HOPE CHESTS - Past Meetings
November 2, 1999 "Fighting
Fear"
Sherry Smelley DCSW, BCSW - Hematology Oncology Clinic
Of all the probelms individuals
need help with they all seem to pale when compared to a medical
problem.
Fear - is the most debilitating
part of cancer - not the surgeries, treatment, or disease process
When all of the activity stops
and you are in the waiting mode It's the "what if's"
that rob us of the "What is!" - "what is" is
what you have now.
You can't get rid of or
obliterate fear but you can learn to manage it. If you can manage
you feel like you have some control.
Fear - Can't control something
abstact - a feeling, an aura - you know it is there but you can't
touch, see, or control it.
Steps For Managing Fear:
- Imagine your fear is an
object - a bear -
 in
the shape of something tangible. No monster Hollywood can
produce is as scary as "monsters" in your
imagination.
- Remember things about your
bear
- It will grow in
direct proportion to the amount of time you spend
with it.. Fear goes in two tracks when you start
worrying ask yourself what you can do to manage/control.
- Once you determine
there is nothing more you can do then do not
spend any more time with your "bear"
- Your "bear"
will wear different masks if it thinks it is
losing - anger (the most common), frustration -
when you take the mask off and look at fear
straight in the face it shrinks.
- When you stop
"feeding your bear" it will go to
others to be fed.
- Your "bear"
 will take up as much of your
life as you let it. - it will rob you of your sleep, your
life, your appetite, your self-control, your joy
- Fear is squashed instantly
by hope - make a "Hope Chest". Include momentos,
reminders, pictures, whatever is special that keeps your
hope close.
- Fear and laughter can not
exist in the same space. If you are afraid and you begin
laughing the fear will leave
- The fear can be managed -
it is not easy to manage, although this model of handling
it is simple. Whatever model you have to use, make use of
it.
A video tape of this presenation is available through The Hope
Chests
|
