cancer can be tough. The idea that the end of successful treatment brings relief and peace just isn't true for countless survivors. Many feel unexpectedly alone, worried and adrift. You're supposed to be getting your life 'back on track' but your life has changed. You have changed. With reassurance and understanding, Dr Frances Goodhart and Lucy Atkins help readers deal with the emotional fallout of cancer whether it's days, months or years since the treatment ended. Drawing on Dr Goodhart's extensive experience working in the NHS with cancer survivors, this guide is packed with practical and simple self-help tools to tackle issues such as worry and anxiety, depression and low mood, anger, low self-esteem and body image, relationships and sex, fatigue, sleep and relaxation. If you are a cancer survivor, this book will support you every step of the way. If you are supporting a loved one, friend, colleague or your patient, this is a vital read.

Dr Frances Goodhart is an NHS consultant clinical psychologist with twenty years' experience of working with individuals and families who are coping with life-threatening illnesses. She worked for several years as a Macmillan Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Oncology and Palliative Care. Lucy Atkins is a well known health journalist.

This excellent guide offers simple, practical ways to tackle worries, exhaustion, anger and depression. . .as well as simple but effective self-help exercises and tips throughout - Nursing Standard As a GP, I wish I could write a prescription for this book for every single person who has ever confronted and then survived cancer. The emotional fallout and psychological readjustment after cancer endures for years and impinges on many different facets of everyday personal and family life. Doctors and nurses can put you back together physically after cancer, but until now, emotional after-care has been badly lacking. Not any more. This book is the companion you need. It takes you gently by the hand and explains calmly and reassuringly exactly why you feel like you do and what you can change to put it right. Friendly, truthful, reliable and practical, I heartily recommend it - Dr Hilary Jones, Gp And Medica Broadcaster This book's practical, insightful tips and guidance are essential reading for anyone diagnosed with cancer who wants to learn coping strategies for those inevitable bleak moments, and for anyone who wants to understand what cancer sufferers are going through - Julia Palca, Chairman, Macmillan Cancer Support And Cancer Survivor OK - here's a given: when you hear the word cancer from your doctor, the emotional onslaught is such that it's hard to take much in, let alone ask those questions that may seem trivial to others, but that overwhelm you at 3a.m. That's why this book is great: practical, easy-to-follow ideas and information that you won't necessarily find on any one website, and that can help you feel more in control and less a victim. I'm proud to have contributed in some small way to a much needed, down-to-earth and valuable book - Trisha Goddard