Anxiety disorders/depression and developing UC

I know there have been many discussions here about stress and its contribution to UC and flare ups. I don't think it's a controversial idea that stress plays a part in the symptoms we experience and for some of us may have had a role in us getting UC in the first place.

I dunno if there's been a thread on having anxiety disorders/depression and initially triggering UC.

I'm 22 and have been battling an eating disorder and OCD for a few years now. Both are characterized as anxiety disorders. Prior to getting treatment for them, I was always anxious and stressed out. It got in the way of developing relationships with people. I felt outcast and alone. I always felt on edge. I was always incredibly analytical and was always thinking deeply in a way that was very stressful and found it very hard to stop until I realized that my problems were rooted in OCD.

I developed UC after being in the hospital for cellulitis. A month prior, I began treating my OCD in addition to my eating disorder and treating the OCD as well totally changed things for me. I was feeling so great and stress free. After years of constant anxiety, it finally felt like the weight was lifted, and so quickly.

I initially attributed the antibiotics that treated the cellulitis to me getting UC, and maybe those did have a big effect. But now I'm wondering if the relief from the constant anxiety may have contributed, much like how those who stop smoking can end up with UC a few months later. I was stressed out in the hospital over a few things, but I also felt a lot less stressed than usual.

I spoke with a friend about this. He spends a lot of time helping people with anxiety disorders and is a former sufferer himself. He doesn't have UC, but he has noticed a trend that many people he works with end up getting autoimmune diseases and knows a few others with UC. He doesn't claim causation either way, but he thinks there may be a connection between the two, and linked me to a study. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1731788/. Not conclusive, but interesting.

It's confusing. There are probably many factors going on. So i'll simplify this and ask: Have any of you had a history of anxiety or depression before being diagnosed with UC? Were you usually stressed out? Do you think it may have contributed to you getting UC for the first time? Do you think it personally contributes to your flare ups?

bump.

I had severe anxiety and depression prior to UC, and was undergoing an extremely traumatic period of time when I was diagnosed.

You may know Tunnel that there is a lot of research going on into stimulating the vagus nerve as a treatment for autoimmune type inflammatory diseases, live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/new-york-times-nervous-system-hack/5384e423fe344460610003ac

There have also been studies that appear to demonstrate a similar process alleviates anxiety and depression and I have read about it in conjunction with treating PTSD.

For me, I did have some depression and anxiety before my first flare, which I put down to side effects of the contraceptive pill as it really changed me but ongoing flares have been generally triggered by physical illness.

As a mental health worker myself, I have had contact with hundreds of patients with depression and anxiety conditions and only a tiny percentage of them have an autoimmune disease so certainly the conditions do not go hand in hand, and once you have UC a certain amount of depression and anxiety caused by the situation will so often arise. Interestingly, I think that, where I work, a busy primary care centre, we get far fewer referrals than I would expect given the percentage of the population with autoimmune conditions, which might go with the theory of Gabriel Mate, author of "the body says no" that people with autoimmune diseases have a personality of looking after others and not speaking up to get care for themselves. The one condition that I note anecdotally that comes up most is asthma in the people I triage.

Thing is, if you get depression and anxiety without an obvious situational cause, we don't know what is causing them either so it all seems very chicken and egg between situation, environment, illness, hormones, neurotransmitters genes etc. etc.

Tunnel....Stress and anxiety is a precipitating factor to cause flares in people who have a genetic vulnerability for UC.
If you have, high anxiety and OCD type symptoms, it means you have serotonin imbalance in your Brain.
There are food which help balance serotonin in Brain and these foods are ripe banana, cheddar cheese, turkey, Yogurt, buttermilk and japanese sushi sea weed.
If symptoms of anxiety and OCD are excessive then, you might need a serotonin booster medication such as Prozac or any newer version of this (called SSRI meds)
On top of it, relaxation tecniques with tranquil music ,meditation and training your brain to chill...all can be helpful. Eating disorders are also related to the same ...serononin imbalance ,so the same meds will likely help the eating symptoms. Please find a good psychiatrist to treat these and your frequency of UC flares might get better as a bonus. Good wishes to you.
Also, a word about vagus nerve stimulation...stimulating this nerve reduces the tone of sympathetic nervous system and reduces anxiety because high sympathetic nervous system activity is the cause of high anxiety and stress.

Post Edited (Diva2014) : 12/6/2014 5:10:01 AM (GMT-7)

Thinking about stress some more, if we were to separate it into stress where you still feel in control (i.e. really busy, doing something difficult but knowing you can get through) and stress where you feel under threat (not confident, a lot to lose if things don't work out), then I would say perhaps I can trace some flares to stress where I felt under threat.

This vagus nerve stimulation, that is turning off the threat systems, would work well with that theory.

Stress does raise cortisol yes, which, as we know from our friend Pred, dampens inflammation, so it could be that a drop in cortisol production allows inflammation to take hold. I wonder about other hormones too.

Just to chime in with my experiences briefly. I actually started to develop OCD AFTER I was diagnosed with UC. The OCD doesnt cause me a lot of anxiety or stress, but it does become very annoying and causes me to take a lot of time to do work, which in turn leads to stress so I guess its a nasty cycle

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Marauder and Rock.

If you guys are interested in some additional resources for understanding/treating OCD, I highly recommend Mark Freeman's videos on Youtube. Short, informative, high quality, and genuinely uplifting imo. UC is an intense exercise in uncertainty, and most anxiety disorders arise through not dealing with that fear of uncertainty. No doubt UC itself will cause much anxiety possibly fueling the vicious cycle. We are not in an enviable position here. But I have hope that if we can control the disease reasonably well, we can also become more mentally resilient than the average person from taking care of our mental health as well.

I'd say I had severe OCD before UC came around, for a few years. Started out fairly mild, but toward the end I was spending hours and hours on rituals and repetitive thought cycles. Very high stress. Not to mention I was worried sick about food and disease most of the time. Sigh. I've spent so much of my youth in an awful mental place.

Anyway, I should've included a poll in this thread, as this thread was mainly throwing out the question of whether or not you think stress may have played a role in UC first occurring or if you think stress might play a role in flares. As I mentioned before, I think physical and mental stress may be my triggers, but we'll see. Others may feel that stress doesn't impact flares too much. Thanks again for your posts, guys.

Post Edited (Tunnelvisionary) : 12/8/2014 3:05:11 AM (GMT-7)