A Healthy Reminder
- The Good Place actress Kristen Bell shared an important reminder about what makes a healthy relationship.
- The wife and mother posted some words from author Yung Pueblo who says that people in a healthy relationship step for the the other when they are going through a turbulent time. It’s a give and take.
- Cancer survivor Jill Kargman tells SurvivorNet how having cancer can be a blessing in disguise when weeding out the people who no longer serve you. It can also be really tough, but you’ll be better in the end.
The Good Place star’s recent message is one that serves as an important reminder for anyone in a relationship. And it doesn’t have to be a romantic relationship. In relationships of any kind, whether it’s parental or more on the best friend level, both parties should enhance the other’s lives.
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Bell has been married to actor Dax Shepard, 46, for eight years, and they’ve had their fair share of ups and downs, with Shepard publicly battling addiction (he relapsed on painkillers after 16 years, is now clean, and hopefully staying that way). Clearly her husband enhances her life, because Bell still proudly stands by her man. The couple have two daughters together, Lincoln, 8, and Delta, 6.
Shepard lost both his father and step-father to cancer. Bell served as a caregiver and helped her husband’s family.
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It’s safe to say that anyone going through cancer, or dealing with other forms of physical or mental disease, is going through a turbulent moment. Therefore, if the people in your life aren’t stepping up to the plate to help you out emotionally or just letting you know they’re there for you, they’ve got to go.
Cancer and Relationships
One thing to make clear about Bell’s post, for cancer patients, it’s okay to be selfish while you focus on survival. Your loved ones won’tor shouldn’tfault you, because chances are you are in their lives because of what you have contributed to the relationship thus far. It’s okay to take a time out to focus on yourself. But it’s not okay for, say, your husband or wife, to skip out on being there for you during treatments or other times of need.
As one cancer survivor told us, cancer tends to weed out the “sh*theads.”
Sometimes cancer can be a blessing in disguise, because it makes people very aware of how supportive their person is; usually they find out really fast.
"I think cancer is a great way to find out if you're with the love of your life or a shithead," melanoma survivor Jill Kargman, a writer and actress, tells SurvivorNet. “I think it presses the fast forward button on getting to the bottom of that answer."
Related: Actress Jill Kargman on Relationships and Cancer
It can be especially hard for patients with advanced stage cancer to cope with someone not being there for them. "Any person whose had a break-up during late-stage cancer, I understand it," ovarian cancer Tara Lessard says. "I think it's a challenge and it's awful and I get it."
When Hodgkin lymphoma survivor CC Webster met her then-boyfriend (now-husband) at the time of diagnosis, it was rough for her to say the least.
"When you start to lose yourself in sickness and your hair comes out and you start to turn gray and sallow and your skin changes and body changes, it seemed to me that I was disintegrating into a changed form," Webster admits, which affected their relationship because of the view she had of herself. Luckily, she had a keeper and all humans deserve that, especially people with cancer.
Jill Kargman on Relationships and Cancer
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