The journey back to health isn’t just about physical recovery. For many patients, it’s accompanied by unexpected emotional turbulence—what we might call “the anxiety of healing.” The experience of feeling anxious as you get better deserves more attention.
The Paradox of Recovery
You’ve recovered! Your chemo is complete and you’re back to work. Or you found a medication that works for your chronic condition and it’s under control. Maybe a serious injury put you in the hospital, but your rehabilitation is complete and it’s back to normal. Or is it? If your illness or injury is in the rearview mirror, why are you so anxious?
Janissa, 42, found herself inexplicably bursting into tears in the months after recovering from a life-threatening bout of pneumonia. She had taken pains to eat more healthfully, start exercising, cut back a bit at work, and reduce the stress she believed contributed to her illness. So why was she overwhelmed by sadness at the most mundane times, like driving to the grocery store or to pick up her kids at school?
What most people don’t know until they experience it is that healing from an injury or disease can trigger negative as well as positive feelings. First, the experience of being ill or injured can lead you to reevaluate your life, as it did for Bryce, a college student who was in a serious car crash. Spending a month in the hospital recovering from his injuries led him to switch from a pre-med major to pursuing his dream of becoming an outdoor guide.
As you recover physically, chances are that your sleep, nutrition, metabolism, and hormones are shifting as well. All these changes affect your emotional, mental, and spiritual balance, and this can result in anxiety-related symptoms.1,2,3
Meet Susan, a 50-year-old marketing executive who had a stroke. After returning home, it was weeks before she remembered anything about her time in the rehabilitation center. But as she began to improve, she started to recall the experience and feel strong emotions.
“I realized that I had almost died,” she says. “I also started to realize I’d never be quite the same.” She was also fearful about having another stroke. Every headache became terrifying, and she was afraid to be alone. “The better my body got, the worse my mind felt,” she says.
Understanding How We Adjust
What Susan experienced is known as an adjustment reaction—a psychological response that occurs as we adapt to significant life changes, even positive ones like recovery. This reaction can include symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both as patients adjust to a new reality.
The adjustment period involves processing what happened and adapting to life after illness:
- Trauma and its impact. A serious illness or injury can be traumatic, triggering anxiety as a natural response.3
- Post-traumatic stress. Some people develop post-traumatic stress disorder after a traumatic event, leading to persistent anxiety symptoms.1,3
- Uncertainty and control. Recovery can be a long and uncertain process, leading to anxiety about the future, potential complications, and the loss of control.1,4
According to recent research, nearly half of all people who experienced a major illness report struggling to maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health. More than one in four report a lack of energy, difficulty sleeping, and exercising less—all symptoms that can result from and contribute to anxiety.
The Shadow of Cancer Recurrence
If you’ve had cancer, you have likely experienced the fear that it will come back after treatment. Fear of recurrence can be immobilizing, as every new ache or pain could become a potential harbinger of disaster. Every follow-up appointment brings a flood of “what-ifs.”
This fear isn’t irrational—it’s a natural response to having faced a serious threat to your health. Yet it can have a huge impact on your quality of life long after treatment ends.
Marcus, a 58-year-old teacher who completed chemotherapy for lymphoma two years ago, describes this anxiety as “living with a shadow that never quite disappears.” He explains: “My body is cancer-free, but it’s always in my mind.”
Managing this fear is part of the “new normal” for many survivors. As one oncology nurse practitioner says, “Learning to live with uncertainty can be the hardest part of survivorship.”
A Change of Identity
One aspect of healing anxiety that’s rarely discussed is the potential loss of the “patient identity.” When you spend months or years in treatment, being a patient can become part of who you are. Your doctors and nurses become friends and confidants—at times, they are your lifelines. When treatment ends, you might feel like you can’t move forward without them.
Cancer patients often experience this when transitioning to a survivorship clinic. Some want to cling to the team that provided treatment. Leaving your oncologist can feel like a breakup, with all the grief, uncertainty, and challenge of having to forge new relationships.
As one patient put it: “My doctor saved my life. She knows everything about me—my body, my fears, my family. The thought of starting over with someone new feels like abandonment, even though logically I know it’s a good sign that I don’t need that level of care anymore.”
The Geographic Handcuffs
Becoming attached to a particular clinician can even affect your life choices. If you or a family member wants to move, but you feel stuck, is it because you don’t want to leave your doctors? People with serious conditions often find themselves making major life decisions based on proximity to their health care providers. They may turn down job opportunities, delay retirement, or avoid moving closer to family because of these fears.
“I had a chance to move to Arizona to be near my daughter when she had her baby,” explains one heart transplant recipient. “But I couldn’t imagine leaving my transplant team. What if something happened and I had to start over with new doctors who didn’t know my case? It felt too risky.”
The Role of Suffering in Helping You Heal
Although modern medicine rightly focuses on alleviating suffering, there’s also value in acknowledging the role that suffering can play in the healing process. Working through difficult emotions—including anxiety—might mean crying the tears of grief and loss, getting angry, and leaving your comfort zone. But all these activities can lead to profound personal growth and resilience.
This isn’t to glorify suffering but rather to recognize that the psychological work of processing the impact of an illness or injury is an essential part of whole person healing. As one patient described it: “My body healed in months, but my mind took years to catch up.”
