How do you deal with the side effects of prednisone?

Hey everyone I'm currently on 30 mg of prednisone.

In the past I've had many flare ups and prednisone that came after.. I have experienced all the nasty side effects but lately it is really getting to my head. I don't know if I can handle it anymore. I don't even mind the weight gain but the rest are seriously taking a toll on my emotional state. about an hour ago I was talking to my parents and I asked if we could buy a fan since the weather is getting unbearably hot (90+ degrees) and they mentioned that we have one in the basement. But I knew that one was broken so I said I don't think it works. In the end they were coming back from grocery shopping so said we would consider buying one. Then 30 minutes later my mom barges into my room and just starts screaming at me. She starts going off about how if it's so hot then why is my door closed..like it makes a big difference, and more random stuff. I was so shocked at why she suddenly felt the need to get mad at me when I did nothing wrong. So here comes prednisone to the rescue.. I start to get seriously irritated and my mind is just racing with WHY WHY WHY. All of these bad memories start coming back to me and that just triggers me so hard that I go to her room and just screamed and screamed. I couldn't control myself and I started to throw things on the ground and picked up the vacuum and broke the handle. I was breathing so heavily and my heart was racing. I went to my room and started to breathe slowly but all these thoughts were just coming back and I couldn't stop. So I went to the basement and got the fan, sure enough it doesn't work. So I took it to the garage and went at it with a hammer. I ate dinner alone and here I am now.

I feel horrible because sometimes I just feel like no one understands me. Typical teenage thing to say, but I don't think people who haven't been on prednisone know how serious these side effects are. I always think about what kind of person I used to be, a calm, relaxed innocent boy. And now I'm this hulk that just loses it at the smallest things. I feel like my parents think this is who I am now because they seriously think I have anger issues, which I do, but only because of this darn medicine.

I just hope I don't flare up from this, because my past experiences with stress have not been so good.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Hi yellowcolon, I'm another pred user. I've been with it on & off for about 4 years and in this last year it started showing this type of effects. Everything was fine around 10 months ago but now, it turned me into someone different and usually I'm very good at restraining myself. I did it for months and months but the anger always slipped through the cracks, I fought with people at my workplace and quit my part time job for instance. They loved me, I loved them but I just snapped and overreacted. After my last flare, during which I was in the process of tapering the pred and had to up the dosage again. That flare started two weeks ago and now I'm emotionally broken, can't even listen to music without my emotional state being negatively effected. I have a heavy brain fog and my short term memory became a mess. I can't read books because I can't focus.

You're definitely not alone, I know how bad you feel because I feel as bad, if not worse, myself, right now at this moment. But we'll pull through, there are always other meds, biologics, dietary changes, nicotin therapy and if nothing works, surgery. I'm seeing a shrink tomorrow, I hope it will help me put things in perspective, you can try that too.

First thing to accept is that this is not you and it's not a lame excuse, saying the drugs make you like this. Let people close to you know that, give them the chance to understand.

One word of additional advice though; try not to get your heart broken(in a romantic way) while you're on pred and experiencing these side effects. It's ermm... not very pleasant.

You're not alone brother. I believe it was ipoop on here that said there are three certainties in life.... Death, Taxes, and Pred side effects. I do not tend to get aggressive or irritable while on pred, but recently it has really exacerbated my depression. The most intense physical side effect I get is horribly painful cystic acne all over my head, trunk, and groin ( and I'm 41 y/o ). I think that would be enough to depress most people, and when you throw in the UC symptoms it's a living hell. The pred just amplifies that depression for me. A lot of despair and hopelessness right now. If you can successfully get off the pred then the emotional side effects will dissipate over time. Best of luck to you!

Thanks everyone for the kind words..

NiceCupOfTea I try not to be too hard on my mom because I understand where she is coming from. She works long hours and 6 days a week. I think she has broken down the most ever since I was diagnosed, but usually she is cheerful because shes turned to religion. I know she doesn't like it when I'm at home all day but I can't help it if I'm not at my 100% energy levels to go out and stuff. That's another thing they don't seem to understand.

I am sorry. One thing I can tell you is that being irritable on prednisone is 100% normal. it's very difficult to control emotions. Another thing I can tell you, is that living with people is difficult. I have never lived with anyone and not had arguments with them here and there. People get in moods, people have opinions, people have bad days, we don't always see eye to eye. I used to get really worked up over everything and I've made a conscious effort to not let things make me fly off the handle. On prednisone, it's a different story of course, but it's very hard to get me angry. It's just not worth it and it seems bad for my overall health. I let things go in one ear and out the other most of the time. I think as I get older, I realize that getting angry doesn't make anything better. Plus, I usually end up making an idiot of myself when I fly off the handle. Last time I flew off the handle, I was on prednisone... I screamed at this guy who was parking in my driveway. Looking back, I am embarrassed. So what are you going to do about the fan? Can you buy one with your own money?

GC4249 said...
Steroids (and any drug, for that matter) are a band aid measures that are just meant to cover up the original problem

Steroids, yeah, if you stay on them for too long.

Other drugs, no. They're not 'covering' up anything. They're simply reducing the immune response sufficiently to allow the colon to heal. They don't work for everybody, but nobody has ever made that claim.

juststud said...
ya, i'm not sure about the covering up thing, but definitely the band aid thing going on - take away the drug, immune system kicks in, and away goes that happy, healed colon !

So what about the people who stay in remission after stopping medication?

I obviously wouldn't advise it, but there will deffo be some people on meds who could stop them and not relapse. In fact I can think of several examples, including myself (I'm talking about after my first surgery, not my second one, which has been a disaster zone all round).

Thanks again everyone. I'm gonna make sure I stay positive throughout this whole thing. My mother and I are on good terms now and have put it behind us. I only have 1 and 1/2 months to go before my surgery, so I'll try my best to not stress too much.