How to Manage Your Anger for Lung Cancer Patients

Anger is a common emotion when you face a crisis. Likewise, anger from cancer is just like the anger you feel from facing a crisis. Anger can be destructive. There are ways you can control that anger and use it to fight back cancer.

What causes anger?

You will feel a lot of emotions during cancer. Stress, anxiety, sadness, just to name a few. Anger is often swept under the rug or denied because it is “not nice”. People with cancer often keep their anger inside and let it build up like a balloon.

What happens when you don’t vent that anger out in the right direction, is it will explode in your face. Your anger might by directed to the wrong person for the wrong reason. Sometimes, unresolved anger can lead to alcohol and drugs usage. It may lead to aggressive or irresponsible actions that may further damage your health.

Moreover, you will need support from other people in life, whether you have cancer or not. So expressing your anger and frustration in a healthy and safe environment will help you a lot in life and especially during this hard time.

Anger is not a side effect that will go away once the treatment stops. It is a feeling created from isolation and loneliness. Perhaps your cancer doesn’t allow you to be as social as before, you cannot go out with your friends often because you have to get your chemo drugs, or people treat you differently because you have cancer. What many cancer patients want is to get their old lives back. When they do not achieve this, they can become frustrated and lash out.

How to cope with anger?

The first step to using anger to fight cancer is to recognize and acknowledge it. You need to acknowledge your anger and use them in a constructive way, to fight back cancer. Don’t hold back your emotions let them out. Group therapy for counselors is there for this reason. Sharing what you are feeling with people who have been in your shoes, or with professional can offer you guidance on how to not let anger take control of you.

Anger is a powerful source of energy. You can direct that energy into things that interest you. Maybe you can write a book about this experience, or learn how to cook a gourmet meal. You may discover talents that you didn’t know you have.

Having a coping mechanism is always helpful. When you sense anger swelling up, you can have a way to deal with it. This might be writing, blogging or having a support group that you can reach out to. Take part in activities that calm you such as a massage or music and art therapy.

Of course, you can never forget the importance of communication. People get angry when they don’t have their needs met. So if you need something, you should talk to your family or friends. Let them know what you want to do and they might have a way to help you.

If you are not comfortable yet, maybe some simple physical expression of anger could help you. Beating on a pillow with your fist or with a bat will help release your anger. Yelling out in your car or in your room can reduce your anger as well.

In general, anger is not considered a good emotion. But just like any emotion, it is very real and it is just something you feel from time to time. When you can express your anger in positive ways, it can change things for the better and give you strength to overcome the challenges of treatment.