Understanding You're Not Alone in Your Anxiety & How To Cope
- Actress Jennifer Grey, who previously battled thyroid cancer and crippling anxiety, has a lot to celebrate now that she’s just turned 64, as she recently took part in a new acting role in the filme “A Real Pain,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
- Thyroid cancer is a disease that begins in the thyroid gland, which is at the base of the neck. The cancer will often present itself as a large bump (tumor) in the neck, and symptoms of thyroid cancer can be mistaken for a common cold.
- Chances of cancer recovery increase significantly with early detection, so it’s important to address any new or unusual symptoms you’re experiencing with your doctor promptly.
- Anxiety symptoms include feelings of irritability, fatigue, and nervousness. People struggling with anxiety also have trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, and rapid heart rate which leads to hyperventilation.
- Therapy and medication are the two most recommended forms of treatment for individuals with anxiety, and treatments vary depending on the type of anxiety an individual has.
- Dr. Marianna Strongin, a clinical psychologist and founder of Strong In Therapy, has been helping the SurvivorNet community by sharing coping mechanisms and a structured way to think about handling these issues.
The dance-movie icon, who just turned 64 and is most famous for being Patrick Swayzee’s “Baby” in the 1987 American romantic drama “Dirty Dancing,” took to social media to commemorate the premiere of the “beautiful” new film written, directed, and produced by actor Jesse Eisenberg. Grey stars in the film with Eisenberg himself and Kieran Culkin.
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Writing alongside several recent photos of herself with fellow artists, who also took part in the new film, Grey wrote in an Instagram post, “What a thrill to be a part of such a special, beautiful film, #ARealPain, and to be in the company of these extraordinary artists.
“Thank you #jesseeisenberg for inviting me to the dance, for directing the shit out of your magnificent script, and for casting these mind blowingly talented souls. Thank you @sundanceorg for doing what you do so well, it was an experience I’ll never forget.”
Leading up to the premiere, Grey wrote in another social media post, “I am thrilled to announce that A REAL PAIN will premiere at #Sundance 2024! (in the dramatic competition category).
“Written, directed and produced by jesse eisenberg, and if that weren’t enough… jesse also stars in it alongside the cuckoo-talented kieran culkin. working with this ridiculously brilliant, moving and hilarious cast, which included will sharpe and kurt egyiawan, was one of my most beautiful professional experiences to date.”
Speaking to Hollywood Reporter about what made her decide to act in the film, she explained, “And then I read the script, and I went from excited to elated.
“t’s a very deep movie, about relationships and grief and loss and identity and resilience. Jesse’s tone is so human and accessible and vulnerable and funny. Immediately, I was in, because I love smart people.”
She continued, “It may sound a little woo woo, but there’s a reason I get every job,” she said. “It usually has to do with a part of me that needs to be processed or healed. Things are brought to me to help me.”
Grey’s new movie debut comes just one year after the debut of another film she starred in, Lifetime’s “Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation,” where she played the late weight-loss guru Gwen Shamblin .
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The dramatize movie chronicles Shamblin’s life, the “controversial diet guru and self-appointed church leader” the Chicago Sun Times described.
Shamblin gained fame with her “Christian diet program ‘Weigh Down Workshop’ and was accused of exploitation and emotional, psychological and physical abuse by the church’s alleged cult practices,” according to IMDB movie review.
Jennifer Grey’s Battle With Thyroid Cancer & Anxiety
Jennifer Grey hasn’t publicly revealed many details about her private cancer journey, but we do know it began when a lump was discovered as the actress was preparing for spinal surgery after years of pain stemming from a 1987 car crash.
Grey’s cancerous lump was on her thyroid, and she had the tumor removed in December 2009 at the age of 49, according to Dr. Alexander Shifrin, an endocrine surgeon specializing in parathyroid, thyroid and adrenal glands.
As demonstrated by her continued and successful career since 2009, Grey has not let thyroid cancer stop her from pursuing her goals and dreams.
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As for her anxiety, what led to it, and why she never reprised her role as “Mindy Hunter” on the first season of “Friends,” Grey opened up in an interview with MediaVillage just last year.
She told the media outlet how things didn’t go as expected when she accepted the role. Grey explained, “I was a fan of the show, and I got the call to do it. Then when I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script. It’s very hard to be a guest star because you’re not a part of it, and you’re really trying to figure it all out. They were trying to figure out what the character was, what the scene was, and it was changing, and changing, and changing. It all made me so anxious that I could barely do it.
“I didn’t know at the time what was going on with me. But I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I just didn’t understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department.”
