Almost every cancer patient I’ve ever worked with talks about scanxiety—that intense anxiety that arises when they have an upcoming medical test, be it a CT scan, MRI, or ultrasound.
It’s completely normal to feel this fear. After everything you’ve been through, it makes sense that you’d feel triggered and reluctant to face another potential hurdle.
The good news is that you don’t have to be swept away by this fear. Here are five simple, yet powerful, tools I offer my clients to help them manage scanxiety and cultivate peace during this challenging time.
1. Develop the Witness
Your first task is to step back and see the bigger picture.
Most people try to push uncomfortable feelings away, but what if you simply saw your anxiety and fear as perfectly normal? You’ve been through a lot; it’s a perfectly human emotion given the circumstances.
I call this process developing the witness. It means stepping back to observe the feeling without judgment. You are not the fear; you are the one noticing the fear. See the anxiety as a perfectly understandable reaction to a traumatic situation. This simple act of acknowledgment creates space between you and the emotion.
2. Bring in Compassion
Now, bring in some tenderness.
This entire experience is terribly difficult. Be gentle with yourself. Acknowledge this suffering and allow yourself to feel the natural trembling or quivering of your heart with compassion.
Befriend the part of yourself that is scared. You wouldn’t yell at a frightened friend; treat yourself with the same level of kindness and care. Let your own suffering be a call to be more friendly and tender toward yourself.
3. Reframe Fear as a Messenger
Can you see fear as a friend who’s trying to help you?
At its core, fear’s job is to prompt you to take action and be prepared for a future threat. The issue is that it doesn’t know when to stop nudging you.
If you’ve already taken all the necessary actions—and you almost certainly have—you can acknowledge the fear and kindly ask it to take a break. Say to it, “Thank you for the warning. I’ve done everything I can for now. I need you to go sit in the corner.” Acknowledge its effort, then firmly reclaim your peace.
4. Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
This is where you use your self-care tools to intentionally cultivate peace.
Your anxiety is fueled by the stress hormone cortisol. By finding enjoyable, calming activities, you can switch on your Parasympathetic Nervous System—your body’s “rest and digest” mode—and release those happy, calming hormones instead.
- Go for a walk in the woods.
- Take a bath.
- Journal your thoughts.
- Call a friend to vent (they don’t need to “fix” anything, just listen).
- Do nice things for yourself.
Take this peace seriously. It’s not a luxury; it’s supporting your immune system by warding off the damaging effects of chronic cortisol.
5. Redirect Your Attention to the Present
Fear will always try to creep back in. Keep acknowledging it and naming it without judgment. Sending it “back to the corner” (as in Tool 3) is only one part of the action.
The other part is immediately redirecting your attention to the present moment.
- What is in front of you right now?
- What are you doing?
- Focus on the sensory experience of that action. The smell of your coffee, the feel of the towel after a shower, the sound of music.
Stay present with the physical sensations of this moment. You can’t be worried about the future if you’re fully engaged in the now.
With enough practice, you’ll begin to see this process as a whole cycle, and scanxiety will have less power over you. You can use these five steps for other things too, like important deadlines or even exciting upcoming events. The energy of anxiety and excitement is the same stress response in your body—and you can learn to work with it, feel it, and move beyond it.
Michelle Stortz 