7 Benefits of Breast Cancer Support Groups

If you or somebody that you care about is searching for information about breast cancer support groups it is important to understand that you are not alone. Every year a large number of people are diagnosed with breast cancer. The good news is that approximately 97% of the people that are diagnosed with it survive. Cancer is not always deadly. Believe it or not, a positive attitude and the desire to keep living play large roles in the process of cancer treatment. One of the best ways to keep a positive attitude is to surround yourself with positive people. Being a part of a support group has the capacity to introduce you into a caring setting that focuses on acceptance and healing.

There are a plethora of benefits to being a part of a cancer support group. One of the best ways to stay positive and avoid isolation is to join a group of people that are fighting the same types of battles that you are.

Out of the many benefits that one can gain from being part of a group we have narrowed a list down to seven. Here they are:

1 Being Around People that Can Relate

Being diagnosed with cancer can be a devastating experience. Regardless of how good your odds are, a typical person will allow their train of thought to go directly to the worst-case scenario. Living in this type of perspective is not only disheartening but unhealthy. Trying to process feelings of this magnitude might not be so easy to do around people that do not understand.

When you join a group of people that are going through the same struggles that you are facing it gives a sense of hope and belonging that helps to ease the anxiety and despair that threatens to overcome people that try and fight problems alone. Being around people that understand you helps to dissolve the loneliness that often envelopes around cancer patients.

2 Sharing Experience to People that are Suffering

If you are in a support group that is made up of people that are struggling and suffering from the effects of their diagnoses, the things that you share about your struggles may be comforting to those that hear it. Sometimes simply hearing an honest and vulnerable point of view has enough power to dissolve any walls that have been built by fear.

Although the backgrounds, beliefs, and lifestyles of the people in the group may be completely different from each other, the thing that everybody has in common is that they are fighting breast cancer and that they are looking for a positive way to deal with it. Positive messages help to shine light for people that are suffering from darkness.

3 Hearing Experience from People that Have Prevailed Cancer

One of the greatest gifts a suffering individual can get is the gift of hope. When a person is down, they don’t want to hear the gloom and doom of negative experiences. Somebody that has faced an illness as powerful as cancer and lived to tell about it has a bright ray of hope for somebody that is in the beginning stages of the same fight.

Seeing and hearing positive messages from a person that has been through the darkness, lived through the chemo, faced the ugliness of the illness, and came back to the support group to share their triumph is refreshing and full of hope. This kind of hope is the kind that gives power to struggling people and encourages them to continue fighting through the scary days ahead.

4 Meeting New People

There are probably millions of ways to meet people than to become diagnosed with breast cancer and show up at a support group. However, the people that you meet during this time of illness are ones that you may have never met otherwise. You can call it fate, or divine intervention, or even just luck. We mentioned earlier that people from all walks of life get cancer, some of these people that you will meet would have never crossed your path on a personal level in any other way.

Some of the new people that you meet will become a light for your dark path, and some of them you will be a light for. In any event, the people that you connect with in these support groups might be the kind of deep connections that you have never experienced before.

5 Building Meaningful Relationships

Being surrounded by a group of people that want nothing but the best for you is powerful. One thing about a cancer support group is that the members already know that the next person can do nothing for them. Nobody can cure the next person’s cancer, it is up to the individual to do all that they can in order to win the battle.

With that being said, the typical mindset of a cancer support group is to connect with other suffering human beings that could use a little help getting through the traumatic waves of fear, anger, anxiety, and uncertainty.

Sharing the truth, listening to somebody else’s truth, and being a part of another person’s healing process provide a deep level of understanding for another person, and the relationships that are forged through times like these are valuable and meaningful beyond measure.

6 Not Being Alone

Since cancer does not discriminate the people that become diagnosed with it can be from whatever race, family status, size, shape, sex, or whatever. (Yes, there are instances of men being diagnosed with breast cancer.) Some people come from large families that are willing to go to the ends of the earth with them and never let them sit alone. Some people are not so fortunate. If a person is diagnosed with a deadly illness such as breast cancer and they are completely alone, they might suffer much more than somebody that has support.

Regardless of the outpouring of support from family, or the lack of support from anybody, being a part of a breast cancer support group means that the person does not have to face the challenges of being ill alone. They can be surrounded by people that are willing to listen and be a part of the struggles that they are facing.

7 Practice Positivity and Acceptance

Although millions of people have fought the fight against cancer and won, there are many people that have lost that fight and lost their lives. Sometimes there is nothing left to do but be as comfortable as possible until it is time to go.

Regardless of whatever the outcome may be, living in the moment in acceptance of the truth and staying positive no matter what matters. Living in the moment means that you don’t have to worry about what is going to happen in the future. Being in acceptance means that you do not reject your truth, and do not have to struggle to try to change it.

One of the great things about being in a support group is that you are surrounded by people that want to be just as positive and full of acceptance as they can be. When a group of people practices these things together it helps everybody that is part of it in a big way. Sometimes things just can’t be changed the way that we want them to, accepting things as they are and being positive about the outlook is the best thing anybody can ever do for themselves.

Conclusion

Although breast cancer is a terrible, destructive illness it does not have to define anybody that suffers from it. As researchers strive forward to find the ultimate cure for cancer, the world will have to continue to accept and live with the effects of it. The one thing to be grateful about when it comes to deadly diseases is that there are people around that have beaten them and have a great survival story to share with others that are facing the same issues. The best place to meet these people is through support groups. They are there, just waiting to be a strong light for the ones that need it the most.

***On the Aepios platform, members gain support from peers nationwide by sharing valuable real-world experiences, treatments, and outcomes for an expanding number of medical conditions.***