Health anxiety over UC

Hey there, I think many of our minds gravitated to the worst of possibilities at first. Pretty normal. I also diagnosed myself with parasites and actually took in what I believed to be a worm (it was a celery strand).

After that, I began realizing that my brain wasn't my friend. Read lots of posts here. You'll see very quickly that most everyone here leads a pretty normal life full of all kinds of regular activities. It's way too premature for you to get too worried.

In fact, I am surprised the consultant told you it was definitively UC without the biopsy reports. You may simply have an infective variety and not a chronic condition at all. When will your results be back, have they told you? they did take biopsies, right?

Welcome to the forum. I've been on Lialda, a sister medication to your mesalazine (octasa), for 5 years now and I have yet to experience a single side effect from it. Octasa is encapsulated in a delayed-release coating, that topically applies the medication to only your large intestine. As a 90% topical medication, the risk of side effects is very, very low and it is well tolerated by most without experiencing side effects. We have some posters here who have been on these medications for decades without troubles. Many of us here have have lived with UC for a long time and are doing just fine. We live mostly normal happy and healthy lives, with successful careers, families, and pursue our dreams and hobbies. I know at first a new diagnosis is quite scary and overwhelming. And it is especially challenging if you struggle with health anxieties and are keen to self-diagnose. Dr Google and self-diagnosis are often wrong, with a very high inaccuracy rate. Best advice there is to unplug, stop the searching, and research and put faith in your doctors to know what's best for you.

I know all-too-well that fears and anxieties aren't easily overcome with just facts and reason though. If it were that easy to say "a small spider cannot harm a 200 pound, 6-foot tall, grown man, there no more fear," then there'd be no arachnophobia in this world and other phobias would suddenly *poof* disappear in a heartbeat. Unfortunately it isn't so. Rather, fears and anxieties are deep animal-brain responses meant to protect us, they're deeply-rooted based on anticipation of danger based on past experience. Generally it takes new positive experience over an extended period of time to conquer fears and anxieties. It is very difficult with lots of ups and downs, but with lots of time, patience, dedication, and help from counselors we can often get through it. There's just absolutely no instant-gratification or quick-and-easy fixes.

I know fears and anxieties are a challenge and many of us here face various health anxieties to different degrees. You mentioned before that you did a lot of self help and seek out counseling, and that might be a good thing to do again. There's a lot of unknowns with a new diagnosis, and at first we fear the worst case scenario (it's in-part human nature to do so). Over time, it does get easier as you begin to know your new illness, see how you respond to treatments and get to know what to expect from your new illness. It's kinda like having an annoying sibling, over time you know what to expect from him/her, anticipate certain behaviors at certain times/events/situations and do the best you can to tolerate him/her with the least amount of trouble that is possible haha.

We do have a Anxieties forum on healingwell, as well. They're a really good group of people who are quite knowledgeable and helpful. www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=9

Hi Kez_02,
I can certainly sympathize with your situation, I was diagnosed at 13 with Ulcerative Colitis and over time (I'm now 34) I developed terrible health anxiety, to the point that I was so terrified of catching a cold that I would scan people's noses at the supermarket to see if they were red, or they had the sniffles. I used to send my partner away when he developed a cold or flu. And then 3 years ago I had a stroke out of the blue, no relation to my UC, but I was found to have antiphospholipid syndrome. Surprisingly, that cured me of my health anxiety because I just learnt that you can't control these things, what will be will be, and all you can do is take yourself off to the hospital if you ever need it and put your trust in them. Or you could spend your time worrying about what could happen that you never actually live your life. I know it's easier said than done, as my anxiety used to be crippling, but I think you need to make the conscious decision to not let it rob you of your life. Perhaps cognitive behavioral therapy will help?

Normal to be worried about health, and with mental depression and anxiety, that can take over. You have 2 children to care for plus UC...lots on your plate.

Regarding cancer....not irrational at all. Better to be checked and realistic than fearful and never be checked. So that was a normal first concern. I went through the same thing.....reason is that my godmother's son died of bowel cancer at 28....he inherited it from his mother, and his daughter was checked and found to have it at 16 and had her colon removed. So while it's not a normal when genetics aren't obvious....not everyone talks about their bowels.

I suggest you get on rectal meds as well.....in the UK there is salofalk, Pentasa and asacol enemas....asacol comes in a foam, the others are liquid and there are varying dosages. Please request them.

The learning process is through experience and learned knowledge....so research is a good thing. Not all info is complete or truthful.

Welcome to the forum.
q

"intelligent people running the country"

Now I'm the one who's completely lost. Are we talking about the same country and the same people here?

Never mind, I'm out. This, like Brexit, cannot possibly end well.

It's normal I went through it but trust me it's nothing it's easy to get it under control and you live normal life
I suggest that you go outside for walks it helps
Soon you'll find out that your worries are un justifiable

If you're 4 months into your UC treatment and still struggling then tell your gasteroenterologist-specialist that your current mesalazine (octasa) isn't enough and that you need stronger doses and additional medications to get a better quality of life. Accidents mean bad/severe inflammation persists. Ask for anti-inflammatory salofalk/pentasa enemas at minimum, and steroid foams/enemas/suppositories or oral delayed-release pills like clipper or entocort EC.
. You might want to ask about stronger classes of UC meds like immunomodulators or biologics.