James Van Der Beek on Emotional Toll From Cancer Diagnosis

James Van Der Beek gave fans an emotional update on his mental wellbeing since being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

“Physically, I’m great. I’m feeling really good,” Van Der Beek, 47, shared with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America on Tuesday, December 3. “Emotionally, you know, it’s a lot. It’s really a ride.”

Van Der Beek, who announced he was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer last month, noted that he was ‘honestly in shock’ after learning about his diagnosis.

“I had a whole agenda for what I thought my year would be and what I thought my priorities would be … and the reality that all of that was going to change and take a different trajectory — it felt like a nightmare honestly at first,” he explained to Roberts, 64, adding that despite being upset with his new reality he knew that it was going to “add many happy years” to his life.”

The Dawson’s Creek actor revealed that he is “going to make changes that [he] never would have made otherwise” and will eventually be grateful for going through this difficult time.

“I’m going to look back on [this in] 30 years and say, ‘Thank God this happened,’” he shared. “So what can I do right now in order to make that the case? That’s how it was about 90% of the time. I would say that about 10% of the time I was a sobbing, terrified mess.”

Although his diagnosis has taken an emotional toll, James couldn’t help but tear up while speaking about how his wife Kimberly Van Der Beek has supported him throughout this all.

“She’s been amazing. She’s really taught me what unconditional love is.“I’m someone who has always in the past tried to do everything for everybody and never asked for help,” he explained, adding that having to “receive help” is a relatively new development in his life.

“The beautiful blessing of that has been seeing how many people in my life have shown up,” he added.

In November, James opened up for the first time about dealing with colorectal cancer.

“It is cancer… Each year approximately 2 billion people around the world receive this diagnosis. And I’m one of them,” he wrote via Instagram at the time. “There’s no playbook for how [to] announce these things, but I’d planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon… to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms. But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news.”

James shared that he had been “privately” battling the disease and receiving treatment.

“I’m in a good place and feeling strong,” he added.“It’s been quite the initiation, and I’ll tell you more when I’m ready.”