Coping With Loss
- While appearing on “The Viall Files”, former Bachelorette contestant Greg Grippo discussed what caused his explosive fight with Katie Thurston, which he contributes to him still processing losing his father to cancer in 2018.
- Grippo lost his father, Frank, in December 2018 due to a long battle with stage 4 lung cancer.
- People have told SurvivorNet that therapy helped them cope with loss tremendously, as it allowed them to talk through their emotions freely.
While appearing on “The Viall Files”, which is hosted by Nick Viall (a former Bachelor), Grippo was asked about his explosive fight with Thurston on this season’s Bachelorette finale, which led him to abruptly leave the show. Grippo honestly stated that he regrets how he treated Thurston during the fight, and believes that he projected a lot of his unprocessed emotions of anger and sadness at her. Grippo also admitted that he still hasn’t fully processed losing his father in 2018, which may have contributed to the heated argument.
Read MoreStage 4 Lung Cancer: Overview
Stage 4 lung cancer, also referred to as advanced lung cancer, means that that cancer has spread to other parts of the body outside of the lungs such as the bones, brain or liver. Thanks to huge advancements in research, experts are constantly examining how a person's disease interacts with different types of therapies. These can include immunotherapy, precision medicine, radiation, chemotherapy or surgery. No matter what route you take, doctors' main objective is to maintain the disease as much as possible so the cancer cells no longer continue to grow.
“We don’t know if it’s the small brain tumor that might give you stroke or seizure symptoms or it’s a hidden liver spot that’s going to make your liver become injured and fatigued and nauseated with time,” Dr. Geoffrey Oxnard, a former thoracic oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, previously told SurvivorNet. “So Stage 4 means, treat the whole body. Visible and invisible spots.”
Dr. Geoffrey Oxnard breaks down stage 4 lung cancer
Coping With Loss
After losing someone to cancer, there is no right or wrong way to grieve. Having a support system in any form can make a huge difference when it comes to accepting your loss and moving forward with your life. One of the reasons why people may struggle with coping with loss is that they’re too afraid to ask for help. That’s why therapy can really be a life-saver in coping with the roller coaster of emotions you’re feeling.
This was the case for Camila Legaspi, who lost her mother Gabriela to breast cancer when she was in high school. In order to cope with the tragedy, Legaspi started going to therapy and has told SurvivorNet that it was one of the best decisions she could have made. She said that having someone there to simply talk things through with made a huge difference and really helped her to appreciate all the great things she still had in her life.
“Therapy saved my life," Legaspi previously told SurvivorNet. "I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on. Going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me … that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings. The reality is when you lose someone, it's really, really, really hard. And it's totally OK to talk to someone, and I'm so happy that I talked to my therapist.”
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