Emotional stress can overwhelm you. It can make you feel helpless. It can interfere with your sense of well-being and cause you to lose hope that things will improve. It can lead to depression.

Some people believe stress can play a role in developing cancer. There is, though, very little evidence to show that stress causes cancer in people who don’t already have it. The few studies that have shown a link looked mainly at severe stress. One found that women who lost a spouse through separation, divorce or death had a higher risk for breast cancer.

More studies have shown, though, that if you already have cancer, stress may play a role in the way it progresses. Such things as trauma, depression and distress have all been linked to more rapid progression.