Stress & Chrons

I felt like I needed to make this post because I am/was recently incredibly stressed and I thought that other people may deal with the same things whenever they get stressed out and they have Chrons or an IBD.
Stress is a huge factor in causing flare ups and pain for a large percentage of people who have this disease. Stress can come in many different forms, and people can also become more stressed out in certain situations than others.
There are different levels of stress:

• Acute
• Episodic Acute
• Chronic

Acute stress is the kind of stress that you would feel in an emergency. (Much like if you were to almost fall off of a bike, or get hit by a car.) This is the most common and tolerable. After the stressful moment is over, it's gone and you can go back to your merry ways.

Episodic Acute is when life deals you a curve ball, and it is going to take more than just a few moments to rebuild yourself from the event. These episodes tend to take time to gradually get over, like a breakup, or a death. It is crucial that you are able to cope and deal with the issue that is causing you to have the long-term stress, immediately, or else it can lead to having Chronic stress. Talking to a psychiatrist can really help with the issues that may cause a person to have the Episodic stress.

Chronic stress is the most common form of stress in people who have a lifelong illness or disease. This is something that I deal with personally everyday. It's the feeling of there not ever being an end to your stressful situation, or there not being a way out of it.

Having Chronic stress can really trigger a lot of other problems with your health as well. I know with me, if I have an argument with someone, immediately afterwards my stomach will hurt really bad, and I'll have to go to the bathroom. Chrons is a stressful thing to have on it's own, so anything extra on top of it makes me feel like the entire world is collapsing on me.

I have recently learned to cut a lot of unnecessary things out of my life that could or did cause me a great deal of stress. Old friends, boys, or anything I knew would stress me out. I try to avoid putting myself into any situations where I know I will feel anxious or stressed.

Some other things that I have noticed that helped with my stress are:

• Praying
• Wii Fit
• Deep breathing
• Walking away from arguments
• Talking to someone
• Walking 

Usually, after I pray I'm not as stressed, so I don't have to progress to doing anything else after that. But if I get into an argument  I usually just stop replying or walk away. You've got to choose your battles wisely, with Chrons. Nine times out of ten, whatever I'm arguing over isn't worth the stomach pain and bathroom visits.

I can not say this enough..
TALK TO SOMEONE. Write in a diary. Get it out.