Breast Cancer Burnout?

I saw an article recently on 'Breast Cancer Burnout'. I saved an open tab on m computer for a few days before reading it - ruminating on the topic as I often do. I was waiting to blog about it - I often keep articles on the side until I don't have a topic or feel like writing about it.

I presumed it was about over pinkification and how it overwhelms us with its unending pink perkiness. By the end of, actually by the beginning of October, I couldn't careless about anything breast cancer related that has a pink ribbon on it. Don't get me started on the overwhelming perkiness!

Sometimes I feel that with the pinkness, comes the lipstick that gets put on the pig. A pink ribbon is not going to make breast cancer any 'better' of a disease. It is still and will always be a deadly disease for women and men. Pink can't make it pretty.

The burnout is caused by living with a disease that causes a lifetime of side effects, stressors, and physical and emotional scars.The life-changing event of a breast, or any cancer, diagnosis can cause overwhelming burnout. A patient needs to achieve the so called 'new normal' where they learn to adopt to the new pressures. The unending cancer roller coaster gives you a new twist just when you have settled down on a steady ride for a short time.

I was wrong. (Yes I admit that)

The article was on the burnout cause by a newly diagnosed patient who does not reach out for emotional support to cope with their disease. Yes I can see how burnout would be reached but its not the same. I never would have used the word burnout to describe the emotions of a cancer diagnosis. I would have called it an emotional hell.