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CION Cancer Clinics
Anxiety and low mood during colon cancer treatment | CION Cancer Clinics
Feeling anxious, tearful or low during colon cancer treatment is common, and it is not a sign of weakness. Most of it comes in waves around scans, results and chemotherapy, and it eases with support. Some people develop depression or anxiety that needs treating in its own right. This page explains what drives these feelings, the signs that need a doctor, and what helps. At CION Cancer Clinics, our team supports patients and families with diet, bowel changes and life during and after treatment.
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Medically reviewed by Dr. Naresh GunduConsultant Medical Oncologist · MBBS, DNB (Internal Medicine), DM (Medical Oncology, AIIMS) · last reviewed October 2026, next review due October 2027
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On this page
- Is it normal to feel anxious or low during colon cancer treatment?
- What usually sits behind the anxiety and low mood?
- What actually helps with anxiety and depression during treatment?
- Four things families believe about mood and cancer, and what is true
- What this page cannot tell you
- Common questions about anxiety and depression in colon cancer
The short answer
Is it normal to feel anxious or low during colon cancer treatment?
Yes. Worry, tearfulness, irritability and flat, heavy days are among the most common things people feel during colon cancer treatment. For most people they come in waves and ease with time and support. For some, they settle into anxiety or depression that needs treating in its own right, just like pain or sickness.
Why treatment itself can pull your mood down
Not all of it is in the mind. Chemotherapy tiredness, broken sleep, pain and anaemia (a low haemoglobin) can all make you feel flat and hopeless. The steroid tablets often given with chemotherapy to prevent sickness can cause restless nights, a racing mind and sudden mood swings for a day or two afterwards. Your oncologist can check for these and often fix them.
Worry, low mood and depression are not the same thing
Worry before a scan result is normal and passes once the result is known. Low mood that lifts on good days is normal too. Depression is different. It is a low that stays for most of the day, on most days, for a couple of weeks or more, and takes the pleasure out of things you used to enjoy. Anxiety becomes a problem when it stops you sleeping, eating or coming to appointments.
Feeling this way does not mean you are coping badly. It means you are going through something hard.Where it comes from
What usually sits behind the anxiety and low mood?
It helps to name the source, because each one has a different kind of help.
Waiting
Waiting for the biopsy report, the scan, the tumour board's decision or the next CEA blood test is often harder than the treatment itself. Many people sleep badly for several nights before every check-up.
Often worst
- Between diagnosis and the first treatment plan
- The week before a follow-up scan
- Just after the last chemotherapy, when visits stop
A body that has changed
Loose motions, urgency, a stoma, weight loss and numbness or tingling in the hands all chip away at confidence. Fear of a bowel accident in public keeps many people at home, and isolation feeds low mood. The urgency and accidents page deals with the practical side.
Money and family roles
A father who earned for the family may now depend on his son to pay. A mother who ran the kitchen may now be the one being served. That shift in role, and the bills behind it, weigh on people as much as the illness. Money worries have their own page on financial help.
The treatment itself
Steroids, broken sleep, constant tiredness and long days at the infusion chair all lower your reserves. Mood often dips in the same pattern as each chemotherapy cycle and lifts in the good week before the next one.
Not sure whether this applies to you?
Ask an oncologist
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When to tell someone today
If you, or the person you are caring for, has thoughts of ending their life, says the family would be better off without them, or has stopped eating and drinking, do not wait for the next appointment. Tell the oncologist or call the CION helpline today and say it plainly. If someone is in immediate danger, go to the nearest emergency department. Sudden confusion or chest pain is never just anxiety and needs a doctor the same day.
Getting help
What actually helps with anxiety and depression during treatment?
Say it out loud at your next visit
Tell your oncologist how your mood and sleep have been, in plain words. Doctors cannot see it from a blood report. If it is easier, let a family member say it for you.
Treat the physical causes first
Your doctor can check your haemoglobin, adjust the timing of steroid tablets, control pain and treat sleeplessness. Sometimes this alone lifts the mood. The sleep problems page goes into the nights.
Talk to someone trained
Counselling and psycho-oncology support (help for the mind during cancer) are part of supportive care at CION centres. Talking therapies teach practical ways to handle racing thoughts and dread. The counselling and support page explains what a session involves.
Use medicine if you need it
Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicines can be used during chemotherapy. Your oncologist checks that they suit your other medicines, or refers you to a psychiatrist who works with cancer patients.
Keep one ordinary thing going
A short walk, morning prayer, cooking one dish, time with grandchildren. Small routines give the day a shape that treatment cannot take away. Stop searching survival figures late at night.
Commonly believed
Four things families believe about mood and cancer, and what is true
"If he stays positive, the treatment will work better."
There is no good evidence that cheerfulness shrinks a tumour or that worry makes it grow. Telling someone to stay positive often makes them hide how they feel, and then they carry it alone. Hope and fear can sit together.
"Seeing a psychiatrist means people will think she is mad."
Depression during cancer is a medical problem with physical and practical causes. Seeing a psychiatrist or counsellor for it is as ordinary as seeing a doctor for nausea, and it is confidential.
"Antidepressants are addictive, and you take them for life."
