Being Comfortable in Your Skin After Cancer

BY Barbara Tako

PUBLISHED November 08, 2017

Barbara Tako is a breast cancer survivor (2010), melanoma survivor (2014) and author of Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools–We'll Get You Through This. She is a cancer coping advocate, speaker and published writer for television, radio and other venues across the country. She lives, survives, and thrives in Minnesota with her husband, children and dog. See more at www.cancersurvivorshipcopingtools.com,or www.clutterclearingchoices.com.

My goal during cancer was to be comfortable living in my own skin. A cancer diagnosis is a life-changing and frightening diagnosis—the idea of something growing in my body that could kill me, something that could come back at any time is scary. How am I truly supposed to be able to live in my own skin? Cancer, besides trying to kill us, causes fear of recurrence, worry, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cancer survivorship can be a celebration of life, but it is not without its very real never-ending dark side. Here is how I cope with my dark side.

Attitude. How does a glass-is-half-empty girl, even before cancer, become a glass-is-half-full girl instead? I refuse to paste on a fake smile or a plastic attitude. I continually train myself to look for and acknowledge the positive things—there are always a few around me. I also try to limit the negatives, and if that means reading less news and not engaging in scary or gory books or shows, so be it. It is impossible to un-see, un-hear or unread things, once they are “in there.” Be choosey about what you expose your mind to.

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