Emotional Behavioral and Cognitive Responses

Question: Discuss about theEmotional Behavioral and Cognitive Responses. Answer: Introduction Breast cancer diagnosis in women leads to various emotions issues like distress, fear, anxiety and depression. It also disturbs women as it may lead to changes in appearance and leads to drastic effects in the individuals who are planning to have a baby. It leads to a stressful condition among all the family members and affects the relationship among them. Some women are stressed because of the financial issues since the treatment for breast cancer is quite expensive. Some of them may also feel lonely and isolated and do not share their feelings with their partner or other family members(Wang, et al., 2014).They should stay positive and strong and seek support with their family members, friends, relatives, counselors or colleagues. This assignment includes the emotional, behavioral and cognitive responses and the risk and preventive measures which should be followed in relation to breast cancer. Emotional issues observed in women diagnosed with breast cancer are a feeling of shock, distress, depression, fear, anger, tensed about the future, body image changes and sexuality. It also disturbs the relationship with their partner and family members. They feel low and question themselves why it happened to them. According to the case study, since the patient is away from her husband from last one year, various strategies can be followed by her to manage with psychological stress like meeting and sharing her feelings with husband, family members, relatives or counselor to seek support and advice. Some women stop taking care of their physical and emotional requirement and make distance with their spouse(Janz, et al., 2014). Women should take care and love themselves after the diagnosis of the disease, which will help them to fight against it .This will keep them motivated and strong during the treatment. They should discuss their problems with a counselor, nurse or doctor, as they will understand better about the emotional changes in them after the diagnosis of the disease (Markovitz, Schrooten, Arntz, Peters, 2015). There are various behavioral responses observed in women during the diagnosis of breast cancer like fatigue, sleep disturbance and depression. Fatigue refers to the lack of energy and extreme tiredness. It leads to a negative impact on the life quality of individuals suffering from breast cancer. Fatigue continues for many years after the cancer treatment. It makes the patient lethargic, decreases the strength, may face issues in concentration and lack of vigor. It disrupts the normal body functions. (Dupont, Bower, Stanton, Ganz, 2014). A major problem in women diagnosed with breast cancer is the lack of sleep. Disturbances in sleep are linked with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Sleepiness may occur during the day or night. In a large no of cancer patients, sleep disturbances are reported as chronic. There are some sleep disorders like restless legs syndrome and sleep-disordered breathing which is common in a large no of breast cancer patients. The patient gets up early in the morning and finds it difficult to get back to sleep. They might awake many times during the night. Insomnia can lead to psychological issues, concentration and memory problems, disturbances in the mood which can ultimately lead to a shorter life span of the patient (Short, James, Stacey, Plotnikoff, 2013) .There are various techniques used to cure sleep disorders like relaxation therapy which involves relaxation of muscles , cognitive therapy that helps in identifying the attitudes and beliefs about insomnia and sleep in patients and sleep hygiene therapy which involves avoiding caffeine and alcohol intake in women. Anxiety and depression are the most common feelings after the diagnosis of breast cancer. Various signs of anxiety include continuously feeling angry and sad, inability to make decisions, loss of appetite and lack of sleep. Some women also lose interest in things they used to enjoy before. They do not discuss their issues with others because they think they are a burden to their family members. Depression involves a feeling of hopelessness, sadness, fatigue and insomnia. Some patients avoid socializing and keep themselves isolated from others. It is prevalent in patients even after the patient has undergone the treatment of breast cancer(Marroqun, 2016). Patients suffering from depressive symptoms should follow certain remedies to manage the emotional issues like proper relaxation and sleep, seeking support and advice with women who were diagnosed with blood cancer, counseling with a healthcare professional and sharing her feelings that will help them and make them feel positive. Some women suffer from severe depression so they can take the help of antidepressants, which is very helpful, and make them feel good about themselves. Antidepressants can be used for a longer period or a shorter depending on the situation of women diagnosed with breast cancer.(Morse et al., 2014). Cognitive behavioral therapy can be taken which helps in changing the behavior and thinking of the patients. The main aim of this therapy is it focuses majorly on the issues and the problems rather than the causes of the symptoms faced by the cancer patient. Many women who are diagnosed with breast cancer face problems in concentration, memory, thinking, multitasking, learning and organization of new ideas. These cognitive problems arise because of the stress they face during the diagnosis of the disease. The main reason of cognitive issues is that the information that brain tries to encode does not get encoded and stored in a proper manner (Stagl, et al., 2015). According to researchers there are other reasons which may lead to thinking and memory problems such as changes in hormones, ageing, lack of fatigue and sleep, fear, anxiety , depression , menopause, medicines which are being taken to cure side-effects, lowering of blood cell count and altered expectations, responsibilities and expectations(Berman, et al., 2014). It leads to a lot of inconvenience and issues in daily household chores. They get frightened or startled easily and suffer from hallucinations. They may also face nightmares about the cancer treatment and become self -destructive in nature by increasing the intake of alcohol and drugs. Patients diagnosed with breast cancer should take the help of a doctor and seek his support and advice. Various psychostimulants are also given to patients to improve concentration and memory. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging test is done to study the abnormality in brain function in patients. Risk and preventive measures to avoid breast cancer are supportive spouse and breast feeding children for at least two years. The reason for this is it lowers down the menstrual cycles in women for the lifetime. Obesity after reaching menopause produces more estrogen in the body and increase the risk of breast cancer. Increased weight also leads to high insulin levels in the blood of the individual, which may also lead to increased chances of breast cancer. Pregnancy at an early age also reduces the overall breast cancer risk. It has been observed that women who have their first child after 30 years of age have a higher risk of breast cancer(Howell, et al., 2014). It can be concluded that a healthy and balanced diet, exercising daily and a low intake of alcohol and saturated fat should be followed by all the women to avoid the risk of breast cancer. Excessive consumption of alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer. There are various treatments to get rid of breast cancer like mastectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove breasts in women. However, this procedure can have negative implications on the body and sexual relationships with their partner. There are various medications prescribed by health care professionals to reduce the chances of cancer risk. The patient diagnosed with breast cancer should seek proper support and guidance from her partner and family members to get rid of anxiety, fear, and depression. References: Berman, Askren, Jung, Therrien, Peltier, Noll, Cimprich, . (2014). Pretreatment worry and neurocognitive responses in women with breast cancer. Health psychology,, 222. Dupont, A. B. (2014). Cancer-related intrusive thoughts predict behavioral symptoms following breast cancer treatment. Health Psychology, 155. Dupont, Bower, Stanton, Ganz, . (2014). Cancer-related intrusive thoughts predict behavioral symptoms following breast cancer treatment. . 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