Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

  • Author: Shannon R. Poppito

Cancer diagnosis response: Being hit by an existential Mack Truck

When I meet with patients newly diagnosed with cancer, they often find it difficult articulate the forbidding experience of being told for the first time they have cancer. All they hear is ‘die’-gnosis and immediately become overwhelmed by that dreadful feeling: “Oh my God, I’m gonna die!” I often try to meet them in that intimate and vulnerable moment of existential shock and disbelief by stating, “It’s like being hit by an existential Mack truck.”

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