Majority of breast cancer patients develop symptoms of PTSD

[AlaskaAngel]

Even though the depth of PTSD varies among us, the obvious conclusion that dx and tx would cause it to exist should have resulted in more in-depth focus on treating it as an integral part of the basic plan for care. ESPECIALLY given that standard treatment is based on known and sanctioned difficult overtreatment for the vast majority of patients.

For some, there is both the shock of dx and tx AND mets from the getgo, that would create PTSD.

For me, it is impossible to separate out the PTSD that I have from dx and tx alone, from the shock of being subjected to extremely inferior care by the fully licensed/approved hospital and "breast care specialist" surgeon from whom I received my initial "care". Yet that too falls within the entire reality of dx and tx and PTSD.

My impression is that health care personnel seem to make this worse by thinking of bc patients in general as being a single group of people who have been diagnosed with an eventually terminal disease, without ever adding any significant effort toward treating any PTSD. Even if they offer encouragement for early stage nonrecurrent patients, there still is a feeling that they see bc patients as terminal, and yet they don't put an emphasis on the impact of dealing with such an indefinite result.

I know that some efforts have begun toward focusing on long-term survival, probably mostly in larger cancer centers. But I don't know that those efforts include the recognition of the obvious result of PTSD for bc patients.

A.A.