No.
I spoke to someone recently who was going through their own cancer diagnosis. They were genuinely discussing this with me listing all the things they should have done differently:
- Eating organic
- Eating less meat
- Eating less processed food
- Double checking chemicals in things before using them
I confess that I stopped them listing everything that they thought could have caused their cancer. I’m all for giving people a listening ear to go through their feelings after a diagnosis, but I don’t think that was helping them and it certainly wasn’t helping me feel any better.
These sort of thoughts did initially go through my head when I was first diagnosed too. Again, then I also quickly dismissed them as what help does self-blame do when something has already happened? I get depressive episodes, so I’m very aware of how harmful negative self-talk can be and I wanted to make sure I didn’t go down that spiral.
It was hard enough dealing with a cancer diagnosis without adding on the thought that I’d caused it too.
Yes:
- I probably ate some foods that increase the risks of cancer.
- I probably didn’t exercise enough.
- I was overweight.
But also:
- I breastfed.
- I never smoked.
- I didn’t drink excessively.
Often, we focus on all the things I could have done which caused this rather than all the things you were doing that may have prevented it. I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes, it’s just shitty chance. Someone has to be the person behind the stats in the universe and today it’s me.
I find now I also get quite frustrated when listening to podcasts or reading books or headlines where they claim things increase the risk of cancer. For how ridiculous it gets, see this website which details the things that the Daily Mail claims prevent or cause cancer. It’s not that I don’t believe some of these, it’s that I don’t feel the average person fully understands the implications of the studies these headlines come from, so can’t reliably relate it back to themselves. We end up with a black and white “I shouldn’t eat eggs”, rather than a more potentially accurate, “eggs in this quantity increase the prevalence of cancer in people from this general demographic”.
I get it, one is an easier headline. (I also want to note that I include myself in the average person description above). It’s just I genuinely don’t get how people can live their life trying to avoid all the things that increase the prevalence of cancer. If this thing comes back, I want to have lived my life that I have, rather than living in fear of it coming back and focussing all my time and attention on that.
Life After Cancer 