Stress & UC?

I have read a lot that people think stress plays a role in their flares/symptoms of UC. I have read some recent studies down that seem to back that up.

However, what it doesnt answer is whenever you're stressed, does it bring on a few blown flare like I've had for months or is it just a few days of bad symptoms, you change your lifestyle (adding yoga, exercise, more rest, etc.) and then a few days later it disappears. you dont need any new medications and it doesnt screw up your existing longer term remission?

the reason i ask is because i am 24 and in finance. i am thinking about taking a job at a large consulting firm where the hours could be heavy at times and it's a dog eat dog world. if the added stress of the job will bring on a big time flare that severely impacts my abilities to live a normal life, there is no way in hell i can do it. however, if it is just a few days, i make sure my diet is good, i regularly exercise, and i was even thinking about starting yoga... i can pretty handle that lifestyle if i have bad symptoms/pain for a day or two every once in a while.

i was just curious your own experiences with stress and its impact on the disease. during this flare, i have noticed stress brings about symptoms, but im not sure how i'd be feeling when im back in remission. i generally am not a stressed out person, but like everyone else, i have my fair share of stressful events.

I have a fairly stressful job and haven't noticed any impact of stress on my UC. I think there's also a chicken and egg issue here. UC is stressful. If you have added stress in your life on top of that, it can feel as if you're in a negative stress loop.

I'd urge you not to let UC limit the choices you make in advance. If the job sounds interesting and exciting, go for it and see how you handle the stress or see what new stress managing skills it might help you develop.

Stress has always brought on a flare for me.

For me personally, emotional stress especially prolonged stress definitely causes my U/C symptoms to flair in a big way. Of course having u/c is stressful in its self too. I guess we are all different when it comes to stress and how it effects our health and wellbeing.

I agree with you Oligodar. We love to have answers to all possible unknowns to ease our minds, so we often due tend to draw conclusions were there are none for the aforementioned reason.

It's possible there is a bit of a connection with stress and flares (I hear it posted so much on these forums over the years), as there's research of the negative affect of stress on the body long term. I tend to think it is not a direct a link as sometimes painted with UC that stress = flare. That's why above I think stress promotes a cascading series of events to poor sleep patterns, bad eating habits, etc. *shrug* who knows, I've been wrong before as my dear wife is prone to point out whenever she can haha.

Stress has never seemed to bother my bowels at all, at least not directly. I could climb walls, tear my hair out, bang my head on desks, etc., and my bowels will be as serene as a tropical ocean gently lapping up a white sandy beach. Mentally I could be feeling perfectly calm, and my bowels will be like a tropical cyclone.

There is the cascading effect that iPoop mentioned though. Being under prolonged stress often means that people get less sleep, eat more poorly, and generally become run down - eventually that might create the conditions for a flare-up to occur.

Another possible explanation is it's IBS instead of IBD. Some people do get a dodgy stomach when they are really nervous or anxious. But IBD and IBS aren't mutually exclusive, so you could have IBS in response to a stressful experience. That said, if you have active inflammation at the time, then I would be wary about using the IBS label.

For me, prolonged mental stress flares up the UC. I have tried various methods of meditations with very little success. I personally try to keep stress at bay by avoiding things that have a possibility of causing stress. That has certainly affected negatively to my career and takes a hit at my self-confidence at a time but I am willing to take a dent at my career for better health.