Despite her anxiety, she was able to finish up the episode. With regard to what she learned from the experience, she said, “Everything you do in life, especially the hard things, the really painful, difficult things, are usually the things that are the most instructive and helpful.
“In life, I always learn more from things that you feel like a failure at, and the successes, you don’t learn as much, although, they might be fun. But it’s all a part of life.”
However, her crippling anxiety kept her from taking part in an episode of “Saturday Night Life.”
She explained, “I always just [felt] like I wished I had the ability to do things,” she shared. “Like when they asked me to do Saturday Night Live, I just couldn’t. I said ‘No.’ I was just too scared.
She also told “Friends” she “couldn’t” reprise the role as Mindy in later episodes.
“It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on Friends or doing Saturday Night Live because of my anxiety. The truth is, I wished I had people to help me navigate that kind of fear. But I couldn’t be there until I was there,” she concluded, but ultimately performed on “Dancing With The Stars,” in 2010, something she won and “can’t believe” she was able to accomplish.
Thyroid Cancer Symptoms
Thyroid cancer is a disease that begins in the thyroid gland, which is at the base of the neck. The cancer will often present itself as a large bump (tumor) in the neck. It remains unclear what causes the disease. Some symptoms of thyroid cancer can be mistaken for a common cold.
Dr. Scott Strome, a head and neck cancer surgeon who is currently the dean of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, and previous chair of head and neck surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, explained thyroid cancer in an earlier interview with SurvivorNet.
“We’re now able to detect thyroid disease, thyroid cancers, much earlier than we used to be able to,” Dr. Strome says. “We tend to see it predominantly in younger women, but it can occur in both men and women. In most cases, I tell my patients that, ‘Your thyroid cancer is a barnacle on the ship of life.'”
Dr. Strome suggests finding an experienced thyroid expert for treatment.
“Folks who have thyroid cancer, they need to go to a really experienced thyroid setting and have folks who really understand the disease. Those are for the most indolent type of thyroid cancers, called papillary,” he explained.
“Thyroid cancer is a pretty interesting disease, because papillary is a really indolent cancer. On the other end of the spectrum, you have what’s called anaplastic thyroid cancer, which may be one of (if not the) most aggressive cancers that we see. So it’s a whole spectrum of disease.”
Treatments for thyroid cancer can include surgery, hormone therapy, radioactive iodine, radiation, and chemotherapy.
Symptoms of thyroid cancer include the following:
- A lump in the neck, sometimes growing quickly
- Swelling in the neck
- Pain in the front of the neck, sometimes going up to the ears
- Hoarseness or other voice changes that do not go away
- Trouble swallowing
- Trouble breathing
- A constant cough that is not due to a cold
“You Are Your Own Best Advocate”
“Most people have no discrete symptoms, the majority of cases now are found incidentally,” Dr. Allen Ho said in a previous interview with SurvivorNet.
“However, a sizable number of people may first discover their cancer when they feel a bump on their neck. Other possible late symptoms include problems swallowing, the sensation of something in their throat, neck compression when laying flat or voice changes.”
The good news is that many of these possible symptoms, including lumps in the thyroid, are both common and commonly benign, but it never hurts to ask your doctor.
Chances of cancer recovery increase significantly with early detection, so it’s important to address any warning signs of thyroid cancer, or any cancer for that matter, with a medical expert swiftly.
Be Pushy, Be Your Own Advocate- Don’t Settle
Coping With a Diagnosis
It’s important to remember that coping with a diagnosis, like cancer or other illness, is not easy and usually brings a string of emotions.
Although some people may feel positivity and hope amid their cancer journey, others can feel angry, sad, or determined, and it’s completely normal. Sarah Stapleton, a licensed clinical social worker, encourages cancer warriors and their families to be “patient with your emotions.”
“It’s also important that you understand how you communicate with your providers, but also with your loved ones,” Stapleton previously told SurvivorNet.
“We can’t always assume that people know what we need at a given time, and there are going to be times when you don’t want to speak about your diagnosis and you don’t want to speak about cancer.”
“Be Patient With Your Emotions”: A Social Worker’s Insights Into Handling a Cancer Diagnosis
How To Manage Anxiety During High-Stress Times
Battling a mental health issue, cancer, or learning to move forward after treatment can be an extremely stressful time for so many people. How can you manage your anxiety while dealing with so many other things?
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Dr. Marianna Strongin, a clinical psychologist and founder of Strong In Therapy, has been helping the SurvivorNet community by sharing coping mechanisms and a structured way to think about handling these issues.
