Being told that you have cancer can be quite devastating, leaving you with thousands of frightening questions and niggling doubts.

"In fact, the major concern with most people are, "Am I going to die?", "What will happen to my family?", "Is it going to be painful?"," says Dr. Nair.

Anxiety is only one aspect of the illness. Apart from that, living with cancer will also expose you to various mental and physical discomforts as a part of the treatment and it's side effects.

So if you or your loved one has cancer and is feeling depressed and anxious about the whole situation, here is what you can do to help.

Counselling a Must

The fear that a cancer patient feels is an outcome of lack of knowledge coupled with wrong conditioning about the disease.

"More often than not, the intensity of the disease is heightened due to your thoughts. So before curing the tumour, you must kill the harmful thoughts first. Otherwise it can become an hindrance to the progress of the treatment," informs Dr. Nair.

Your doctor will counsel you about the disease, dispelling all your doubts and myths. Another practice is to refer you to cancer counselling cells put up by NGOs where specifically skilled counsellors help you deal with the trauma.

"The idea of a counselling session is to not only dispel doubts but also to give you the will to soldier on bravely," explains Iva Athavia, Cancer Counsellor, CPAA, Mumbai.

In short, a counsellor lends you an ear to empathise and also guides and informs you.

What Happens in a Counselling Session?

Usually the initial session may last for an hour or more, depending upon your comfort level. Here you will have the opportunity to discuss about the impact of cancer on your life, how you are functioning currently, and any other issues which you may be struggling with.

There are weekly counselling sessions held in most major hospitals in India where the counsellor will help you in the following ways:

• Support based counselling
  
  
• Helping you to overcome your anxiety and fear, dispelling doubts through materials such as pamphlets and videos about cancer.
  
  
• Stress management through relaxation techniques, or journaling.
  
  
• Assistance in developing strategies for pain control during treatment.

"When we say that we empathise, it does not mean that we give them pointers and materials to read upon. Sometimes we share our own experiences with them to build the trust," says Dr. Nair.