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Posted 1/12/2008 8:44 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone,

I have a question in lives in a big location. I've been working on getting back to California, & I live in a small town & state, where things are pretty slow. I know the big cities & state are more fast paced, I was wondering do you worry about your stress level? I've been working on working out more to release my stress, & I'll hope it works when I get back to California, so I'm wondering how do you control your stress in a fast paced location?

Thanks

Posted 1/13/2008 2:50 AM (GMT 0)
Hi - I lived in Metro Detroit for a few years. I moved there from a small, rural area. It was a MAJOR change for me!!! I did stress - a lot. I stressed during my commute home that I was going to be "late" and my hubby would be mad at me. It took me a while to figure out that he wouldn't be. I stressed about finding the right docs - my PCP was good, but my GI and I didnt' see eye to eye. A good friend gave me the name of another GI and he was GREAT! I stressed about my job. Thankfully they had flexible scheduling - so when I needed to sleep in because I'd been up all night, it was okay. Some of this stress was self induced and UC induced and Effexor helped me tremendously. It took a couple of years for me to settle in and a lot of the stress left. When our three years were up and it was time to move, it was tough! I had FINALLY become accustomed to that life. We had a place outside of the major subburbs - so when I was away from work, I was AWAY from work.

How did I reduce stress?!?! Meeting with my HW friends was lots of fun. Taking my dogs to the "bark" park was awesome! (Watching dogs be dogs is very relaxing for me.) I tried to do all of my "running" during the week so that the weekends were mine to recouperate. I would have liked to only work four days a week - only eight hour days, not ten - so I could have one day to do that running instead of cramming it in during the week. Getting my once or twice a week latte helped. It gave me that time to just savor the flavor and relax.

We're in another local now. Population approx 130,000. My commute isn't any shorter, but things are a lot more relaxed here. In fact - few people drive the speed limit, which is making me crazy after the Metro freeways!
Posted 1/14/2008 12:15 AM (GMT 0)
I live here in Chicago. It is fast paced, congested and sometimes it does get stressful. The key for me is to take it easy and don't sweat the little things.
Posted 1/14/2008 12:34 AM (GMT 0)
My feeling is that a UCer needs a mature, supportive person or persons to confide in + time for relaxing activity to successfully combat stress. I know someone who swears by lap-swimming to overcome stress; others may prefer listening to their favorite music, etc. Take time to be good to yourself & your overall health will benefit. Urban life is faster, but it offers more cultural activities to attend during free time-- a kind of trade-off. I say this having resided in both small town & very large cities. / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC; currently on 3 Colazal daily for maintenance of remission)
Posted 1/14/2008 4:29 AM (GMT 0)
I live in San Jose, CA and have my whole life. Talk about stress..it is here! It is so exepensive and I am a manager at a large software company where I have to deal with politics and changes that piss me off. What I do?? I do my job well and leave it at WORK where it belongs. I know easier said then done, but having my baby(now 20 months old) put things in perspective. There is much more to life than stressing about work or traffic. It also helped that my husband got a good job which took all of the stress of me making the big bucks off of me. Ultimately..my goal is to either move to a less stressful community and/or go parttime. For now, I take things day by day and try to do things(like work out!) to reduce stress. No matter where you are you can still have stress so you have to find things that help you deal with it and reduce it.
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