If you have just learned about your cancer diagnosis, you may be feeling too numb to think about what you need to manage the stress and anxiety that naturally comes with diagnosis and treatment.  Dealing with the feelings and changes cancer can bring can be lonely even when you are surrounded by loving and supportive people. Talking to someone may be the first step in helping you cope with the uncertainties ahead. 

The Cancer Support Community knows how important finding a supportive community can be.  Throughout our nationwide centers and online, we help hundreds of thousands of people each year connect with others, learn vital information about diagnosis and treatment, and find hope.  To find a Wellness Community near you, click here. You can call our helpline at 1-888-793-WELL during normal business hours Monday through Friday. If there is not a Wellness Community in your area, you will find valuable services right here online including creating your own private social network or joining a secure, professionally facilitated weekly support group. 

You can also ask your doctor if there is an oncology social worker, psychologist, nurse or chaplain at the cancer center or doctor’s office available to talk with you or your family.  Ask other family members, friends or fellow patients in the waiting room if they are familiar with any cancer support organizations in your area.

The secret is to consider all the options available to you for support.  You may not feel like you need help right now and that’s okay.  When and if you are ready, talking about your cancer with others who understand can give you the support and confidence you need to regain a sense of control over your situation.  Some days, it’s not just about the cancer. Some days, it’s life itself that challenges us and finding the right kind of support at the right time can be critical to your emotional, social and spiritual recovery from cancer.

The Value of Support Groups

Over the last 25 years there has been extensive research on the positive effects of support groups as a method of coping with cancer, improving quality of life, and in some studies — even increasing survival. Research has shown that support groups help reduce the three most significant stressors associated with cancer: unwanted aloneness, loss of control, and loss of hope. In fact, research conducted at the Cancer Support Community has shown that people who participate in support groups, either face-to-face or online, report significant decreases in depression, increased zest for life, and a new attitude toward their illness.

Support groups are not for everyone. And not all support groups are the same.  There are many different types of support groups.  Some are professionally facilitated; some are facilitated by fellow cancer survivors.   Some groups are disease-specific (breast cancer, colorectal cancer, etc); age or gender-specific (young adults, men, women, etc); and some are time-limited (six week series for newly diagnosed breast cancer, etc).  Look around your community and online to see if you can find one that’s right for you.  If you join and do not find one helpful, try another.  Participants in the Cancer Support Community support groups often say things like, “It saved my life!” or “I couldn’t have done all this without my support group…”.  A support group can become a lifeline to information, support and encouragement through good times and bad. Most support groups are free-of-charge and meet on an ongoing basis in your community.

Individual, Couple and Family Counseling

Individual counseling offers patients one-to-one time with a mental health professional who is expert in helping people express thoughts, fears, and emotions. If you feel you could benefit from individual counseling, check with your doctor for a referral to a specialist in cancer counseling.  There are times when it is beneficial for a couple or the whole family to sit down with a cancer counselor to talk about relationship or family issues related to the diagnosis and treatment.  Your oncologist, oncology social worker or local community support organization should be able to provide you with a list of qualified professionals in your area.  Since there is a generally a charge for private counseling, you may want to check with your insurance company to determine what services and providers are covered under your plan.

Coping with the Cost of Care

Hearing that you or someone you love has cancer is always overwhelming.  Questions abound about not only the cancer itself and treatment options, but also practical matters such as health insurance, employment, finances, and how the cancer and its treatment will affect your family. For some, these questions come all at once.  For others they arrive one by one. Eventually, however, everyone affected by cancer faces questions in one or all of these practical areas. Having a plan to cope with these questions is vital.

Learning about insurance benefits and keeping track of your or your loved one’s medical bills and expenses can be daunting, especially in the midst of coping with other aspects of treatment. Many people diagnosed with cancer assign keeping up with the financial aspects of their care to one or more family members or friends. This can be a very effective plan. The key is that someone must address these issues. The Cancer Support Community has a book entitled, “Frankly Speaking About Cancer: Coping with the Cost of Care”. This book is for the person or people who want to know more about managing the cost of cancer care and will serve as a road map to many of the financial and employment matters that arise over the course of the cancer experience.  We have gathered together information about national financial resources as well as ideas about how you might effectively cope with the cost of your care.

Listed below are our current professionally facilitated Online Support Groups. Click here to enroll in any one of these groups.