"The most important thing is to cure cancer, but if you can do it by preventing patients from suffering and improving their quality of life as much as possible, that's the ideal," says Professor Ivan Krakowski. , Oncologist and President of the Francophone Association for Supportive Oncology Care.

Psychological support, a support care integrated into the Cancer Plan

And it is precisely the mission of supportive care - psychological support, aesthetic care, adapted physical activity, etc. - integrated into the Cancer Plan, to attenuate or even to curb or prevent the physical, psychological and emotional consequences. social treatments.

Nevertheless, some patients are tempted by alternative medicine to relieve some side effects of the treatments. As a result, oncologists call for caution and recommend that these women talk to their doctor first, to avoid any interference with current treatments.

This is, of course, not the case of supportive oncology, whose benefits are recognized: "The benefit far exceeds comfort," says the oncologist, because a patient less tired, less anxious, who makes the sports, better support treatments and it also allows us to administer them optimally, which improves the chances of recovery and life expectancy. "

An essential accompaniment therefore, to take care of oneself and one's injured body. To stay upright, anchored in life. To sharpen his strength. And grab the cancer head-to-head before possibly emerging victorious.

Breast cancer, an upheaval that questions

"A lot of women say to themselves, 'I'm going to take on me' and, in the end, they lock themselves in their distress.The first thing they are told is that they have the right to go wrong. To have breast cancer is to experience a life-threatening illness that confronts you, often for the first time, with immense vulnerability.

It is all the more distressing that women experience upheavals that question their conception of life, their place on earth, their relationship to death, to femininity. They have to overcome major physical changes, the upheavals in their sex life, but also daily, where the roles they hold are jostled. It's a real turning point that requires a long process of maturation, which goes through phases of psychic distress, before getting better, "decrypts Dr. Sylvie Dolbeault, a psychiatrist at the Institut Curie in Paris.

The importance of verbalizing the confusion with a psycho-oncologist

Putting into words the disarray felt with a psycho-oncologist, a psychiatrist in oncology or in a group of speech helps to loosen the grip of the anxieties that paralyze, to open the floodgates of the emotions that twist the body and to prevent the anger, feelings of helplessness, fears and sadness add violence to that of treatment.

And do not push yourself back, because "cancer, like any serious illness, isolates us as a human, even if we are very surrounded," warns Dr. Dolbeault.

Freeing one's word is also a way of reappropriating one's life in order to cope less with the disease and to better accept the fragilities it induces.

To exonerate: "It is normal to have blows of slack"

Psychologists are also there to unravel guilt as well as unjustified guilt, such as to impose the disease on his children and those we love. This may encourage us to hide our emotions to protect them, at the risk of depriving ourselves of this other vital psychological support.

"The other trap is the current trend towards exacerbated positive psychology, where one would have to be a healer to heal, who values ​​women warriors who fight cancer with a lot of courage and determination by continuing to manage everything: family, work, couple ... It does not help the many who are more fragile and who are going through periods of discouragement and depression, "says Dr. Dolbeault.

Women who end up feeling bad and fail because they fail to cope and stick to this supposedly ideal model. "While it is normal to have blows," recalls the psychiatrist.

Finally, sophrology and mindfulness meditation, supervised by professionals trained in oncology, help better circumscribe anxiety and stress, and not be enslaved by painful emotions.