Prioritizing Your Mental Health, Like Sharon Stone
- “Basic Instinct” star Sharon Stone, 66, has admitted to trying to combat her “demons” and has urged anyone dealing with mental health issues to “keep moving forward” amid adversity.
- Stone previously experienced a mishap amid Botox that distorted half of her face before things returned to normal with additional shots. She also suffered a life-threatening stroke and a nine-day brain hemorrhage in 2001, which took her several years to recover after. The actress also had a breast cancer scare after a large tumor was found amid screening described as larger than her breast. Fortunately, it was benign.
- The term mental health refers to both our emotional and psychological well-being. Our mental health can affect how we think, feel, and behave. Certain triggers like stress, traumatic events, or change in your physical health can affect mental health.
- It’s really important to keep tabs on your mental health and, if necessary, seek treatment. This doesn’t necessarily mean traditional therapy because while it may be really helpful (even life-changing) for some, that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone.
- Dr. Scott Irwin, a psychiatrist and Director of Supportive Care Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet, “We all get depressed from time to time, have a sad day, feeling down and blue – that’s part of normal human emotion, part of normal life. “Some of us, when we’re dealing with difficult things such as a diagnosis of cancer, may be sad or down or blue more often. And sometimes it gets to the point where that depression can be a little bit overwhelming, and we help them through therapy, through non-medication interventions.”
- There are many ways to address mental health issues. Options may include meditation, practicing mindfulness, talking with a therapist, joining a support group, and medication, such as antidepressants.
The 66-year-old resilient actress has certainly accomplished a lot, both in her career and overcoming health issues, as she previously experienced a mishap amid Botox, suffered a life-threatening stroke, a nine-day brain hemorrhage, and a breast cancer scare. So we’re delighted to see her being so candid about mental health and the importance of helping others cope through difficult times.
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“And trying to figure out how to keep getting back up, keep helping people even if we put them down, and make sure we’re all back up, and what do we do?”
She advised, “It must start with the individual. You must stand strong. And when you blow it. Okay, so what? That was two steps ago. You have to get back up, get yourself together, and help whoever you think you bumped around.
“And keep moving forward, and instant forgiveness. Instant forgiveness for yourself. Instant forgiveness for whoever shoved you down and get back up and let’s go. If you keep fighting wars that happened yesterday, or a hundred years ago, or a thousands years ago … Why? What’s the point of that?
The “Total Recall” star, who received the Peace Summit Award back in 2013 for her dedication in helping those with HIV and AIDs, also admitted to not telling people in Los Angeles after she won the award, but she was happy with the outcome and the people she met while working to create global peace.
She explained, “Suddenly, I was like, ‘I’m in the right goddamn room.’ These are my people. I would stand in the street with these people.
“I would risk my lives for these people. These people get me, I get them. It took 35 years, but I’m in the right room, and I never told people here, in LA, that I even won. I didn’t tell anybody because I thought, ‘How can I tell people in the movie business that I won a Nobel prize?'”
Sharon Stone’s Health Struggles
Sharon Stone previously opened up about getting Botox to maintain her youthful appearance and a cosmetic mishap which left her with a distorted face and a near-death brain hemorrhage experience.
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Speaking to Vogue in an earlier interview, Stone said, “There were periods in the super fame when I got Botox and filler and stuff, and then I had this massive stroke and a nine-day brain hemorrhage, and then I had to have over 300 shots of Botox and filler to make the one side of my face come up again.”
The Botox mishap and the brain hemorrhage changed the actress’ outlook on life, leading her to place added emphasis on inward and outward beauty.
Sharon’s Brain Hemorrhage
Stone suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2001 after a ruptured vertebral artery caused by internal bleeding in her brain. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this type of injury is likely from “blunt injury to the head and neck.” This type of injury is an “important cause of stroke or transient ischemic attack,” NIH adds, meaning blood flow is restricted. This life-threatening situation prompted her doctors to give her a slim chance of survival, but fortunately, she pulled through the trying experience.
It ultimately took her nearly seven years to recover, and she lost years of work and income due to her health battle. She recounted to Variety, “I had to remortgage my house. I lost everything I had. I lost my place in the business. I was like the hottest movie star, you know?”
More On Managing Your Mental Health
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In order to keep your mental health in check, it’s important to be aware of signs which can be subtle that there is something affecting your mind. These signs include:
- A change in eating or sleeping habits
- Losing interest in people or usual activities
- Experiencing little or no energy
- Numb and/or hopeless feelings
- Turning to drinking or drugs more than usual
- Non-typical angry, upset, or on-edge feelings
- Yelling/fighting with loved ones
- Experiencing mood swings
- Intrusive thoughts
- Trouble getting through daily tasks
These symptoms can be wide-ranging and vary a great deal from person to person. Everyone experiences grief differently, for example. However, if you are feeling unusually sad, on-edge, or like you’re no longer interested in activities you used to love, know that there are many treatment options available and many different healthy ways to help you cope.
Coping With Depression
Dr. Scott Irwin, a psychiatrist and Director of Supportive Care Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, says it’s crucial for patients to talk to their care team about their mental health.
“We all get depressed from time to time, have a sad day, feeling down and blue – that’s part of normal human emotion, part of normal life,” Dr. Irwin explained. “Some of us, when we’re dealing with difficult things such as a diagnosis of cancer, may be sad or down or blue more often. And sometimes it gets to the point where that depression can be a little bit overwhelming, and we help them through therapy, through non-medication interventions.”
