Friends and family provide an important circle of support for you as you experience recovery. Learn how to nurture relationships so that you can avoid common problems. Your friends and family love you and are worried about you—but they may have strange ways of showing it. Some people withdraw and avoid talking to you. Others smother you and treat you like a child.
Whether you encounter problems with your relationships often depends on the strength of the relationships beforehand. Relationships that were already strained tend to continue that way after cancer, sometimes completely falling apart. Strong relationships can become even stronger through the cancer experience.
For many people, an experience with cancer can open up opportunities to repair strained relationships and strengthen already strong ones. To accomplish this, you might consider some of the following suggestions:
- Share your personal thoughts and feelings about your diagnosis and treatment for cancer with loved ones—this often can lead to discussions about other topics.
- Invite others to participate in your care during recovery—this can help you to spend time with family and friends.
- Talk about meaningful topics with others that often do not get discussed—examples can include the purpose of life, goals for living and death.