Mortality Acting Out
November 11th, 2012
What do Walter White and General Patraeus have in common?
Aside from being white American men of a certain age, maybe not much.
But they do both have a cancer diagnosis.
Does this explain the General’s recent revelation that, after a 38 year marriage and while holding a position vulnerable to blackmail, he has been carrying on an affair, perhaps even with two women at once?
I do not generally engage in the gossipy side of news, but when I found out that, beyond the scandalous headlines, Patraeus is facing a cancer diagnosis, I could not help but wonder if the two were related.
Since my brother’s diagnosis over 7 years ago, I have witnessed and experienced firsthand numerous instances of what I have come to call Mortality Acting Out. As I explained on twitter this morning:
Since becoming a patient myself, I have used my anthropological skills to explore CancerWorld and document instances of Mortality Acting Out. I have heard stories about sudden affairs after longterm monogamy, increased promiscuity, quitting stable jobs, breaking off friendships, and reckless spending. It’s like a midlife crisis on steroids.
Do you have a story to share? You can add it in the comments section or email me at babe[at]chemobabe[dot]com. I will write a follow up post on this topic in the coming weeks.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2012 at 9:58 am and is filed under End of Life, Survivorship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I quit my job (which I hated) one month after my last infusion of Herceptin earlier this year. Am “taking a break from it all”, doing some part time work. I’m 41 now, have been working almost non-stop since the age of 14, and yes, I do think I’m entitled to a break; I rarely took vacations, and worked through cancer, because I could not afford not to.
I never did drugs or partied in my youth. Always paid my bills, I had no debt, just never did anything wrong. I was a real goody two shoes. So, I went through post-treatment depression and considered becoming a heroin addict and/or bank robber, but I did not indulge, I’m not that person (plus I have no idea how to do those things). But it was soooo tempting. I think it is not only about facing one’s mortality, for me (and a cancer buddy) it was about thinking I did not deserve cancer because I was living “right”. And since I got cancer anyway…what the hell? Might as well be baaaaad.