Finding Balance: Navigating Stress with Multiple Myeloma
Living with multiple myeloma brings more than medical appointments, lab results, medications, and treatments. It can also bring an enormous emotional burden. Stress does not cause multiple myeloma , and patients should never feel responsible for their cancer because they were stressed or going through a difficult period in their lives. However, chronic stress can affect overall health and well-being, making an already challenging cancer journey even harder. The uncertainty of living with an incurable blood cancer can create anxiety about treatment, recurrence or progression, finances, work, family responsibilities, and what the future might hold. Depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and feelings of isolation can also affect quality of life. That is why managing stress isn't simply about "staying positive." It is about caring for yourself—physically and emotionally—while living with a complicated disease. Stress, the Body, and Myeloma Researchers continue to study the rela...