There are many ways to address mental health issues as a cancer survivor. Options may include:
- Meditation
- Practicing mindfulness
- Talking with a therapist
- Joining a support group
- Medication, such as antidepressants
Medication
When doctors and patients together decide that medication is necessary, it’s important that doctors choose wisely.
“I often try to choose medications with the lowest side effect profile,” Dr. Irwin said. “If patients are getting hormonal therapy, there’s particular antidepressants that we can’t use because they may lower the effectiveness of that hormonal therapy and so we choose antidepressants that don’t impact the cancer care.”
This shows how important it is to have communication between everyone you’re seeing, so they can be on the same page about your treatment and options.
Dealing With Grief Related to Health Problems
Another way doctors can tailor mental health medications for their patients is through genetic testing.
Psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik says genetic testing through companies like Genomind can help doctors understand how likely it is a patient may respond to different types of psychiatric medications.
“Doing the genetic testing has absolutely transformed the landscape of psycho-pharmacology,” Dr. Plutchik told SurvivorNet. “It’s something that I highly recommend for anybody who is taking medication, whether they are being treated for cancer, or not.”
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Dr. Plutchik also explained that genetic testing can be specifically helpful for cancer patients because it may help avoid trial and error when it comes to choosing a mental health medication that does not interfere with their cancer treatment.
“So, a person who is dealing with this and may have to go on chemotherapy has already enough on their plate that they don’t really want to start dealing with trial and error with medications,” she said. “So, it gives me information about which medications are likely to work without having problematic side effects, and it also gives information about interactions between any of the psych medications that we choose and the chemotherapy agents that they may be taking.”
Support Groups
Whether you’re coping with an illness, an emotional problem, or life transition, a support group can be a place where people in the same boat, or a similar situation, can come together.
But maybe you’re a little unsure or skeptical about joining a group. What will it be like? Are you expected to share your story?
Dr. Amy McNally, gynecologic oncologist with Minnesota Oncology, tries to reassure her patients that chances are, they’ll derive some benefit.
“I think in a support group you’re going to find women who are in similar situations but yet can share their unique stories,” she says.
“Just being there is worth it. You don’t have to share a thing. You can just sit and listen, or you can be part of the conversation and offer your thoughts. And it can be different every time you go, it’s your choice as to how or whether to participate and what you decide to get out of the group.”
McNally thinks it can be helpful and comforting to be around people who know what you’ve been through, or are going through, and that in and of itself is reason enough to try it out.
Therapy
“People that are struggling with coping with the experience, coping with body image should reach out to their doctors, find a therapist in the community,” says Dr. Irwin.
A patient navigator or social worker can also help connect you with a mental health professional that you can talk to to help process your emotions.
“It’s about meeting the individual patient where they are and their feelings, how they’ve always dealt with their body image, what the body image changes mean now in their lives and their relationships, and how they can move forward given the new reality,” Dr. Irwin said.
Mindfulness
Jon Kabat Zinn, founder of the eight-week stress-reduction program, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a course that has entered the mainstream of health care, scientific study, and public policy, describes mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”
Mindfulness is often suggested for cancer patients to reduce high levels of anxiety and distress associated with diagnosis, treatment, and anticipation of possible disease recurrence.
Both the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Society of Integrative Oncology recommend meditation as part of a multidisciplinary approach to reduce stress, depression, and mood disturbance, and to improve the quality of life in cancer patients. But the question remains: does it really work? We think it does.
5 tips for practicing mindfulness:
- Choose one daily activity to practice mindfully (e.g. eating your lunch, brushing your teeth or taking a shower). During this activity notice your breath and activity of your mind for a few moments.
- Take a pause throughout your day. During your day, find a moment to stop and take 5 deep breaths with your eyes closed.
- Kindly acknowledge a moment you’re experiencing a difficulty, by putting your hand on your heart and saying, “Feel my pain. How can I be kind to myself in this moment?”
- Get curious about your emotions. Experiment with welcoming your emotions as they come, instead of pushing them away.
- Become aware when you’re in a rush. Ask yourself, “Do I really need to hurry?”
Meditation
Regularly meditating allows people to start to become more aware of the emotions in the physical body and the thoughts running through the mind, to acknowledge their thoughts as they arise, and then gently let them go.
Shannon Masur, a colon cancer and Lynch Syndrome survivor, describes this as “when a thought comes in, to feel it, feel the fear, but let it go after a few seconds.”
All of this is said to result in an overall reduction in stress and anxiety in the body. It may also help patients to control problems such as pain, difficulty sleeping, tiredness, feeling sick and high blood pressure.
For help getting started with meditation, here’s a guided session to try.
WATCH: A Guided Meditation for the SurvivorNet Community
Overall, don’t forget to prioritize your mental health if you’re facing cancer. You might feel like your mind is the least of your worries while fighting the disease, but it’s important to know just how big of an impact your mental well-being can have on your health as a whole.
“Actually, there’s data that if you have extra stress or depression that you may not recover or you have a higher risk or recurrence,” Dr. Irwin said. “So… in treating the depression, we’re actually impacting the cancer care outcomes.”
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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