Learning to manage your stress response

Our bodies normally react to surprises, crises, and other stressful situations with a physical stress response. When you are challenged by stressors, your hormones signal changes that prepare you to respond. You get an extra surge of energy, your heart and breathing rates become more rapid, and other changes direct your body’s resources toward meeting the challenge. You may know this as the “fight or flight” response. 

You can have a stress response even to situations that you consider pleasant, such as getting married, hosting guests, or traveling, which is part of the reason that holidays can be stressful. Ongoing, harmful stress comes from situations we would not have chosen and that we have little control over. A cancer diagnosis is a stressor for most people. 

When your body stays in a stress response mode for a long time, some hormones remain chronically out of balance. The effects of stress hormones can interfere with your sleep, inhibit your immune function, increase inflammation, increase your blood pressure, and alter your digestion and blood sugar, contributing to excess body weight. Learning to manage and calm your stress response can help you meet life’s ongoing challenges from a place of health and resilience. 

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Support groups and interventions: one tool for managing stress

Support groups provide a way for people with cancer, or cancer caregivers, to connect with others facing similar situations. Feeling less isolated and alone often helps people manage their stress.

Participating in support groups is linked to better balance of stress hormones, less stress, and better quality of life for people with cancer—especially better social and emotional aspects of quality of life.