Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis Support Group
Crohn's disease is a systemic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) of unknown cause, that results in chronic inflammation of the intestinal tract. It can affect the entire gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, and can also cause complications outside of the gastrointestinal tract. There is no known medical or surgical cure for Crohn's disease, but there are many medical...
hey guys,
i suffer from anxiety and depression and two months ago i was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at exam time.
im 23 and have suffered from anxiety since the age of 11. my main symptom is a churning stomach, which i have constantly.
during the time i fell sick i was under a lot of emotional stress and my stomch was churning a lot. the stomach is the most sensitive organ of the body to our moods and hence stress.
i think that the fact i was sufferring from a churning stomach for so long and particularly at exam time along with the fact that i hadnt eaten any fruit and veg for at least 3 months prior to the onset of my illness is the reason why i developed the illness.
the doctors dont have a clue what starts the illness, but i think that it is psychosomatic, as well as due to eating a bad diet and not chewing food properly(after all the colon is only an inch wide in diameter, so if food isnt chewed properly it can irritate the lining of the colon during the squeezing action of peristalsis).
does anybody else suffer from anxiety and think that this may have caused them to have developed the illness.
regards,
Jon
i suffer from anxiety and depression and two months ago i was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at exam time.
im 23 and have suffered from anxiety since the age of 11. my main symptom is a churning stomach, which i have constantly.
during the time i fell sick i was under a lot of emotional stress and my stomch was churning a lot. the stomach is the most sensitive organ of the body to our moods and hence stress.
i think that the fact i was sufferring from a churning stomach for so long and particularly at exam time along with the fact that i hadnt eaten any fruit and veg for at least 3 months prior to the onset of my illness is the reason why i developed the illness.
the doctors dont have a clue what starts the illness, but i think that it is psychosomatic, as well as due to eating a bad diet and not chewing food properly(after all the colon is only an inch wide in diameter, so if food isnt chewed properly it can irritate the lining of the colon during the squeezing action of peristalsis).
does anybody else suffer from anxiety and think that this may have caused them to have developed the illness.
regards,
Jon
-
Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
-
We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
I tend to be anxious. I had a major illness last year (not UC related) and suffered horrible anxiety attacks during the recovery. And when I was a kid, I would worry myself sick. Literally, I would get stomach aches and have physical responses to stress and worry. However, I don't believe that anxiety caused my UC.
I do think the stress from chronic illness can set off anxiety and depression, so that you're in physical and emotional crisis all at the same time. It's hard to sort stuff out when it gets to that point.
I think it's dangerous to think that you've played any part in giving this to yourself. It's genetic and there's nothing you could have done to prevent it.
studies have shown that when we eat a lot of red meat white blood cells are sent to the intestine. this isnt just with sufferers of ulcerative colitis or crohns this is with all people.
did you eat a lot of meat and dairy products before being diagnosed?
Jon
you say that anxiety didnt cause it for you. you say that you were sufferring from anxiety as a kid. were you sufferring at the time of you diagnosis. could it at least be corelated?
Jon
are you sure that crohns and ulcerative colitis ie the two illnesses are genetic caused. this is new to me could you send me a link to show this please.
Jon
Quite the opposite. I started showing symptoms of UC and subsequently diagnosed during a really wonderful time in my life. I was in a great place in my personal life and had very little job stress. I had no anxiety during that time. I was traveling a lot and just really enjoying living. No, man, life was GOOD.
I know you posed the red meat question to ReedM, but I thought I'd respond to that as well. I've eaten very little red meat and dairy over my life time.
People do not give themselves UC or Crohns so you need to cut yourself a break. It's bad enough to have these diseases let alone carry the burden of feeling like you somehow did this to yourself. If it were merely caused by bad diet and stress, hell, most people in the western world would have it.
Take care not to get too stressed out over the reasons this may have happened.
Rachelle
Take a look at this: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2003/12_19_03c.html.
"Evidence from twin studies and the tendency for IBD to run in families strongly suggested a genetic component to the disease, says Brant. Relatives of Crohn's disease patients have a 10-fold risk of developing Crohn's disease, while relatives of ulcerative colitis patients have an eightfold risk of developing ulcerative colitis. In addition, the two diseases appear to be genetically related to each other, as relatives of patients with just one of the diseases have an increased risk of developing either Crohn's or ulcerative colitis."
My father has CD as do two of his brother's.
Hope this helps!
thanks again for all your replies.
i just dont understand how i got this illness at 23. why didnt i get it sooner.
hey rmb, you say that you didnt eat much red meat, but what about other meat. did you eat a lot of other meat, pork etc and also did you eat much fruit and veg, sorry for all the questions im just curious.
what made me think that it was caused by stress/anxiety is that i was told by my specialist nurse that in japan it was relatively uncommon 30 years ago but now they have one of the highest rates in the world
You may want to go to the CCFA website. You can find a great deal of very good, research based info. about IBD on this site. Daignosis at a young age is very common. I recently read that 25 % of people with IBD are diagnosed prior to age 20! This seeems to be a young persons disease. I'm curious - how were you diagnosed? What tests have you had?
My dad was diagnosed at age 57.
I suppose it was typical American diet ate lunch out every day. Fair amount of red meat and lots of Italian as wife's familiy was I talian.
I was 21 when the disease hit in the prior year I had gotten married, had a child got promoted and bought a house. A lot of change and stress.
The thing that set it off was an overdose of cashews. At work we got a 5lb tin of cashews from a supplier as a holiday gift. three of us ate the whole tin (damn they were good). I had been running a little quick. After the cashews we all got diarhea mine never left.
It took me a year to find a doctor that knew how to treat it. By that time my colon was ulcerated from top to bottom and it looked and acted like a piece of garden hose, all the folds were gone. In that year I went from a skinny 6' 150lb kid to one that weighed 112lbs.