What justifies a meltdown?

If you have been through a breast cancer diagnosis, treatment or surgeries, you know this is not a normal time in your life. While your body tries to adjust to everything it is going through, your mind must keep up. But it doesn’t always work that way. I have seen rational, educated people react in surprising ways when under what I call “medical pressure.” If you feel strange pains from surgery, ill effects of chemotherapy or radiation, it may not take much to put you over the top. Our bodies have a lot of self-preservation mechanisms built in, such as our fight or flight reactions. A sudden need to cry, sleep or be cuddled is our body’s way of creating a healthy release. It doesn’t feel healthy at the time, but its a pressure valve of sorts. And you know what? Pressure valves do in fact need to blow sometimes. Let it happen. Embrace it. Families be patient with it, because you see, anything can justify a meltdown. Don’t know what to do? Just be there. Be present. Be in the moment and know that it will pass.