First Diagnosed with Acid Refulx Then UC – Lots of Stress

Intro:

Its been a rough year for me and I know others struggle too. I guess misery loves company, unfortunately.

Some more about me:

I love to write books, stories. My goal is to have them published one day. I also love dogs and want to become a therapist when I get out of college. Possibly working in social work then progressing towards other things like, counseling therapy.

Symptoms:

Diarrhea
Lots of bowel movements
Pain in my colon
Ulcers in my stomach

Acid Reflux to UC and IBD

To start, I was always an anxious child. Of course this resulted in depression and panic attacks which I suffered through in middle school. When I entered the Ninth grade, I started having acid reflux issues and they persisted. They went on until in my tenth grade year I was hospitalized, had a colonoscopy (already had an endoscopy) and they found ulcers in my stomach. I needed a blood transfusion while in the hospital and have been on a combination of steriods, other drugs and antidepressants since then.

I worry that I will end up in the hospital if I do not properly manage my stress. I’m looking for ways to do that.

I hate that I am taking so many prescription drugs. It makes my anxiety worsen because I feel like I might forget to take them or something.
I am currently taking Balsazide Disodium (3 pills 3 times a day), 150 mg Effexor (recently trying to switch to Zoloft), 12.5 mg of Predinzone even though I used to be at least at 60 mg with a moon face that caused greater destruction to my self image.

Steriods are the worst. They make me feel like a lunatic and for the first few months I could not concentrate on a thing. The only thing I saw was that I was continuously gaining weight. It hurts to walk around and have coworkers call you a chipmunk or make fun of your puffy cheeks. Especially when it is out of your control.

Luckily I’ve been decreased on the steriods and am living a somewhat normal life although I never seem to have any energy and sleep is probably my favorite thing. Right now I think I am going through another depressive change but hopefully it will pass soon and maybe, just maybe, the Zoloft will actually work well.

written by Mary T

submitted in the colitis venting area

Ask Adam:

Mary’s question: “What are some possible stress relievers that could help with my IBD flare ups?”

Hey Mary,

Thanks so much for sharing your story.  I am super bummed that you are having such a tuff time managing and controlling all the stress that comes with life (and especially when you are in the middle of IBD symptoms and life as well) which so many of us go through from time to time.

But….guess what…YOU ARE FOR SURE NOT ALONE.

No matter who we are, we ALL have stress in our lives.  It’s part of the so many things we do.  So, we’ve got to find ways to deal with it.  I don’t have any silver bullet answer like “Hey Mary, do this, that, this and this and you’ll be all good with stress.”   Nobody has that answer.  But, there’s some things I’d recommend you do.  Here’s a list of some ideas:

1. Read the Colitis and Stress Survey Results.  Back in August of 2012 one hundred and fifty-one UC’ers from the site participated in the Stress Survey.  And LOTS of good things to read there.  Here is a link to the different parts of the survey (there were 4 results pages):
   1. Part 1 of Stress Survey Results
   2. Part 2 of Stress Survey Results
   3. Part 3 of Stress Survey Results
   4. Part 4 (Including the answers from everyone to the question “what ideas or helpful thoughts do you have for how to manage stress!!!)
2. My personal thinking on stress has changed over the years.  I met with Dr. John Medina who’s the best selling author if a book I’d highly recommend titled: “Brain Rules“, and anyways, he puts it best in my opinion.  Here’s a quote from page 194 of his book:  “Plenty of books discuss how to manage stress; some are confusing, others extraordinarily insightful.  The good ones all say one thing in common: The biggest part of successful stress management involves getting control back into your life.”  I’ve taken this to heart bigtime since meeting him and reading his book, and I hope you will too.  For most of us, there’s plenty of things that we can gain control of (and I’m talking about things even outside of colitis).  This might mean having conversation with someone about a hard topic that’s been swept under the carpet for months or years too long.  Or a whole slew of other possibilities.  Either way, its super possible to get all sorts of control back.  And for things that are 100% out of our control…well, we have to let those go and not stress on them either.  I used to be horrible at that especially when I was in my mid twenties.  I’d trip out on all sorts of things that I would never be able to possibly control ever.  Yet I still talked about these “issues” all the time with all sorts of people. (Mostly work related).  Anyways, I’ve come a long way and you can too.

I hope this helps, and I wish you the very best Mary!

-Adam