When a cancer diagnosis leads to ‘onco-anxiety’
When Adam Stern, MD, staff psychiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in his left kidney he suddenly had a heightened awareness of his normal body sensations.
Even after the cancerous kidney was removed, the Harvard Medical School instructor in psychiatry began attributing these sensations to the return of his cancer, according to an article in WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station. He coined the feeling the “Nexus of Onco-Anxiety.” It’s a common discomfort among others who attribute seemingly usual sensations to a return of the disease.
“One recent day I noticed that my heart was beating faster than usual and immediately knew the cancer was back in my adrenal gland,” Stern wrote.
For a time period he was able to trick his mind into interpreting the feelings as cancer dying inside his body, but that only lasted for a period of time.
“I hope that some day, many years from now, I’ll look back at these anxiety-filled days as an unnecessary and unhelpful distraction. I try to imagine a time when I am not only living with no evidence of disease, but also free of the fear that living with cancer brings,” he wrote.
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Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.