Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 06:00 AM

How to Tell if You Have PTSD

Cancer survivors commonly get PTSD.

It is common knowledge that post traumatic stress disorder frequently strikes soldiers when they return from the battlefield. It is not so well known that the condition also can affect cancer survivors.  

“One in three of people with a cancer diagnosis will develop PTSD,” Jeremy Burrage, clinical coordinator over the behavioral health unit at Marshall Medical Center North, told people attending a support group for survivors. “You are forever altered in a negative way by a cancer diagnosis.”

PTSD usually is diagnosed during the later stages of cancer treatment. Burrage recommended medication and therapy for symptoms which include:

·      agitation

·      hostility

·      social isolation

·      flashbacks

·      severe anxiety

·      mistrust of friends and family

·      guilt

·      emotional detachment

·      unwanted thoughts

·      insomnia

·      hypersomnia

·      nightmares

Support groups, such as the Lean In For Encouragement or L.I.F.E. meetings held monthly at the Marshall Cancer Care Center, also are very helpful for sufferers, he said. For more information on the group, visit the website at mmcenters.com.