Adjustment disorder, 200 issues of 66.1

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Good morning, 66.1ers.

Apologies for the delay in sending this one out.
As I said to a friend yesterday…

This is a bad time of year to have cancer.
Not that there’s a good time of year to have cancer, but this is coming to you late because there’s been more tough stuff than normal.

For example, I’ve been working with this patient for the past 3 months (of course, demographic information is changed to protect patient privacy):

37 year old woman. 

Diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
Mother of 4. 

Wife to 1.
Full time job.
Holidays are here.

So is the chemotherapy.
Radiation.
Time away from family. 
Hair loss.

Leading to…
Panic attacks. 
Depression. 
Anxiety.

She was recently diagnosed with “Adjustment Disorder”. When she told me, I thought, “that’s odd.” Because…

Isn’t this backwards?

Why do we call a perfectly normal, maybe even healthy, physiological response to life being flipped on its head a “disorder”?

Wouldn’t it be weirder to not have a panic attack when your husband and kids are 8 hours away and you’re strapped to a cold, hard radiation table every day for 2 weeks so the doctors can try to kill the thing that’s trying to kill you?

Not trying to be depressing or grumpy here. Just sharing what I see everyday because it’s helped me to appreciate my life, my health, my people. Maybe reading these types of things could do similar for you?

A question for you:

We’re approaching 200 issues of 66.1. Been writing this newsletter since July 2023. It’s been fun. 2.5 years in, I’m wondering a few things. Want to hit “reply” and share your thoughts?

1. Have you seen anything valuable in the stuff I’ve written?
2. What 1-2 topics would you like to hear more about in 2026?
3. Any questions you want to ask me?

Recommendation of the week

First came across this one during my Health and Wellness Coach training. A good resource for making sense of stress so you can do something about it. If you’re feeling the S word, maybe you want to check it out (and you might even get good at cartwheels?!)?