Depression after cancer: "It took me seven years to get out of the tube"

At Christophe Hondelatte, Christophe Gaborieau tells his descent into hell, after testicular cancer contracted in 2002.

HONDELATTE RACONTE

In January 2002, everything is going well in the life of Christophe Gaborieau, 35 years old. This sports enthusiast has a job he loves, a woman and two children. One day, as he comes back from running, he realizes that his right testicle has doubled in size. The beginning of a long descent into hell, as he tells Christophe Hondelatte Thursday.

>> From 14h to 15h, Hondelatte tells Europe 1. Find the replay of the program of Christophe Hondelatte here

Cancer detected. Christophe Gaborieau returns from his weekly jog and goes immediately in the shower. Under the jet of water, stupor, he finds that his testicle right doubled in volume. He immediately goes to the doctor, who confirms that there is a big problem. Christophe Gaborieau then makes an emergency appointment with an urologist. For the health professional, Christophe Gaborieau must be operated on: a removal of the testicle. He has the choice. The operation is not mandatory, but recommended. Christophe agrees and so, that on January 29, he finds himself in the operating room.

The bad news falls after the operation for Christophe Gaborieau. The tumor detected is cancerous. We will have to do radiotherapy. "It's a cancer that starts at a very young age, often around 25/35 years," he says at the microphone of Europe 1. 28 chemotherapy sessions will be held to overcome cancer.

"I fell into a whirlwind of anxiety". But for Christophe, who managed to defeat cancer after his medical marathon, the problem is now elsewhere: in his head. From the first sessions, Christophe Gaborieau began to have great anxieties. His psychological state is "deplorable", from the very fact of doctors. Christophe's life will then be balanced between returning to work, staying in the psychiatric hospital, falling morale, returning to work. "I fell into a whirlwind of anxiety, a spiral," he describes today. Depression after cancer

As in all the spirals, Christophe Gaborieau can not get rid of it. He divorces, finds himself alone, in rent, is fired from his job while he was in office for 20 years in his business, becomes addicted to anxiolytics. "It took me seven years to get out of the tube," he says. What will definitely make her head out of the water? A weaning drug, first, then 24 months on a farm in La Roche-sur-Yon, a health facility to regain the taste of work.

Fifteen years after this story, Christophe Gaborieau knows he has lost a lot. "But I've also gained a lot of life, I'm more of a philosopher, and I can say loud and clear that I'm healthy again."