Many cancer survivors may feel depressed at some point during their cancer journey. Depression can greatly affect your life and may stop you from doing the things you usually do every day. Depression means feeling sad, low or without energy most of the time.
It is normal to have some symptoms of depression during your experience with cancer. But if you find that these feelings last longer than 2 weeks, or affect everyday life, you may have depression.
Causes
Many things can cause depression, especially things that cause you a lot of stress:
- Being diagnosed with cancer
- Losing someone you love
- Losing your job
- Going through a major change in life
People who had depression before are more likely to have it again after their cancer diagnosis. People with a close relative who had depression are also more likely to get depressed. Depression can also be caused by biological factors like chemical imbalances in the brain or changes in your hormone levels.
What you can do
There is a lot that can be done for depression.
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