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Don't you guys think its mental too?!

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Posted 3/12/2010 7:47 PM (GMT 0)
I have been reading this forum for quite a while, but decided to join recently. I have be dx with UC April 2004 and since then I got a few flare ups, some pretty strong, but all were controlled by steriods and pentasa. In remission, I take 2X500mg pentasa in the morning and night and once a week a pentasa enema. I found that this heavily reduces the chance of a flareup.

However, I believe that the whole thing is mental, and can be controlled by controlling not only your meds and what you eat, but most importantly the stress levels in your life. All the times I got my flareups were in periods of heavy stress and they would not go away unless I eased the stress!

Usually, I tend to avoid milk since it upset my UC (I take cheese and other dairy products no problem), and I discovered this herbal mix which I take once a day and I believe this is really reducing the chances of flareups. I believe by controlling your mind and learning to live with it with a slight adjustment in your life, you can really have a quality life with UC.

What do you guys think?
Posted 3/12/2010 7:55 PM (GMT 0)
Most definitely there is a mind-gut connection...this is why many IBDers end up getting anxiety due to their IBD attacking so often and so random you naturally become paranoid about something as simple as leaving your own home for the fear of crapping your pants...it's natural and there certainly is a mind-gut connection or mind-butt connection if you will LOL!

:)
Posted 3/12/2010 8:06 PM (GMT 0)
well I don't know about this...I mean, a big part of it is mental, when you get too nerved up to leave your house, sure you'll have an accident, etc. But for me, I don't fear the accidents, I just prepare for them & deal with them as they may happen. So, while I have had less accidents with this mindset, they still do occur from time to time. The stress levels, yes, they definitely affect UC. But I don't think they cause it. There is a certain amount of stress one has to deal with, & you have to be able to handle it & not allow it to affect you negatively. I suppose being in an ongoing stressful situation (unhappy marriage, enhappy housing arrangement, etc) would probably cause a flare to last longer, but I don't think that by living as stress-free as possible, it would make a flare go away. The very notion of flaring causes stress in & of itself. Lots of people on here do yoga, meditate, etc. yet they still flare. I feel like you can do as much as you can do- watch your diet, take supplements, take maintenance meds, live as stress-free as possible, & go from there. Which doesn't equal a flare-free life, unfortunately. But it does seem as the majority of us are your typical garden-variety control freak, Type A personalities! Can't do much about that....

Posted 3/12/2010 8:06 PM (GMT 0)
I think UC causes more stress in my life but stress does not cause UC. The most stressful times in my life were not accompanied by UC symptoms.
Posted 3/12/2010 8:16 PM (GMT 0)
I absolutely do NOT think my UC was caused mentally, emotionally or any way similarly. UC has caused me stress but that stress was not there before getting this disease.

YMMV
Posted 3/12/2010 8:22 PM (GMT 0)
No. I don't. I know stress can make things worse but when I started having symptoms, it wasn't really a stressful time. I also have not had a lot of stress since then but never went into remission for over 2 years. I'm not a person that really stresses over a lot of things
Posted 3/12/2010 8:23 PM (GMT 0)
I definitely think there is a connection for me personally with stress and flares. Stress is a huge trigger for me. However, I have other triggers too, like illnesses, and with having two small kids, I really can't control my exposure to a lot of that kind of thing.

UC is just so individual. The severity of disease, the triggers, meds that help/hurt, etc. We are all so different. We all have to do our own trial and error, and even with the best of intentions sometimes, nothing seems to work.

I do have to work hard though to control my stress level since I know that is a bad thing for me.
Posted 3/12/2010 8:24 PM (GMT 0)
I don't really know if stress will affect me too much yet or not, but I have had a couple of stressful periods since being diagnosed, and I sailed through them just fine.  So, I'm leaning towards stress not being an issue for me.

Welcome to the forum. 

Oh, and that's great that you're using enemas once a week, but the studies I've read about enema use in remission all had patients use them twice weekly.  Just something to think about.

Posted 3/12/2010 8:31 PM (GMT 0)
I can't decide. I don't think its caused by stress, although my family members will swear that its ALL because I hold my emotions inside. Whatever.
Some of my worst flares have been during very stressful times, but then other flares happen when things are going great, so I don' t know. Probably just coincidence.

