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Anxiety & Flare... Does one trigger the other?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 7/27/2016 7:03 PM (GMT 0)
Does anyone experience the same following issue right before flaring or during a flare?
I've noticed that each time I am dealing with a flare, anxiety always hit me pretty hard right before the symptoms of UC kicked in.

One might say that it's probably stress or just worrying too much being a hypochondriac on regular basis but I disagree.

But I think it has to do with this!!!

Whenever I get blood work done during a flare or RIGHT before I feel like flare's going to start(based on how my hunch but no symptoms... just extra tired), my doctor has noticed that my TSH level is wayyyyyy off. He said, he has seen this a lot and this usually is a sign that something's off in his IBD patients as if it were the give away sign before a flare starts.

I want to know to why my hormones to wacky right before a flare and no one seems to be able to explain it including my PCP and GI.

Is hormonal imbalance the trigger to my case? But what's causing the imbalance?

But you guys know what normalizes it? IV steroids or 60mg of prednisone during a flare does.

Any thoughts?
confused confused confused
Posted 7/27/2016 7:23 PM (GMT 0)
Nobody really knows what triggers flares in ulcerative colitis, sometimes they happen even when we're perfectly following our treatment and quite happy and low stress.

I see a number of posts where in hindsight someone says "I wouldn't have flared if I hadn't X" (eaten that snickers bar, missed my medication once, and any variety of other theories). And that in turn leads to guilt about one's past actions. Correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation. So, I wouldn't blame yourself because your work or personal life was hectic before a flare.

I tend to think a flare is a combination of things, over a longer period of time that allows a little bit of inflammation to creep in and get worse over time, and once a critical point/threshold is crossed we start seeing symptoms. Uc is a likely autoimmune disorder (or at least an immune deficiency), so our immune system is likely the underlying aggravation that leads to troubles and flares.

Prolonged stress can affect the body, chemicals and hormones it produces. Whether it causes an actual flare is unknown. Certainly stress isn't a good thing for us emotionally or physically. So, try meditation, yoga, any of a variety of relaxation techniques or hobbies that could help you unplug and de-stress.
Posted 7/27/2016 11:06 PM (GMT 0)
There is a tremendous link between your brain and your gut ... and anxiety and your gut ... and relaxation and your gut ... worth doing research into. I think chronic stress can certainly trigger a flare up as it affects the gut so much. However I don't think it can cause ulcerative colitis ... and I think that unless it is absolutely constantly raging out of control panic / stress, the effect it has is limited ... at some point the disease itself has to be treated as its own factor, with drugs, or whatever works for you in the form of diet or whatever.
Posted 7/28/2016 3:43 AM (GMT 0)
I'm just so fed up with figuring out what's triggering my guts inflammatory response while my friends are talking about Democratic Convention all day...

Life goes on..
Posted 7/29/2016 12:25 PM (GMT 0)
For a full year before my first flare I had unexplained anxiety. The biggest things I dealt with were claustrophobia, which has never been an issue for me, and waking up to pee several times a night, which I believe was just a weird manifestation of my anxiety. I brought up my general anxiety and its link to UC with my GP after I was diagnosed. She asked me "are you anxious about pooping your pants?" I left it alone from there because I didn't feel like she understood what I was getting at.

For the most part, the anxiety went away when my UC was under control. Last week, I had a few anxious days during a relatively fun and stress-free week. Now my stomach is cramping and I'm starting with the UC symptoms again. Go figure.

My personal feeling is that the anxiety is the result of inflammation in my body...even when I don't realize the inflammation is there...a fight or flight response due to an internal stressor. Just my two cents based on my own intuition.
Posted 8/4/2016 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
For me anxiety is the biggest trigger of my UC, purely because the more i worry about it the more symptoms i seem to have. Psychology is a big deal IMO, if my mind is busy thinking of something else my UC is not even a worry as soon as my mind wonders back to 'where is the nearest toilet' or 'i have to go somewhere new tomorrow they better have good toilets' its like a switch has turned on and i am very aware of my UC.

'normal people' experience the same thing when someone gets anxious you hear them saying things like 'i crapped myself' etc except they are saying that metaphorically where that can literally be the case for us UC suffers, its just they get the feeling where we get the actually urgency!!!
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