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active colitis and anxiety :( flair up

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Posted 6/21/2019 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
hi everyone,
happy friday. but today isnt such a happy day. my aunty/one of my best friends shes 70 im 47. she was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 weeks ago. lost 1 aunt to breast cancer at 35 yrs old one other had it and caught it at age of 41 my moms sisters.
my aunt got the cancer removed out of her breast however it moved to her lymp nodes so she has to go for more radiation and dhemo. i'm a wreck. my colitis is so flaired up this past month with other health isues in my family.
does your UC FLAIR if your going thru a lot mentally? the anxiety depression and panic i have triggers my UC.
I know we hear so many stories that uc is connected to anxiety, depression panic. i differ i've had UC since i was 15.
i know everyone is different. i'm a wreck. cramping a lot .. no blood thank goodness.
i just wanted to know who else has gone thru all these health issues at once?
thank you for letting me vent.
~~~~ donna
Posted 6/22/2019 4:37 PM (GMT 0)
Hello I’m so sorry you are going through such a stressful time. My UC seems worse in times of stress. But then of course the vicious circle begins. Where your symptoms add to the stress and everything gets too much.
Please try to take care of yourself in any way you can.
I was in a really bad place mentally last week with my symptoms.
Unfortunately this week they haven’t improved dramatically but I am learning to try and be calmer about everything. I feel more positive about the outlook. And that seems to be helping a little bit.
There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
Posted 6/22/2019 8:50 PM (GMT 0)
Yes... stress suppresses the immune system, and immune suppression prevents the body from healing. Then you flare.

My worst flares always started after mental or emotional breakdowns... usually periods where the stress was lasting for weeks and not just one bad day.

If you can't de-escalate the stress in your body then you can flare.
Posted 6/22/2019 8:54 PM (GMT 0)
You need to be on stronger medication.
Posted 6/22/2019 9:13 PM (GMT 0)

MarkWithIBD said...
Yes... stress suppresses the immune system, and immune suppression prevents the body from healing. Then you flare.


If that's the case then why are many of the drugs used to treat colitis immunosuppressants?

I've found that DIStress can make my symptoms worse but general stress as in "oh I'm so busy and preparing for an interview and have 25 deadlines for tomorrow" does not affect it. If i recognise the distress feelings i walk away from the trigger.
Posted 6/23/2019 2:59 AM (GMT 0)
I am sorry that you're going through so much. I do however agree with Andrina. it sounds like your UC is not that well managed. It's easy to blame symptoms on events in your life, but it's probably the UC and not the events that caused the issues. I actually took a long break from stress when I was first diagnosed. I was flaring quite severely and I was hoping that less stress would get me feeling better. Wishful thinking! It didn't work, and in the future, I tried stress reduction to maintain when things got rough, no luck! Stress definitely doesn't help, but it's not the cause. The cause is that you have a chronic autoimmune condition. It's tough to accept.
Posted 6/25/2019 5:09 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Donna
Everyone is different but for myself 100% it was “all stress related “my UC flares . If I understood exactly what stress would do to my body I would have gone ASAP on meds for the stress and anxiety. Once again that’s just how my body related to stress everyone is different .

Every episode of my UC was caused by only 1 thing stress . I would be in remission for years and within 2-3 days I would be in a flare up . I had lived with UC since I was 23 and all 8 flares were caused by something traumatic in my life and each one would last over a year to two to get back under control. My last flare was the worst and it didn’t turn out to well for me sad

I had been in remission for 9 years in 2017 then my mother got diagnosed with cancer and within 3 days I was bleeding within 1 month I was fully into my UC everyday it got worst but so did my stress . Then one day 6 months later it was too late the damage was done .

If I could caution you to try to relax and just be there for your aunt. I know it’s easier said then done.
But somethings are out of our control so worrying over everything is never wise and it will only hurt you more. Unfortunately I learned the hard way, I wouldn’t wish anyone to experience it the way I did.

Maybe yoga , mediation could help if you are against antidepressants there are natural pills that may help also .
Wishing you well 👼👼
Posted 6/25/2019 7:19 AM (GMT 0)
I was doing yoga every day when I got my UC diagnosis.

In the end yoga actually made my symptoms worse because of the attitude of some people in that community, that illness is caused by negative thought patterns/bad diet/bad karma etc etc which made me so stressed out.

From what i understand, stress can make the symptoms worse because your body responds differently to inflammation when you're under stress, but it isn't the reason why you have UC in the first place.

The stuff above about stress lowers your immune system which leads to a flare is absolute baloney since UC is caused by a too strong immune response to the gut microbiome.

Post Edited (poopydoop) : 6/25/2019 1:24:24 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 6/25/2019 12:28 PM (GMT 0)

poopydoop said...
I was doing yoga every day when I got my UC diagnosis.

In the end yoga actually made my symptoms worse because of the attitude of some people in that community, that illness is caused by negative thought patterns/bad diet/bad karma etc etc which made me so stressed out.

From what i understand, stress can make the symptoms worse because your body responds differently to inflammation when you're under stress, but it isn't the reason why you have UC in the first place.

The stuff above about stress lowers your immune system which leads to a flare is absolute baloney since UC is caused by a too strong immune response to the gut microbiome.

Stress didn’t cause my body to first get UC I agree that is pretty much an unknown . But for me stress 100% was the cause for each of my flare ups .
You can’t be in remission for let’s say 3 years then within a few days of something happening in life that was “traumatic” my UC shows up.
And that happened all 8 flare ups.
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