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Boxing for Mental Health

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Kirsten Efremov

18-year-old Isla MacIntosh discusses how boxing helps her cope with her mental stressors

Isla MacIntosh, childhood cancer survivor

Taneisha: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your experience with childhood cancer?

Isla: I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was four years old and have been in remission since the age of seven. I work at a golf course in Ottawa and I just finished my first year in the Behavioural Science Program at St. Lawrence College.

Taneisha: Other than your family, does anyone else know about your diagnosis? Did you have to miss any school due to your cancer and its treatment?

Isla: My parents mentioned it to people they knew and our surrounding neighbours and, of course, my school knew. I missed kindergarten entirely so my first year attending school in person was in Grade 1. Everyone was very supportive.

Taneisha: Do you feel you continue to get the support you need?

Isla: My sister has done everything she could to support me ever since I was young. She pretty much gave up her childhood because of me. In my early teens, I realized how big my diagnosis really was, and I needed to find an outlet to relieve stress. At 14, boxing became that outlet. My whole family is supportive of my boxing.

Taneisha: How did you discover boxing?

Isla: I found this youth recreational boxing class in Ottawa where I grew up. The coach was the first female boxing coach. She was a big inspiration to me because she had cancer so I felt that I could relate to her. She also helped me find a great boxing school when I started going to school in Kingston. Now I train 3-4 days in person and on the other days, I do dryland training. Dryland training means conditioning, running, weights and other strength activities.

Taneisha: How did boxing help you with your mental health stressors and how did it help you get through your first year of college?

Isla: When I moved away for school in Kingston, I found a safe place for boxing with nice people, which helped me not worry as much about school. Boxing is very technical. When you are in the middle of it, you have to focus on boxing and nothing else. It takes you out of any stressful situation you might feel you are in.

Taneisha: What are your goals—both for boxing and your education?

Isla: I like to compete so my goal for boxing would be to go to nationals. My goal for school is to find a full-time job that relates to behavioural science.

Related Content

Dealing with trauma, anxiety and depression as a two-time cancer survivor

Taneisha: Do you have any advice for other childhood cancer survivors who are going through something similar to what you are going through?

Isla: My advice would be to find an outlet that is important to you, especially if you are older and there are external pressures. It could be sports, music or something else. An outlet can be a safe place for you to express yourself.

Taneisha Kandiah was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 18 months old. She has been in remission since the age of three. She recently graduated from the University of Ottawa in life sciences.

Posted in Transitions | Tagged childhood cancer survivors, psychosocial, survivorship

Is Overprotective Parenting Linked to Anxiety and Depression?

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Kelly Zorzi

#BellLetsTalk #mentalhealthawareness

Ms. Amanda Sherman, BA, MA, PhD(c),  discusses her POGO-funded research study.

Your study looked at overprotective and overcontrolling parenting. Can you give us some examples of these two parenting styles?
I would define overprotection as a style of parenting that does not allow the child or emerging adult to experience stressful things. These parents might try to reduce harm even where the situation doesn’t require it. An overprotective parent might call their child’s friends to solve a problem or insist on driving them to destinations where they can easily walk or ride a bike. It is excessive care. Overcontrolling parenting has more to do with discipline and getting a child to behave in a specific way. A parent might say, “You can’t go out tonight because I don’t like some of your friends.” It is excessive control.

What is non-productive coping?
Coping strategies that are not effective in helping that person feel better (worrying, swearing,
avoidance and isolation, for example) are nonproductive because they may lead to more distress and anxiety. In children, one correlate of the development of anxiety disorders is overprotective parenting.

Are childhood cancer survivors more at risk for depression and anxiety?
When looking at levels of depression, we did not find that our sample differed significantly from  normative populations; but we did find that anxiety levels were markedly higher than the general population—participants’ scores on our questionnaire were within one standard deviation from the mean score of people with anxiety disorders. That was surprising to me and something we don’t yet know how to account for. Maybe for this population so much of their childhood was focused on getting better, that learning to cope with stress was less important than getting by and managing their illness. Now they are emerging adults and they are facing the potential late effects of their childhood disease, as well as regular life stresses, and perhaps they are less equipped to cope. These are hard questions to answer.


Amanda Sherman, BA, MA, PhD(c)

Ms. Amanda Sherman, BA, MA, PhD(c) was the recipient of the 2013 POGO Fellowship Award. Her research focused on maternal overprotection/overcontrol and its relationship to coping strategies, anxiety and depression in survivors of childhood cancer. Her study looked at 109 survivors aged 18-30 attending the POGO AfterCare Clinic at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. POGO AfterCare Clinics  monitor survivors at regular intervals so that potential long-term effects of treatment can be identified as early as possible.


