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A breast cancer survivor recently opened up about the other side effects of the disease which rarely gets much attention.

The breast cancer survivor named Emily Helck, 29 opened up in a rather candid interview for ABC News. She accepted that the disease brought back the ‘pains and fears’ of adolescence.

“Embarrassing cancer moments range from the subtly undignified (hot flashes during dinner) to the mortifying (runaway surgical [breast] drain during a meeting),” she wrote to ABC News. 

Emily who is also an artist and a writer, was diagnosed with breast cancer in July of 2012. As part of rehabilitations she underwent a double mastectomy, radiations, chemoterypay and a Herceptin drug regimen.

“Hugging friends and family became fraught: The expanders were rock hard … Was I hurting people, or just freaking them out every time we embraced?” she wrote to ABC News.

Emily also said treatments took their toll in physical as well as emotional manner. It even led to moments that were just awkward.

“Cancer messes with your brain, resulting in random crying,” she noted.

She also noted that “chemo brain” led to serious problems with her memory and she gradually lost the ability to concentrate.

“I was considering the evening a success when I began a nice chat with another party-goer about contemporary art, the field we both work in. Somehow the conversation shifted to Las Vegas, and things went downhill. I made some comment about that controversial ID carrying law in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and then froze,” she recalled regarding attending a party according to Daily Mail.

However experts believe that to overcome such problems one should be open about such things.

“Laying it all out can be cathartic and important and refreshing. Last month, I posted a time-lapse video of my year of treatment. The photos aren’t pretty, and some of them (shocker) might be considered kind of embarrassing,” she concluded according to Daily Mail.