Survivor Loneliness of Women Following Breast Cancer

 

Research involving interviews of women, 1-18 years following breast cancer treatment describes a unique description of loneliness that was termed survivor loneliness. The participants described how they felt alone in the awareness of mortality and were invalidated in the experience of ongoing symptom burden, a changed sense of identity and connection, and an altered threshold for distress that pervaded their long-term experiences. As they sought ways to lead more authentic lives, the women sometimes withheld truth or projected images they perceived as inauthentic in efforts to protect others, contributing to their loneliness. Paradoxically, as survivors perceived connections with others as more fragile, they also felt a strengthened vitality of connection, particularly with their children, and a deepened sense of empathy and connectedness to the suffering of others.

For more information see the full article… on Medscape (free registration may be required).

 

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