The antidepressants used most often are not habit-forming in the way some sleeping tablets can be. Most people take them for some months and then stop. Stopping should be done gradually with your doctor, never suddenly.
"If I admit I am struggling, they will stop my chemotherapy."
Telling your oncologist you feel low does not stop treatment. It usually makes treatment easier to get through, because sleep, pain and worry can be treated alongside it. People who say it early tend to miss fewer cycles.
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Being straight with you
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot tell you whether you have depression or an anxiety disorder. That needs a conversation with a doctor or counsellor who can ask the right questions, check for physical causes and listen to how long this has been going on. A checklist online cannot do that.
Who this page does not suit
It is written for adults going through colon cancer treatment. If you already see a psychiatrist for depression, bipolar disorder or another long-standing condition, keep them involved, because your medicines may need adjusting during chemotherapy. Fear that has started after treatment ended is covered on the fear of recurrence page, and carers who are struggling themselves have their own page.
Who can actually help
Your oncologist is the right first person, because they know your treatment and your medicines. A counsellor at a CION centre can see you, your family or both. If a stoma is the heart of it, the emotional side of a stoma page is written for that.
If you are unsure whether what you feel needs help, call the helpline and describe it. That question is reason enough to call.Questions we are asked
Common questions about anxiety and depression in colon cancer
Is depression common in people with colon cancer?
Low mood is very common, and a smaller group develop depression that does not lift on its own. It is more likely with ongoing pain, a stoma, money worries or advanced disease. It is treatable, and it is easier to treat when it is mentioned early.
Can chemotherapy cause anxiety or depression?
It can contribute. The steroids given with chemotherapy can cause restlessness and mood swings, and the tiredness, broken sleep and anaemia that come with treatment can make anyone feel low. Tell your oncologist, because several of these causes can be changed.
Can I take antidepressants during chemotherapy?
Usually, yes. Many people take them safely alongside colon cancer treatment. Your oncologist or a psychiatrist picks one that suits your other medicines and your symptoms, such as poor sleep or poor appetite. Do not start or stop one on your own.
How do I know if it is anxiety or something physical?
Often you cannot tell on your own, which is why new symptoms should be reported. A racing heart, breathlessness or dizziness can come from anxiety, anaemia or dehydration. Chest pain, sudden breathlessness or confusion need a doctor the same day.
Why do I feel worse now that treatment has finished?
This is very common. During treatment there is a plan, a team and something to do every week. When it stops, the support thins out and the fear has room to grow. Tell your doctor at the first follow-up visit rather than waiting it out.
My father will not talk about his feelings. What can we do?
Many parents protect their children by staying quiet. Ask practical questions instead: how he is sleeping, eating, what he is worried about paying for. Come to appointments with him and mention his mood to the doctor yourself, with his permission.
Can I see a counsellor in my own language?
Ask for it. Talking about fear works best in the language you think in, whether that is Telugu, Urdu, Hindi or English. When you call the helpline, say which language you would like, and ask whether a family member can join the first session.
Does stress make colon cancer come back?
There is no convincing evidence that ordinary worry makes colon cancer return or spread. Long-lasting stress does affect sleep, eating and how well you get through treatment. That is a reason to get help for it, never a reason to blame yourself.
Your Specialists
Meet CION's colon cancer specialists. Bring your colonoscopy, scan or biopsy report.
Our surgical and medical oncologists plan colon cancer care together: which operation, whether chemotherapy is needed, and the follow-up that comes after.
Medical Oncologist
Dr. C. Raghavendra Reddy
MBBS(Gold Medal), DNB(General Medicine), DM(Medical Oncology)(Gold Medal)
Medical Oncologist
Dr. Bharati Devi Gorantla
MBBS, MD(General Medicine), DM(Medical Oncology)(Adyar,Chennai), ECMO, MRCP SCE(UK)
Medical Oncologist
Dr. Owais Mohammed
MBBS, MD (General Medicine), DrNB (Medical Oncology), ECMO, MRCP SCE (Medical Oncology) (UK)
Medical Oncologist
Medical Oncologist
Surgical Oncologist
Dr. Muralidhar Muddusetty
MBBS (AIIMS), MS (Surgery) (AIIMS), DNB (Surgical Oncology), MRCS (Edinburgh)
Surgical Oncologist
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Sources
- National Cancer Institute — Emotions and Cancer
- Cancer Research UK — Living with bowel cancer
- American Cancer Society — Living as a Colorectal Cancer Survivor
- Macmillan Cancer Support — Bowel cancer (including rectal cancer and colon cancer)
This page is general information, not a prescription. Do not change or stop any treatment based on what you read here. If anything is worrying you, contact your own treating team — or call our helpline and we will help you reach the right specialist.
Keep reading
Related pages
Counselling and psycho-oncology supportWhat a counsellor does and how to ask for oneSleep problems during colon cancer treatmentBroken nights make every worry heavierFear of recurrence after colon cancerWhen the worry starts after treatment endsLooking after yourself as a caregiverFor the son, daughter or spouse who is struggling too
Talk to us
Is worry or low mood getting in the way of treatment?
Tell us how you, or the person you care for, has been feeling. We can arrange a counsellor at a CION centre and make sure your oncologist knows. One helpline serves every CION centre.