Anxiety from hormone therapy

Some people get that but it is not real common, especially after stopping the drug. Is it possible your anxiety is really just related to the fact that you have prostate cancer? That alone makes a lot of people, anxious and depressed. I’ve heard of many people being on different drugs for their anxiety or depression due to having prostate cancer. Check with your PCP, maybe they can help prescribe something to reduce that anxiety.

I must admit I had anxiety when I was first told I had prostate cancer, I wondered how long I would live, did I have five years left. 15 years later I don’t even think about that, time heals!

Thanks jeffmarc for your reply. You could be right. I am a worrier & worse case scenario person. Trying to break that trait. I do worry about a recurrence. I don’t know if it’s a source of anxiety for any of you out there, or am I just the only worry wart.

Rparsons, imo, if you aren’t worried, you just aren’t paying attention. We have cancer. That’s worrisome by itself.

I personally allowed for a pity party of worrisome thoughts, what-ifs, etc before I turned my energy to deciding how to attack this beast. It may have round one but I won’t concede my sanity. If round two goes wrong, I’ll focus on that then, not before. I’m a strong believer in the power of our thoughts - good or bad - and I choose to be positive.

It finally helps to be a “strong-willed jerk”. I knew it would come in handy someday.

Best of luck in your journey. This is a good place to hang out as someone always seems to have walked our walk. Good days will lie ahead. May yours far outnumber the bad ones, brother.

You are NOT alone! In fact, I’ll bet I can out-worry you in most categories. My wife claims that my power of negative thinking actually caused my cancer in the first place!😆
To your original question, I am in my 6th month of Orgovyx (done in 3 weeks) and have felt no extra anxiety. In fact, I feel a lot calmer, happier and optimistic. I wonder if my testosterone was the cause of all my negative feelings in the first place.
I know it sounds foolish, but maybe this chemical castration has changed my innate male personality, which in my case was not exhibited by aggressiveness but worry, anxiety and hyper-vigilance of all the threats lurking outside the cave!
Wonder how I’ll feel 6 months from now….

It is not one of the side effects I recall members on this or other forums posting about in relation to ADT side effects. In relation to having PCa, waiting on test results, yes.

I did ADT twice, did not experience any anxiousness.

During these ten plus years, have I been anxious, yes. There were times, particularly waiting on PSA (Prostate Specific Anxiety as I like to say) tests results that I can say I was anxious, then relieved, or not...Reflecting back, the same may be true for imaging tests.

What I know personally is the longer I am on this journey, the less anxious I am about it. Perhaps that is just the experience gained, knowing that the clinical data is what it is and simply informs my decision, continue off treatment, or, decide to go back on. Then again, I am one of the fortunate ones, high risk, but, no involvement on bones or organs, treatment for three years, off seven plus.

As others have said, was I anxious when first diagnosed, definitely! Have I had pity parties, well, at least one, when my urologist called me with the results of my biopsy...

You may consider talking with your medical team about it, medications, counseling may be possibile treatment considerations. It may be possible that with activity - exercise, travel, work, volunteering, that you take your mind off of what you have, and it focuses on what you do.

Kevin

Not me I said to myself about panic and anxiety attacks. At least not for the first three years of treatment. Then it started happening, it being anxiety attack issues. Thank goodness for my palliative care phycologist. He explained they are just one of many possible ADT side effects. Within in one session he taught me how to deal with them. Now, for me and my caregiver wife we've learned how to deal with them better. Take away; they are real, they happen, learn to recognize the signs, racing mind/thoughts, rushing, hyper active behaviors, check, check, check, relax, read, writing, focus on calming down. Doing much better dealing with them now.

Has anyone experienced anxiety & worry that you can’t let go about a possible recurrence down the road after treatment ?

I have experienced anxiety and depression while on ADT (Elegard in my case), and more afterward. My treatment is now over; I took two shots, each lasting six months. The second shot should have worn off about three months ago. Much of my anxiety and insomnia is about whether I will ever get my testosterone back. I am 73. My last two blood tests showed PSA< .02 and testosterone < 11 (basically none). I really want the testosterone to come back. I see my urologist next week, and we will plan what to do. One piece of advice I have is: take the exercise recommendation seriously. I think my only hope of getting rid of the side effects of ADT is continuing resistance training at the gym. It really feels great to do a workout and see progress. I think working out will help ease your anxiety. The gym is now my happy place

Almost everyone has those fears. Even without taking ADT people have a lot of anxiety. I didn’t start taking ADT until six years after I was diagnosed. First couple years, yes, I was frequently concerned with how long I would live how bad the cancer would get, You just have no way of knowing. Adding ADT didn’t make any difference for me, but it does cause anxiety and depression for some people.

Be aware that the treatments available today are so much better than what was available even 10 years ago. Your chance of dying from something other than prostate cancer is higher than your chance of dying from prostate cancer. There are new treatments being discovered every year or two, You might find that before you have an advanced case of prostate cancer they will have a treatment that will Greatly reduce your cancer risk..