When do you tell your friends and family?

No one can actually answer that question for you. Each individual is different and each type of cancer is different. Everything you decide about telling people will have to do with your relationship to the people around you, your career goals and the path that you are now on, and or course, your symptoms.

There are many questions that go through a patient’s mind about what to say and to whom to tell, or how to reach out and tell them. Give it some thought before you decide. If you have someone in your home who already knows about the diagnosis, discuss the situation and what is the best/worst scenario of letting the word get out, and to whom.

From Diagnosis to ResilienceIt may be necessary to keep this news from some people. You decide. If they don’t have a way to find out then maybe you don’t want everyone to know. It is possible to keep this to yourself if you believe that is what is best for you. The best thing you could probably do at this time is to put yourself first in this scenario—and throughout your treatment. In my program “From Diagnosis to Resilience” there are ways to do that which can help immensely and are discreet.

Eventually telling people may have to happen, but right now you control who knows and how much they know. Remember, a cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. In other words, decide consciously.