“The way that I define anxiety is that it’s an internal question that we simply can’t find the answers to,” Dr. Strongin previously toldSurvivorNet.
Dr. Strongin says that one of the main causes of anxiety is uncertainty about life, and a cancer battle can fuel anxiety for individuals because of the lack of uncertainty about the future.
Many people will turn to media platforms for answers, but Dr. Strongin says that individuals often end up with more questions as a result which leads to more anxiety.
The first step for coping during stressful circumstances is understanding one’s anxiety. To do this, Dr. Strongin suggests checking in with oneself everyday to see where the anxiety is manifesting and what questions are causing the anxiety. From there, it’s important to answer those questions and reassure oneself with positivity.
WATCH: A Guided Meditation for the SurvivorNet Community
“The answers are our coping skills,” Dr. Strongin says. “Some people are really good at always giving themselves answers…other people don’t have the coping skills to answer their anxiety and as a result the anxiety increases. … We are all facing the same questions.”
She continues, “Some are facing them much more than others and some are better at answering those questions than others. What’s really important is to pay attention to is what those questions are, what the frequency of those questions are, and how you’re answering them.”
Anxiety In The United States
According to the Anxiety Depression Association of America (ADAA), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the United States, affecting nearly 40 million adults 18 years and older. Anxiety can be developed through factors including genetics, personality, brain chemistry, and life circumstances. Despite being highly treatable, only 43.2% of people receive treatment for anxiety disorders.
Anxiety symptoms include feelings of irritability, fatigue, and nervousness. People struggling with anxiety also have trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, and rapid heart rate which leads to hyperventilation.
Therapy and medication are the two most recommended forms of treatment for individuals with anxiety, and treatments vary depending on the type of anxiety an individual has.
Mental Health: The Basics
The term mental health refers to both our emotional and psychological well-being. Our mental health can affect how we think, feel, and behave. Certain triggers like stress, traumatic events, or change in your physical health can affect mental health. It’s really important to keep tabs on your mental health and, if necessary, seek treatment. This doesn’t necessarily mean traditional therapy because while it may be really helpful (even life-changing) for some, that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone.
Problems with mood and overall mental well-being can be attributed to several factors. For some people it’s genetic, while others may be experiencing a response to some sort of stressor or past trauma.
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In order to keep your mental health in check, it’s important to be aware of signs which can be subtle that there is something affecting your mind. These signs include:
- A change in eating or sleeping habits
- Losing interest in people or usual activities
- Experiencing little or no energy
- Numb and/or hopeless feelings
- Turning to drinking or drugs more than usual
- Non-typical angry, upset, or on-edge feelings
- Yelling/fighting with loved ones
- Experiencing mood swings
- Intrusive thoughts
- Trouble getting through daily tasks
These symptoms can be wide-ranging and vary a great deal from person to person. Everyone experiences grief differently, for example.
However, if you are feeling unusually sad, on-edge, or like you’re no longer interested in activities you used to love, know that there are many treatment options available and many different healthy ways to help you cope.
Understanding Treatment Options
Treatment options for people struggling with mental health really run the gamut. While some people may benefit from seeking the help of a psychologist and getting on medication, others see great improvement by simply implementing some lifestyle changes, such as prioritizing exercise and cutting back on alcohol.
RELATED: How to Be Realistically Optimistic: Coping With Mental Health Long-Term
Those struggling should know that they are not alone about one in five American adults has experienced some sort of mental health issue, according to mentalhealth.gov.
However, what worked to help someone else cope may not necessarily help you as treatment must be individualized.
Dr. Scott Irwin, a Psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Explains Talk Therapy
To maintain a positive mindset and address mental health struggles you may be having, treatment may include:
- Seeking professional help from a psychiatrist or therapist
- Learning healthy coping skills
- Medication such as antidepressants
- Adding more physical activity to your routine
- Adjusting your sleep schedule
- Connecting with others via support groups
- Mindfulness and meditation
Dr. Daynelle Dedmond, a Gynecologic Oncologist at Centura Health in Colorado Springs, On Mental Health Treatment
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
If you find yourself struggling with a mental health issue, or a diagnosis, or even helping a loved one cope with their emotions, consider asking your doctor the following questions:
- How can I go about improving my outlook/mental health?
- Are there any activities I can do to encourage positive feelings?
- When should I seek other interventions if I’m still struggling?
- What are the steps to finding a different therapist if the one I’m using is not working out?
Patients Do Better When They are Less Stressed
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.