Stress and IBD

My doctor (and many others) have told me multiple times that stress will make my UC symptoms worse... I wouldn't say I didn't believe them before, but I never really could tell first-hand.  For the past year and a half, I have been battling a flare that really seemed to come out of the blue; I responded very well to Prednisone, but after leaving me on it for what she said was too long, my doctor finally weened me off this summer.  I started taking 6-MP in the meantime, and she said I was responding well to it.  And I have to admit, I was getting much better.  I am not well, but I am definitely better than I was for the first half of 2008. 

Anyway, back to stress.  In the past 2 months, I bought a house, moved into it, and got married (we moved 1 week before the wedding!).  Talk about stressful!!  During that time I definitely noticed that I wasn't feeling that great, and there were several days that made me remember what it is like to be in the middle of a flare.  I talked to my doctor about it, and she repeatedly told me to try to de-stress.  But even on days that I didn't FEEL stressed, I still felt crappy.  I was especially freaking out the week before my wedding because I had a couple days where I was back and forth to the bathroom all day, so my doctor finally said I could use Immodium if I really needed it - and thank god, because it was absolutely necessary on my wedding day!

I was really worried that I would going to have to think about another option for treatment - I have actually been entertaining the idea of just having my colon removed, because I really don't want to try something like Humira - until I went on my honeymoon.  I felt SO MUCH better for the 10 days that I was in Belize, hiking in the rainforest and relaxing on the beach.  It was truly amazing.  There was one day that I was a little sick, but I think that was more the water, and I took a preventative Immodium a couple days when we were going out on some adventure far from a bathroom all day, but overall there was a 100000% improvement on how I was feeling before we left.

From now on I will definitely try to do some kind of stress relief on a regular basis - both when I feel myself getting overwhelmed, and even when I think that I'm not stressed!  So, now I am yet another person encouraging you to de-stress to help get your IBD under control