Do you believe your diagnosis and disease symptoms was caused by stress?

I hate when DRs say that IBD is linked to stress. I am sure there is not a causal link - but there is certainly the reverse. Having uncontrollable diarrhea and stomach pain can sure cause a person to feel stressed!

Look, the bowel has more connections to the nervous system than any other part of the body. When you are feeling sad or anxious, your gut is going to feel it, too. Sure there are some people who get diarrhea during exam week and they don't have IBD.

It is also true that the immune system responds to stressful situations in unfortunate ways. I knew that when my house got struck by lightning in 2009 and we spent 18 months rebuilding that I was likely to get sicker, and I did. When the situation was resolved I got better. The end.

Managing your day-to-day stresses is important for everyone. Learning how to cope with life's ups and downs, developing strategies that work well for you (exercise? out with friends? movie alone? eating healthy food? going out for a beer? a hike in the woods?) is very important for us IBDers, because a lot of the time we're just feeling crummy and need a lift.

But no, stress did not cause your disease.

My short answer is No, my UC was not caused by stress. But certainly stress can be contributing to whatever the real cause is, and I suspect an unknown bacteria. Many, many different bacteria, good and bad, live in our guts and do not cause problems until something tips the balance. Stress may play a part but IMO is not the cause.

i don't believe stress caused it, however I do believe that stress is making it hard for me to heal and get back to 100%.

my doctor found a bacterial infection called aeromonas hydrophila, apparently rare. this caused alot of the same symptoms as UC, but I think even after wiping it out with cipro, my immune system was wacked out...

I have no idea how this disease started, or the root cause, but for me, Stress is a major factor in my flair ups. I have been logging my day to day for 8 years now, and every time I have an over load of stress I get a flair. Never fails. I was diagnosed with mild proctosigmoiditis 2 years ago...(I have been flaring for 10 years now, just dident want to have the colin snaked, or deal with any meds) This april, I had some very rough things come my way, and then a tsunami hit us here in Ventura CA and the tides came screaming in and out for 3 days, very violent stuff...I live on a boat, so you can see why that would be a problem for me. Well a month later I found myself half dead in a hospital weighing 125 lbs (Im a 170lbs man) and in a severe flair for the first time. I'm sure the stress took me over the top. But Im also sure I was flaring anyway, but the stress made it much worse.

I just had another flair start up 3 weeks ago, Im going to stay very calm if thats possible... :) Just my thoughts on the matter...

PS Im now on meds...lol I guess Im just a hard head at heart.

Post Edited (Godslyric) : 10/21/2011 11:16:59 AM (GMT-6)

No to the cause...yes on the exacerbating or even leading to flares.

When I had my first symptoms in '87 my body was already in "tilt" mode, reacting to just about everything, with asthma and back/neck severe pain. The butt issues and extreme weight loss were the icing, the bloody diarrhea was the cut in the cake.

I have a connection through genetics to asthma, UC, depression and anxiety....triggers were eventual to happen.

q

 

Stress somehow causes reduced immune system (Some born with reduced immune system or low serotonin levels too), then grows the harmful bacteria you eat/drink/breathe. Like Mycobacterium Paratuberculosis which comes free with industrialized city milk.

Then you get IBD or TB or intestinal TB and more stressed, less immune and it goes into a cycle..

How does, city milk get Mycobacterium?

It (Johnes disease=IBD of animals) is common in stressed industrial cows standing still all day long(stressed) and fed with optimal industrial food and antibiotics to grow better.

Just like us:)

That is why; antibiotics, probiotics, fresh air, yoga, ldn, dietzia, SCD, fecal transplant, pigworms, exercise  helps some temporarily.

Some of these strenghten immunity, while others kill the bacteria (good and bad=mycobacteria).

 

For the start of my UC , it's easy to see physical/psychological stress as a factor. Another likely cause was having my body carpet bombed by anti-biotics.

A few months before I was diagnosed with UC I went through a few courses of anti-biotics to cure an infection. While still on the mend and finishing up on the anti-biotics, I found myself traveling out of state to help my elderly parents while my father underwent surgery. After a few weeks of work I noticed things were not going well for me intestinally, which was the start of my adventure with UC.

Since I was worried about my parents and making sure their livestock and assets were cared for, that qualifies as the psychological stress. The physical stress included a badly banged up leg (a dumb move on my part), labor, and those darn anti-biotics.

It's hard to say if one or all of the issues I was having caused my UC. For what it's worth, the first question my acupuncturist asked before he began treating me for UC was whether or not I was under stress. It shows he is well aware of the connection between the mind, the body, and the spirit.

Well I personally think stressful lifestyles take a toll on our stomachs and immune systems. I feel like my situation is correlated specifically to stress, I was born a healthy human being and my whole family has gone through a few things here and there, but I can't say any of us have been knocked down from something like this. I'm keeping the positive attitude and doing what I have to do, now tapering prednisone, doing other things to really keep me in line and taking it easy, one day at a time so we'll have to see where it goes from here.

College is a really stressful time, and losing friends, having break ups and make ups and going through situations can really effect people negatively, the best of times and the worst of times is what everyone tells me. I really wanted to start fresh this year and make some new friends, go out a little bit more, but I think in my situation right now it'd be best to take it easy. Thank God for my family I dunno what I would do without them.

My uncle was diagnosed with the worst case of colitis a few years ago, he's a big guy, so his doctors put him on a ton of medications like prednisone, asacol, bentol, etc, he wasnt really taking care of himself during being diagnosed and would sometimes avoid the medications. Finally, he decided after a few months enough was enough and he completely weaned off all medicines and said he turned to God to take care of him, as well as slowly changing his diet. Within a few months he was fine, underwent another colonoscopy and had no signs of the disease. So I'm hopeful on that count alone. However, my cousin whos had colitis for years is now 17 and she was on alot of medications too, I think she has it under control now.

No not caused by stress but stress will make a flare worse. My UC was definitely genetic. Lots of UC in my family.

best to say UC since colitis is a generic term...not specific.

q

BTW -thanks for your kind and valuable input as usual quincy. Seeing how this is an ULCERATIVE COLITIS forum, I think most people here understand that "colitis" refers to "ulcerative colitis" for the purposes of this thread.
Thanks again,

And I'd argue, along with others, that stress reduction is a valuable exercise and skill to learn to assist not only with symptoms but for root cause- and when I say root cause, I mean the way that stress may have been the tipping point for people- so to keep back from that tipping point again. Keeping it from having an aggravating effect. Much like changes in diet.

For me, for years, stress has given me IBS symptoms, and a single extremely stressful event coincided when UC came on last year. Stressful events coincided with more blood (not a scientific study of course), whether or not it was direct or I "thought" it would make things worse and hence did. But in the last few months, I feel that learning relaxation techniques, etc. have helped a lot with symptoms, and of course life in general :)