Low Mood

Feeling low or depressed is an understandable response to difficult and distressing life circumstances.

You may experience fleeting low mood for example when something goes wrong at home or if you feel too unwell to go to something you had planned to do. In these situations, it is very normal to feel sad, down and/or disappointed. Most of the time, you are likely to have ways of dealing with these feelings so that you can get on with your life as usual – you might chat with a friend, or attempt to keep busy to distract yourself.

Sometimes, low mood can become a bigger problem – the feelings of low mood are there most of the time, nearly every day. You may start to notice that you feel down, depressed or hopeless and are not enjoying activities that you used to get pleasure from; you might feel like you want to hide away from the world, feel tired more frequently; have difficulties sleeping; feel irritable; notice changes in your appetite. With a diagnosis of cancer, you might not be able to do the things you used to do in the way you used to, and so you may stop altogether.

Here you can access resources to support your low mood.