Providing social support and empathy towards your loved one helps them go through their treatment and healing process more smoothly. If you make an effort to support, care, and take time to fully understand the situation, it creates open communication and trust. Trust is all your loved one needs to feel safe and able to share deeper feelings about what they are going through, which can ultimately lead to better healing and coping from the emotional trauma of the diagnosis. Stored trauma can lead to many physical health outcomes like sleep disturbances, cardiovascular, and neurological problems. The negative impacts on your physical health can then affect emotional well-being, like your ideations and your cognitive thought process. The book The body keeps score talks about how to treat traumatic events healthily. The book goes into heavy subjects, so make sure you are in a prepared space to read about these different traumatic experiences.