The nature of this disease alone is enough to cause anxiety though--I do believe that!
Posted 3/12/2010 9:12 PM (GMT 0)
Many diseases are caused by stress. However, people, owing to their genetics, are predisposed to different diseases. So while stress may trigger UC for some people, it can trigger a heart attack for others. Moreover, stress can be due to internal factors, such as the mind and genetics, and external factors, such as antibiotics, germs, poor diet, ... External factors can also cause diseases. So if you are someone who is genetically very predisposed to getting UC and your mind is under much stress, then yes meditation, leisure walks, getting adequate sleep, qi-gong, ... will be very helpful for you. But if you are someone who has a unhealthy colon due to antibiotic use and poor diet, then meditation, leisure walks, ... may help a little, but improving the health of the colon with fecal transplantation, probiotics, and a healthy diet should be more beneficial.
Posted 3/12/2010 9:18 PM (GMT 0)
I would have believed that when I had UC, but since I had my colon removed I have not loss continence, have not vomited, have not had bloody diarrhea or even non-bloody diarrhea. I have not had a fever, or felt like crap in my abdomen. So, I would revise my thinking and say that all of my problems with UC were physical. Sure, they sometimes caused emotional problems but my worst flare, the one that resulted in surgery, began in the least stressful time of my life.

Sue
Posted 3/12/2010 9:30 PM (GMT 0)
     The most stressful time of my entire life was 1995 - 1996.  That was two years before my symptoms of IBD.  I suffered from IBS since childhood. 

     I credit overuse of antibiotics for years...(.my family doctor prescribed them for everything and I sure had my share of sinus infections), for my problem of ulcerative proctitis.

     Since being diagnosed, my flares have occured randomly.  Grant you while flaring, if there happens to be a stressful situation going on in my life it will take longer to regain remission.  Lately, it hasn't made any difference at all.  Stress or no stress...I flare.

Posted 3/12/2010 9:46 PM (GMT 0)
I have never believed that stress had anything to do with my flares. But, I am in an incredibly stressful time right now. And - though two weeks ago I felt my gut was like the best it's ever been in 23 years, now I'm going more frequently and with a tad more urgency.

BUT, rather than saying the stress is causing UC symptoms, I really feel that the stress is triggering a nervous IBS-type response: when I focus on one of these nervous-making stresses, I can feel my mid-section clench and then sometimes the bathroom urge comes.

And, despite the fact that I've felt great, there probably has been a little lingering inflammation at the very bottom, and it's sort of a cycle - that inflamed area is likely not being improved by the increased poops.
Posted 3/12/2010 10:09 PM (GMT 0)
My mental portion is due to UC, not vice versa. I had no anxiety problems pre-UC. The stress can add to increased motility though, so it becomes a viscous cycle.
Posted 3/12/2010 10:13 PM (GMT 0)
I don't think anyone is saying that stress causes UC or IBD in general but it definitely is linked to it, more than likely in the form of exacerbating symptoms, different from "causing the disease" but I know myself I was under a tremendous amount of stress at the time I became very sick with my crohn's colitis...check out this link....

http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/ulcerative-colitis/features/link-between-stress-ulcerative-colitis

Stress or not, there is a mind-gut connection so there is definitely a "mental" thing to it as well.  And no, not everyone develops anxiety due to their disease, but many patients do.

There's also physical stress to consider as well, just from reading the board over the yrs, many have explained that they lived very healthy and very physically active/demanding lives before getting sick with IBD.

:)

Posted 3/13/2010 12:25 AM (GMT 0)

beeswax said...
I think UC causes more stress in my life but stress does not cause UC. The most stressful times in my life were not accompanied by UC symptoms.

Ditto.

I read somewhere that there are many mental triggers for feeling the need to poo or pee. (Like when you are excited). Women have many, many more than men! No fair.

Posted 3/13/2010 5:39 AM (GMT 0)
there are so many levels or degrees of stress....once a disease such as UC has been triggered, emotional distress can definitely play havoc.

I'm pretty much "stressed" all the time. My very nature functions well on some stress, but gets defeated with distress. One event? no....but anything that requires more emotional involvement on a negative nature will surely tax my body quickly.

