When an individual gets a disease like cancer, the world stops for him. Cancer diagnosis usually brings with it a wide range of emotions. Emotions that occur are usually very intense and uncomfortable. The purpose of my master's thesis is to understand the experience and expression of emotions in the process of disease treatment and the goal is to use a qualitative methodology and phenomenological approach to explore and describe the experience of emotions from the beginning of the diagnosis to the end, from the perspective of the participants of the research. The research included four female and four male participants that recovered from cancer in the last two years and are under the age of 45. Participants said that when they first got the cancer diagnosis they felt shock and soon after that, all the other unpleasant feelings. Emotions of fear, anger, sadness and despair were very common. This same emotions were also present in the process of treatment. Some pleasant emotions were also present, such as: happiness, gratitude and optimism. They showed their emotions in different ways. Some of them shared their emotions with their partners or families only, others showed their emotions to friends that also battled the disease, so we can say they all got the most support from their partners, families and friends. The support of loved ones can also be a source of the greatest help in dealing with the disease. In addition to proper social support in dealing with the disease, it can also be helpful to maintain a routine, to meditate and enjoy the nature. Individuals can learn a number of insights after coping with the disease, that were previously hidden. Reporting about the experiance and expression of emotions in the process of coping with cancer gives a number of insights into the entire individual process from the beginning of treatment to the end.
Due to the phenomenological mothodology, research findings can't be generalized to the wider population, but we can assume that other patients experience their experience in a similiar way as described by our participants in the research.
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