This process of integrating the illness experience into your life story is crucial for many patients and represents a different kind of healing—one that can’t be measured in lab tests or imaging studies. Journaling about your illness, or telling the story in a support group, can help you understand your feelings and move ahead.
Healing the Whole Person
This highlights the critical concept that clinicians must address the whole person. Your experience of illness and recovery is just as important as your blood test results. Some whole person ways to ask yourself if you’re experiencing the anxiety of healing include:
- Do you I have physical discomfort? If you still have physical pain or discomfort or are dealing with changes to your body and body image, these can contribute to anxiety.1,5
- What is the mental health impact? A serious illness or injury may disrupt daily routines, social connections, and overall well-being. This can lead to anxiety and other mental health concerns.2
- Do I feel vulnerability? If you already have anxiety or have been through other traumatic events, you might be more likely to develop anxiety after an injury or illness.2,3
True healing means addressing the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of health. When clinicians acknowledge and validate your anxiety about healing, they help you start to heal completely.
The Path to Empowerment
One key to whole person healing is understanding that just as physical healing isn’t the whole story, there is no single best way to heal. Your healing journey will be a little—or a lot—different from anyone else’s, even if they have the same disease. Knowing this can help you avoid judging yourself if you’re not “bouncing back” as quickly as someone else seems to.
Cherie, a breast cancer survivor and patient advocate, runs support groups for women in various stages of treatment and recovery.
“The most powerful moment in our groups,” she says, “is when someone realizes they’re not ‘doing recovery wrong’ just because their emotions don’t match what they think they ‘should’ be feeling. There’s no timeline for healing, and there’s no single right path.”
Coping Tips for the Anxiety of Healing
Manage your thoughts
A type of counseling called cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, can help you turn negative or despairing thoughts into positive ones. For example, CBT could help you change the recurring thought “My cancer is going to come back” to “I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy, and I’ll deal with problems if they arise.”
A therapist specializing in CBT can teach you techniques such as “thought stopping” to turn off that negative inner voice and change your behavior.
Practice gratitude
Gratitude and giving are two things we know give us a boost. Gratitude—from simply saying thank you to keeping a gratitude journal—can make you physically and psychologically healthier, help you sleep better, and make you more resilient. You can practice gratitude by:
- Having a “gratitude buddy.” Each day, commit to texting each other three to five things you are grateful for.
- Keeping a gratitude journal. Write down five things you are grateful for each night before going to sleep.
- Write thank-you notes to the health care providers who helped you through your illness.
Connect with others who understand
Support groups—whether in person or online—can provide valuable connection with others who truly understand your experience. Many patients find comfort in knowing they’re not alone in their anxiety about healing.
Finding Balance
The anxiety of healing represents a delicate balance. On one hand, it’s good to watch for symptoms and make sure you go to your follow-up appointments. On the other hand, excessive worry can worsen your quality of life and even lead to more physical symptoms.
Finding a balance isn’t easy, but acknowledging that healing involves much more than your physical body is an important step. By recognizing that anxiety can be part of getting better, patients and clinicians can address it directly rather than allow it to become an unspoken burden.
If you are feeling anxiety now, remember: Your feelings are valid, you’re not alone in this experience, and with appropriate support, both body and mind can heal.
As one survivor put it: “Healing isn’t just about getting back to who you were before. It’s about becoming who you are now—someone who has been through something difficult and found a way forward.”
Resources
Two Expressive Therapies Proven to Help You Heal – Music therapy and art therapy have been proven to help heal the whole person, during or after illness or chronic conditions.
Five Steps to a New Normal: Life After Cancer – Writer and breast cancer survivor Jenny Leyh shares how to develop a “new normal,” manage checkups, and more.
Journaling to Manage Stress – Research shows writing can be an important part of the healing journey, and you don’t have to consider yourself a “good writer” to benefit.
Resources such as CaringBridge and Good Days can help you find help or request it from friends and family. You don’t need to be in active treatment to use these resources.
References
1. Emotional healing after an injury or illness. (2023, August 29). Hackensack Meridian Health. https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/healthu/2023/08/29/emotional-healing-after-an-injury-or-illness
2. Altius. (2025, April 10). How Physical Injury Affects Mental Health | Altius Group. Altius Blog. https://altius.au/news-and-research/physical-injury-and-mental-health-the-reality-of-recovery
3. Robinson, L., Smith, M., MA, & Segal, J., PhD. (2025, May 21). Emotional and psychological trauma – HelpGuide.org. HelpGuide.org. https://www.helpguide.org/mental-health/ptsd-trauma/coping-with-emotional-and-psychological-trauma
4. Robinson, L., Segal, J., PhD, & Smith, M., MA. (2024, August 21). Cope with a Life-Threatening Illness or Serious Health Event. HelpGuide.org. https://www.helpguide.org/wellness/health-conditions/coping-with-a-life-threatening-illness
5. Treatment, C. F. S. A. (2014). Understanding the impact of trauma. Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/
6. Moore, J. (2023, August 18). Not just physical – looking after your mental health after illness or injury – By Annie Button. Hull & East Yorkshire Mind. https://heymind.org.uk/not-just-physical-looking-after-your-mental-health-after-illness-or-injury-by-annie-button/
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