The body also learns really quickly, and its tolerance level for certain things can diminish as we age if stress or distress is continual.

When I got UC, my body was a mess reacting to everything. The stress of doctors not believing me left me confused and very depressed. One doctor claimed to me that even though there are many people like you, we don't really know what to do to help. Our criteria is more specific....people like you are all over the place not fitting into that criteria. Believe it or not, I found it liberating.

My flares are the easiest thing to treat because the tools I have work. After so many years of therapy learning behavioural/perspective tools...things have gotten better with other parts of my body including UC.

There's a connection, but it's not a cause. I'll never be without stress, my hard-wiring can at least be interrupted with less impact on my body.

I don't think it's black and white....and saying it's mental implies a more personal insult to someone suffering with autoimmune disease.
Actually, it's more the physical reaction that causes the flares methinks. So, I guess I could say it's more physical with me.

q
Posted 3/13/2010 5:39 AM (GMT 0)

Peety said...



beeswax said...

I think UC causes more stress in my life but stress does not cause UC. The most stressful times in my life were not accompanied by UC symptoms.



Ditto.

I read somewhere that there are many mental triggers for feeling the need to poo or pee. (Like when you are excited). Women have many, many more than men! No fair.


Posted 3/13/2010 5:48 AM (GMT 0)

Peety said...



beeswax said...

I think UC causes more stress in my life but stress does not cause UC. The most stressful times in my life were not accompanied by UC symptoms.



Ditto.

I read somewhere that there are many mental triggers for feeling the need to poo or pee. (Like when you are excited). Women have many, many more than men! No fair.


Peety....but it's the physiological response as well....because for some, it's chemical or hormonal changes from the thoughts or emotional response of something.

The basic fight and flight response in animals creates changes in the digestive tract to empty the bowel/bladder quickly in order to have a better chance for survival from fleeing or fighting.

Automatic .... but can sometimes be intervened once it's realised, that would initially be to change the thoughts in order to change the physiological response. At least, that's how I understand it.
Posted 3/13/2010 1:40 PM (GMT 0)
I used to have a really, really stressful job. Actually, the woman whom I replaced had Ulcerative Colitis! When I finally left that job to one that was much more liveable, I was diagnosed with UC after 10 months. My doctor said that that happens because when we are under high stress our body produces cortisol which can control (or mask) symptoms. Then, when we finally relax, the symptoms can appear.

I don't know if that's what happened, but it sure can skew the simple cause/effect data!
Posted 3/13/2010 8:46 PM (GMT 0)
I believe that stress/emotional responses do add to UC S/S. It is also physiological (obviously), but not just one or the other...at least the community hasn't proven the cause thus far definitively. I have had times when I get really stressed and go from bowels being under control to raging diarrhea and near miss incontinence, stress being the one identifiable factor at that given time. Was the stress causal for the dx of UC at the moment? no, but did stress and emotions, and even hormonal changes contribute? I would have to say absolutely. I have seen it more than once, so how could it possibly ruled out and contributary? dB
Posted 3/13/2010 10:03 PM (GMT 0)

Gentle Now said...
I used to have a really, really stressful job. Actually, the woman whom I replaced had Ulcerative Colitis! When I finally left that job to one that was much more liveable, I was diagnosed with UC after 10 months. My doctor said that that happens because when we are under high stress our body produces cortisol which can control (or mask) symptoms. Then, when we finally relax, the symptoms can appear.

I don't know if that's what happened, but it sure can skew the simple cause/effect data!

This makes a lot of sense to me (what your doctor said).  I have had times of high stress that I said through and as soon as the let down happens, my symptoms worsen.  But then, I've had what should be more enjoyable things happen and my symptoms worsen, too (I say worsen because I think I've been in some degree of a flare since I was diagnosed.) 

I'm one of those who do yoga, try to meditate, etc., and it helps for a bit, like almost everything I try, but then UC rears its ugly butt.

 

Posted 3/14/2010 12:53 AM (GMT 0)
I have gone through so much stress since going into remission particularly a psychosis related to prednisone withdrawal. It's encouraging to here that I can freak out, be upset, get depressed and not necessarily cause a flare up.
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