navigating life after cancer treatment
a virtual support group for adults struggling to adjust to post-treatment reality.
Active treatment has concluded, friends & family express well intended congratulations, but you feel lost. You wonder if you are missing something or doing this part “wrong”.
For many, adjusting to life post-treatment can feel more isolating and emotionally taxing than active care. People around you may start to treat your illness as something in the past… something you should be “over” by now. Against the backdrop of this expectation, you may feel distress and have difficulty understanding why.
What no one tells you about these feelings… is that they are normal. Absolutely, unequivocally normal. Post-treatment reality isn’t a carbon copy of your life pre-diagnosis; it is a new reality that looks familiar but feels unfamiliar. Returning to life today is going to require a bit of an adjustment.
Areas of exploration include the end of treatment; expectation vs reality, defining a new kind of isolation, grieving your old life, rebuilding your identity, the reality disconnect between you and your friends & family, navigating the fear of recurrence, and settling into a new normal.