A Personal Experience Of Living With Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s disease and stress: The mind-body link.

Crohn’s disease and stress.

Can stress make Crohn’s disease worse?

Quote; “There is no evidence showing that stress causes Crohn’s disease. However, people with Crohn’s disease sometimes feel increased stress in their lives from having to live with a chronic illness. Some people with Crohn’s disease also report that they experience a flare in disease when they are experiencing a stressful event or situation.

There is no type of person that is more likely to experience a flare in disease than another when under stress. For people who find there is a connection between their stress level and a worsening of their symptoms, using relaxation techniques, such as slow breathing, and taking special care to eat well and get enough sleep, may help them feel better.” Unquote.

Has this been my experience?

Quite frankly no, this has not been my experience. When I decided to put down my thoughts about my experiences with Crohn’s disease I did a bit of research online. To date the short passage above has been literally the only one that I have found tying Crohns to stress. Personally, I can’t imagine why that would be because in my own experience there is a huge connection between stress and Crohn’s.

How I react to stress.

For me, the way it works is this; When other people are under stress they get a headache but when I get stressed I get a blocked bowel. Of course, it depends on just how stressed I am, I don’t always get blocked bowels. Nonetheless, such has been the case all of my life and for as far back as I can remember.

Let me illustrate.

About four years ago I was admitted to hospital for, guess what, a blocked bowel. In the course of events the blockage resulted in surgery and a bit of the bowel was removed.

All fine and good, since then my condition seems to have gone into a period of at least partial remission. I’m not symptom free but, all in all I am doing very well thank you very much. So, was this improvement because of the surgery?

Essentially, yes but possibly only to a point. The surgery did certainly take out the scar tissue that had developed over the previous years and I am sure that this did improve my condition but, Crohn’s isn’t all about scar tissue.

Change of mindset.

I have been aware of the presence of a link between the mind and body for quite some time now but I never took it any further than that. My experience in the hospital however, changed that considerably.

It was a difficult time and for various reasons which I won’t go into here I wound up spending more time than I care to think of lying prone in a hospital bed. Not fun but it gave me lots of time to think and I began to realize that I was where I was because of how Crohn’s translates stress in my body.

Subsequently and after putting these ideas about stress into play my symptoms have lessened considerably. Now, the effects of Crohns on my life and my health are a shadow of what they were.

Change is easy, right?

Under the circumstances, instituting change was actually a fairly simple thing to do. It became obvious that given a choice between a blocked bowel and a relaxed mind, I will choose a relaxed mind every time.
It’s easy to alter your way of thinking when faced with possible disastrous consequences.

Just ask anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer how easy it was to quit smoking. Across the board they will say that there was no problem quitting and with very limited withdrawals being experienced.

This says two things. The first is that change is very possible; you just have to look at it the right way. Secondly, it demonstrates just how extremely strong the effect of the mind is on the body.

Why is their no evidence of the mind/body link with Crohn’s disease?

Why is their no evidence linking Crohn’s with stress? I am not exactly sure but I do believe that the problem lies more with the system than any lack of evidence. One has only to look at the attitudes of those that are treating the disease. In my own experience, medical practitioners for all their knowledge still discount the mind/body link to an overwhelming degree. Again, how that can be is difficult to understand.

In medical speak there is a thing called the placebo effect;

“Sometimes known as a non-specific effect or subject-expectancy effect, the placebo effect occurs when a patient’s symptoms are altered (i.e., alleviated or exacerbated) by a treatment, due to the individual expecting or believing that it will work. The placebo effect has been said to occur when a patient is treated in conjunction with the suggestion from an authority figure or from acquired information that the treatment will aid in healing, and the patient’s condition improves”

In actuality, the placebo effect amounts to a great deal more than the quote above would seem to indicate. As a matter of fact, it is taken so seriously that very little medical research is considered valid unless the placebo effect is in there as part of the mix.
Not only is this is a well-known, documented and accepted fact but, it’s a perfect example of the mind affecting the body and the mind healing the body. Yet, still the possibility of the mind having a direct relationship with Crohn’s disease much less any other disorder is almost completely discounted.

The mind/body link has one hell of an up hill climb.

The mind/body link should not and cannot be ignored yet it is. If you have Crohn’s I do not advise you in any way shape or form to ignore your medications if they help. I do strongly advise however, that there is another aspect of your disease that you are most likely not addressing and in my opinion you would be very well advised to address it.

It amounts to just a little change in how you look at things and you might be very surprised at the results. In reality you have much of what you need to heal yourself.

And, it’s right between your ears!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 11:09 am and is filed under Living with Crohn's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.