You are doing your PhD in psychology. How did your career path lead you to study childhood cancer patients? 
I did a practicum placement with Norma D’Agostino at Princess Margaret, where I was doing therapy exclusively with young adult survivors of childhood cancer. We noticed that problems with lack of autonomy, separating from parents and non-productive coping strategies kept coming up.

What can we take away from this research?
Now that we have this evidence that says overprotective parenting and anxiety are an issue in this  population, we can target those parents and teach them how to socialize coping in their children. Even the oncologist can spend five minutes asking the parents and children a few targeted questions to
determine if there is a bigger issue, flag it, and refer the family to a psychologist to help them develop better coping skills. 

What do you hope will come from your study?
This is preliminary research but even posing the question is opening doors and people are looking for potential issues when perhaps they weren’t looking for them before. Next steps from a research standpoint: our measure of overprotective and overcontrolling parenting needs to be validated and the study needs to be replicated with a non-cancer control group. I want to disseminate this research any way I can. 

What does this POGO Fellowship Award do for your career?
This grant has allowed me to have time, space and community to do research. What I have enjoyed so much about POGO is how open minded everyone is about psychosocial issues, and psychosocial  development. It has been nice to be accepted and encouraged for studying these kinds of issues, and working with medical professionals has helped provide a different perspective. It has been humbling, rewarding and encouraging at the same time.

Posted in Misc, Research | Tagged anxiety, depression, emotional health, late effects, parenting, psychosocial, stress

Dr. Christopher Recklitis: Emotional Health After Childhood Cancer

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Kelly Zorzi

For many patients, the childhood cancer experience takes them away from school, hobbies and friends and thrusts them into the adult world.

In his talk Emotional Health After Childhood Cancer, Dr. Christopher Recklitis stresses the importance of talking to your healthcare professionals about how to maintain balance between regular life and treatment.

Christopher Recklitis, PhD, MPH, is the Director of Research and Supportive Services at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He spoke at POGO’s 2013 Survivor Conference: Life after Childhood Cancer.

Straight Talk about Childhood Cancer is POGO’s series of video shorts featuring the insights of experts whose leading-edge work impacts the care, treatment and quality of life of childhood cancer patients, survivors and their families.

Posted in 2013 Survivor Conference, Education for Survivors, Straight Talk Videos | Tagged 2013 Survivor Conference, childhood cancer survivors, Dr Christopher Recklitis, emotional health, late effects, psychological distress, psychosocial, survivorship

Life After Childhood Cancer – A Conference for Survivors

Posted on August 27, 2015 by admin

From setting life goals and dealing with the long-term health effects of treatment, to telling a new love interest about their experience with cancer, survivors of childhood cancer may struggle with many issues.

From October 16 – 18, 2015, POGO and Camp Oochigeas will present Life After Childhood Cancer, the third POGO survivor conference to address key issues survivors themselves have identified as being important to their health and well-being.

Matthew is a proud high school graduate, a college grad and a survivor.  He has ongoing physical and cognitive challenges brought on by his disease and its treatment. He has difficulty with fine motor coordination, and a hard time listening and translating that information on paper. But he is driven to succeed and perseveres.  Instead of taking notes by hand, he uses a laptop. If he doesn’t understand something, Matthew has no problem asking for help or researching until he figures it out. Matthew will attend the survivor conference for the first time this year.

“I’m looking forward to the survivor conference,” says Matthew. “I’m curious to hear from other survivors about their experiences and to share mine.”  

In past years survivors of all ages have attended the conference and say it has helped them to better answer questions from others who have not experienced cancer.

“The conference aims to address educational and information needs in the context of social and recreational interaction – a combination we have found addresses survivors’ needs in a unique fashion, directly applicable to their daily life,” says Dr. Mark Greenberg, Senior Adviser, Policy & Clinical Affairs at POGO.

Practical approaches to their issues, like fertility and the disease’s impact on their families, are presented by leading experts, and also by other survivors. Survivors leave the conference knowing what questions to ask of their family doctor, who may never see another survivor in their practice. 

“I’m happy that some sessions are run by other cancer survivors because it’s good to know I’m not the only one going through this,” says a past conference participant.

As for Matthew, his list of questions is building.

“I’m very interested to see what I can learn that will help me in the future,” he says.

While no one wants to think about cancer after they have beaten it, the thought of attending Life After Childhood Cancer would be one that is not wasted.

Get details about the 2015 Ooch/POGO Survivor Conference.

 

Posted in In the News | Tagged 2015 survivor conference, brain tumor survivors, late effects, psychosocial, savti, survivorship

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March 31, 2023

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