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Do you try to control your UC? (lowering stress, calming down, etc...)

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 10/13/2014 3:27 AM (GMT 0)
Just curious about this as I've felt a few pings of gut feeling lately which have reminded me of pre-Remicade days...

A lot of times when I was flaring I would think that my being busy or mentally strained was causing the UC. So, I would try to slow down, or calm down. I've never gotten the idea though that that in fact makes a big difference once the flare has kicked off. Also, sometimes it seems like a flare will begin even if life is calm.

Just was thinking about it. Feel free to chime in if you want.
Posted 10/13/2014 6:02 AM (GMT 0)
In my life, I've stressed myself out over being calm. So I try not to stay calm at all times, but I do try to take a break when things are way to hectic. I guess what I mean is that I am not obsessive about being calm. Being obsessive about it will often lead me to pay a lot more attention to my gut to see if staying calm is helping and then subsequently I will freak out at the slightest indication that it isn't. So other than avoid acute stress, I don't try to stay absolutely calm at all times. But times that I am naturally calm, my gut seems to be somewhat calmer too.

I've read that stress doesn't have too much of an effect on the level of inflammation present, but it exacerbates symptoms. Most people experience a more urgent need to go when they are anxious, or they may get gut pains or lose their appetite. So I suppose it's nice to know that even though there may be more symptoms, the inflammation is actually not much worse when we are stressed.
Posted 10/13/2014 12:23 PM (GMT 0)
I went through a hellish 18 months when my house got struck by lightning, caught fire and then had to be rebuilt. I told my DH that I needed him to try really really hard to make things go faster than usual in our rebuild, but it still turned out that he dragged his feet and made things take about 50% longer than they should have.

I never flared and I was sure that I would given the constant stress and crisis mode we were in.

So now I just live my life.
Posted 10/13/2014 2:06 PM (GMT 0)
just goes to show, you can rebuild a house but you can't rewire a husband !
Posted 10/13/2014 2:10 PM (GMT 0)
but the point is, we is who we is - you're a thinker t-man - nothins gonna change that - the stress comes when we try to change who we are - or when we try to change someone else -

but y'all know that ;-)
Posted 10/13/2014 2:16 PM (GMT 0)
LOL soystud. Wise words!
Posted 10/14/2014 4:26 AM (GMT 0)
Haha, thanks for the ideas and thoughts guys.

Tunnel, it would be great if stress didn't predispose us to a flare. I am on the fence over that opinion, but it's great to hear that you've read that it might not affect the actual inflammation so much.

Kazbern, it sounds like your gut is indestructible from strains and stresses. That's awesome to hear that you made it through the 18 month project (which is REALLY long btw, lol) without a flare!

Soy, I am not a thinker... what u talkin 'bout!?

I wonder if the Chinese Medicine I tried that was supposed to calm my nerves was really the culprit of the flare that led me to Remi. Before that I had been managing alright on my own with just diet modification and supplements for half a year, although I was not in remission either really.
Posted 10/14/2014 5:29 AM (GMT 0)
I have been through a sh!tstorm before UC, so i definitely believe that stress & depression is one of the triggering factors.
Posted 10/14/2014 6:19 AM (GMT 0)
I was actually the calmest I had ever been in my life before I had a weird attack of gout on my foot, cellulitis a month later, and then UC either from the antibiotics, the presence of infections, or whatever other myriad of factors happened to let this random chaos into my life. I had been a neurotic, anxious, mess my entire teenage/adult life until I finally started to get that under control and then my immune system went nuts. I wonder if it may have been like a smoking sort of effect. While you're smoking, you're protected and when you stop, your immune system "rewards" you haha.

Anywho, the article in question that I read was this: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-ulcerativecolitis-expert.html

Who really knows how this disease works, with how much it varies from person to person and also within the same person.
Posted 10/14/2014 1:14 PM (GMT 0)
When I was a kid, Thoreau, I had a lot of upper GI issues. This was way before h.pylori was a known source of ulcers....at one point, my DR told me I needed to do a better job of managing my stresses or I'd have an ulcer before too long. I was 13 years old.

For years I thought that my gut problems were stress related. I'd get diarrhea before exams. I lost my appetite on family weekends, etc. etc. I didn't get an IBD diagnosis until I was almost 40 but I'm certain now that stress had little or nothing to do with any of that stuff.

And yes, 18 months was a ridiculously long time to rebuild our house. I'm over it now. Really! OK, maybe there's still some resentment there.....
Posted 10/14/2014 1:22 PM (GMT 0)
i think a lot of our stress problems are caused by gut problems -
Posted 10/14/2014 1:29 PM (GMT 0)
Exactly, soystud.
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