Cancer adverts...

[Connor_cbt]

I suspect most of you (in the uk at least) will know what i am talking about. I have written a complaint to the ASA about them as i feel they are scaremongering as opposed to educating. I dont have health anxiety but even i was starting to wonder if i had lung and bowel cancer after about the dozen or so adverts within a couple of hours of TV. Of course people need to be made aware but I really think that the adverts are not the right way to go about it.

All the best,

[candy_floss]

It's difficult really isn't it? People need to be made aware of the symptoms so that they don't just ignore them, but at the same time us HA sufferers have enough to worry about without seeing that everytime we switch on the TV.
Thanks to that bowel cancer advert, I went running to my doctor about blood in my stool convincing myself I was dying. It turned out to be nothing in the end.

The absolute worse example I've seen of it was ironically when I was sat in a waiting room at a breast clinic, waiting to have my ultrasound done. There was a TV in the corner that was tuned in to some cheerful programme on the history channel about the Nazi's killing people (way to lighten the mood). During the ad break, a cancer advert came on where some cancer patient was talking about a friend he'd met in hospital who unfortunately had a more aggressive form of cancer than him and so he died quite quickly! The room was completely silent at this point and everyone in their heard every word. As if we weren't all worried enough already?!
I really couldn't believe that 1) such a scary advert was commissioned in the first place and 2) that none of staff had thought to switch it off.

[KK77]

I always mute it on the ads - can't stand them - so don't know what they're banging on about half the time

[Kelseywelseyyy]

My heart went, sure a cough that has lasted a while may be more and it is better to be safe than sorry. But it could also just be a cough!!

[xfilme]

I totally agree. Scaremongering is everywhere. I think they do it based on the assumption that most of us are too ignorant to understand our own bodies in the slightest. I personally dont feel that an advert inside the toilets of my local pub, telling me about blood in your stools, is either appropriate or fair. Im sure any person who passed excessive blood from any orifice would have the sense to question what it is. Also, just like one of the other posts mentioned, I was also sat in a waiting room because I was concerned about a breast problem and there was a tv in there with people telling sad stories of friends who have died of breast cancer. I understand awareness is important, but is it really necessary in the likes of a doctors surgery, where the fact the patients are sat on the chairs with the stupid tv in front of them is fairly clear evidence that all those present are already aware enough to be seeking help in the first place. There are so many Health Anxiety sufferers out there. I have suffered from it for 4 years from losing my mum to cancer. Scaremongering is EVERYWHERE. Its on facebook, in the form of status updates, saying "people with cancer only hope for one thing, to get better. post this as a status to show support". its on the magazines as you walk through the supermarkets, on the TV, on youtube, you look up videos on dry skin, and find pictures of melanoma, practically EVERY tv series you watch has to put a cancer theme in it somewhere for dramatic effect... its just unavoidable. I have got to the point where I got rid of my TV license because TV triggers too much panic, I never listen to the radio, I dont buy magazines, I dont watch or read about the news, I dont visit ANY medical sites.... its just crazy. The majority of us are sensible and know, thanks to common sense, how to keep an eye on our own health. Those who do not have common sense to know this, probably wont be enlightened by any type of informative literature or media publicity. Self preservation is instinct surely? Even those too afraid to go to the doctor are aware that they need to. It makes me so angry. Why cant they give us HA sufferers a break? Media is making this world seem far more scary that it needs to be. It would be far healthier if they replaced all that stuff with posters that said "look after your health and remember to enjoy your life!" but oh no, that would be far to positive and the GP's might run out of patients. Most of us that run to the doctors arter seeing some of this stuff, are Health Anxiety sufferers, who get dismissed continually by their GP because they are 'too concerned' about their health. Seriously, you cant win.

Thank you for putting in a complaint. I complained to my aunt for banging on about cancer awareness on facebook all the time because it was a constant trigger and not the right place for sensitive issues, and she ended up not speaking to me over it. Theres awareness, and theres rubbing everyones nose in it.

[miss sparkle]

Just wanted to say i totally agree with these posts.
My biggest trigger apart from the tv is magazines.
I am a hairdresser, so unfortunately every week, it is compulsory to buy a stack of the weekly magazine that come out. They all get passed around the staff room, and of course there are endless cancer story, the most popular being the ones that affect young women, young men and kids, as of course they make more upsetting and dramatic reading!
I have honestly tried to stop reading them, but like a moth to a flame i am drawn!
The ones that really upset me are the 'my shoulder ache was cancer' and my kids ache arm was a brain tumor' type. Que run to the doctors. . . .

[Connor_cbt]

I'm sorry that it has had the impact i imagined it would, the message IS important without question but the delivery is totally wrong. Let's face it, in our society where generally people dont exercise enough and have sedentary jobs, could eat better are often stressed amongst a plethora of other things things like haemorrhoids and fissures are common (especially as you get older) and probably make up the vast majority of cases of blood in stools and i wonder how many people have been put of getting treatment for fear of discovering something more serious? Im almost to the point where i am not watching tv or listening to the radio etc as it all seems so negative!

---------- Post added at 08:05 ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 ----------

I just remembered a message about thread titles and will try to get this one changed to inappropriate adverts asap!

[pearl79]

please send some of your sensible head my way. Im terrible for adverts, local radio, cant read the daily papers/womens magazines, even use a pen with a chairity name on ( i do regularly donate and will be doing race for life, so dont avoid completely).
I curse health anxiety, i really do.
Im having my first of six sessions of CBT in Wednesday so really looking forward to that. I really hope it helps
Connor, you sound like you have a easy going mind, if you have any sugestions or other ways to deal with anxiety. please please send them this way. Im open to learn anything

[julynn]

i agree i hate them i know its good to keep pplo aware of the signs. but like the other poster said its terrible for us every time 1 comes on i convince myself i might have that and go running to my doctor.
i try to avoid them now but its hard because they are on the tv even breaafast tv has something about it on and when im watching a programe feeling quite calm one pops on and sets my anxiety off again.

[meche]

It's not so much the cancer adverts that bother me - it's the one for strokes. F.A.S.T - face, arms, speech and time! The TV advert freaks me out so much that I have to turn over/off. I think it's because when I was at the height of my anxiety it felt like what I imagined a stroke would feel like! I understand they are there to educate people but for me..... ! x