Many of you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it is also Liver Cancer Awareness Month and eight months since my oldest sister Tammi’s liver transplant.

Around this time last year, I introduced you to my sister Tammi and shared, what I believe, is a common coping mechanism to crisis. Since this month is dedicated to building awareness around these two common cancers, I thought it would be appropriate to continue the dialogue, as you or someone you know may currently be facing this reality.

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I was incensed.

I was going to make them listen to me. I was going to take on the insurance company, whose exclusions were pushing my sister Tammi and her family close to bankruptcy just when her main priority needed to be staying healthy and keeping her spirits up, not stressing about how to pay the rent and definitely not considering postponing the transplant process because she “has to work” so her family of six can stay afloat. I called advocacy groups and the attorney general. I hounded congress people and town councils. I spewed and ranted, threatened and blamed. I was furious and stayed that way for several months.

Finally, one afternoon, I was driving home when it hit me like a ton of bricks. My oldest sister has liver cancer and four children.

My beloved sister Tammi, who taught me to love old school R&B, how to shave my legs, and which boyfriends were jerks, might die soon. Despite being at the top of the transplant list, it’s a delicate matching and waiting game. I pulled off the side of the road and sobbed until there was nothing left. The pain in my chest and throat had become excruciating.

I had been using anger to mask my fear and sadness for the past several months since she was diagnosed. This was the first time I cried.

I am a two-time cancer survivor. When I was diagnosed, I was petrified, not only for myself but more for how my family would handle my situation. Tammi, much like me, worries about everyone else and is a caretaker at heart. The first thought is how will they handle the news. Also, like me, when something happens to a family member, we are the first to go full throttle to “fix” it.

Now, the shoe was on the other foot. Tammi was sick, doing whatever needed to be done to single handedly fix the situation, while I was single handedly going to fix the country’s broken healthcare system and her situation in the process.

Reflecting on my reaction of the past months, I recognize that I was employing the psychological defense mechanism known as displacement. Displacement involves dealing with stress by transferring strong feelings about one situation onto another (usually less threatening) situation. In my case, I was transferring my fear, sadness, and, at the time, hopelessness regarding my sister’s cancer diagnosis onto trying to fix the nation’s healthcare crisis. I think we can all agree that the healthcare system needs some work (ok, maybe more than “some”), but the depth of my rage was extreme to the situation, which is usually the telltale sign that something else is going on unconsciously.

Displacement is a mid-level ego defense that inhibits your awareness of what you are really feeling. Just like other defense mechanisms, displacement keeps potentially threatening ideas, feelings, memories, wishes, or fears out of your conscious awareness. This diminished awareness can affect your ability to relate to others. For me, my angry obsessing definitely negatively affected my ability to relate to others, most notably my amazingly patient husband, Victor.

This anger makes us feel empowered rather than afraid. However, as I learned in school, humans are like chimney flues—no matter how much paper you stuff down the flue to try to stop the smoke, that smoke will find a way out. Our feelings are like smoke. I was stuffing the flue as fast as I could, and it worked for a while (hence my angry response and mission to personally overhaul the healthcare system in America), but its effectiveness is temporary.

These types of defense mechanisms yield optimal adaptation to stress because the false sense of empowerment they lend maximizes feelings of well-being and does not interfere with your conscious awareness of feelings, ideas, and consequences.

There is, however, a cost for keeping your authentic feelings under wraps. Not honestly assessing a situation and handling it appropriately leads to constant low-grade anxiety, which, as we know from all the research on the effects of stress, results in sleeping problems, being short tempered, and feeling overwhelmed by once “easy” situations. A lot of energy is required to keep the charade going, so it’s no wonder I felt inexplicably exhausted.

Only when I honored my fear and sadness was I able to openly and honestly discuss the cancer with my sister and her family and truly support them. Once I acknowledged the truth, fear no longer had a hold of me. Now, instead of harassing the White House receptionist, I continue to fundraise through a website, donations, and special events. (The money we have raised has been incredible, but the expenses continue. Between the anti-rejection medications Tammi will need to take for the rest of her life and the cost of surgery, the family has accrued an additional $5,000+/month in bills on top of their other living expenses.)

 Fundraising and giving my sister the gift of relief is productive and adaptive!

Sometimes it’s complicated being a therapist and a human.

I can theoretically understand what is happening, but putting that knowledge into practice can still be challenging. One thing I love about this amazing journey called life is that we never stop growing. Life school is endless, which means everyday provides opportunities to do it better, learn from mistakes, and continue to evolve. All experiences increase our ability to feel gratitude. Each moment is a gift and a privilege, even the painful ones.

How can you allow your fear to inform rather than dominate you? Do you find yourself reacting similarly in tough-to-handle situations? Have you figured out how to check in with your feelings and be honest rather than throw up defenses? What do you do to ensure that? Please share your experiences. 

Love Love Love
Terri

Terri Cole is a licensed psychotherapist, transformation coach, and an expert at turning fear into freedom. Sign up for Terri’s weekly Tune Up Tips and follow her on Twitter.

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