Anxiety/depression

Crohn's Disease Forum

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Yes but it comes and goes. Normally whilst I'm flaring and it stops me doing what I want to do. Like I'm flaring right now and what I'd normally do is taking a hit. And this is the first ever flare I've had in 8 Years and now I've got a partner and I'm always afraid of him getting fed up and leaving. That's how I am. Crohns can mess with your head. It's because it's so debilitating and if you go through the frustrations with the hospital like I've had for the past two weeks then it makes you even worse.

Simon
 
:banana:Hi...... a major problem...always there..something that you have to work on everyday....been my constant companion for ever!..the right medication and a faith in one self.... can make the day brighter!:banana:...as I said elsewhere on this forum...there are days when I wish I could just dance my cares away..:banana::hang:..Take care
 
Hey
Think I fall into this group too ;-(
For me it's more anxiety ie I always assume the worst over even minor things :-(
My poor doc has been brilliant in reassuring me not to panic and as for my hubby he deserves a medal x
I've tried to change a little and I've a scope tomorrow and I've sworn I won't panic what will be will be x
Loves and huge ((((((( hugs )))))) to u all xoxo
 
I had the anxiety/depression long enforce the diagnosis of UC. It all started after my first baby in 1997 with postpartum depression. I do stay on meds. I am a person that likes routine. Any little change can affect my mood. Would not wish the depression on anyone, not even my worst enemy!
 
I am new to this sight and newly diagnosed after 4 years of wrong diagnoses. I have suffered with depression for over 20 years. Am on meds for that and have two other autoimmune disorders. Some days are good some not so. I can definitely understand where you are coming from.
 
I get very stressed by my illness and the medical appointments which affect my working life, last year my illness made me feel very down. At the moment I'm feeling up and down all the time and pretty anxious and paranoid about certain things. Maybe it comes from not being able to trust the only thing you should really be able to rely on - your own body.
 
Mee. Started with severe anxiety/depression/PTSD following TBI nine years ago. Been medicated since that time. Over the past year with the Crohns diagnosis, it has become much much worse. I've increased psychotherapy, but have been hesitant to change meds, since I feel like I'm already poisoning my body enough. It's an endless, vicious cycle.
 
I have been down the road with changing meds for my depression. It is definitely worth getting on the correct meds for that. I went through not wanting to change the meds even though they were no longer working. I can't say enough that it is important to find an understanding dr/psychiatrist to help you. It makes all the difference in the world when you are already fighting to stay well. I am still trying to come to an acceptance of what I have but I take it one day at a time and sometimes one minute at a time. :)
 
im always on ups and downs, on good days I feel happy and like there is hope, but on the days where I have no energy and feel sick everything feels hopeless. I try to tell myself on my good days "next time I get down ill remember its just temporary" but on my really low days that does not work at all.

also suffer from anxiety cause of my stoma
 
I have that problem from time to time.
Doc told me that it might be time to cut my bad spot out and I was kind of freaked out for 2 weeks.
I wanted to just go hide from it all.
When I went back and he said that we could wait and he was going to try me on Humira I was so happy.
 
I have plenty of ups and downs; I told the doctor and he said between the medications we take, the constant upheavel we experience, and lack of vitamin absorption makes all Crohn's patients at much higher risk for anxiety and depression.

I've had to take the anti-anxiety meds off and on; they aren't a magic wand, butit helps quite a bit and gives me a better quality of life.
 
Absolutely, I think it is inherent to our illness.

I have taken antidepressants on and off for many years; I have also used Xanax at times when I have needed it. I have found that to wipe out anxiety while being friendly to the Crohns as well.
 
hi- yes, me too. i also have asperger's syndrome, a type of autism, which exacerbates depression, anxiety and crohn's; i know alllllll about being depressed and stressed.
obviously for anyone with a chronic illness they will be depressed and anxious, but crohn's feels relentless sometimes, and since food is at it's nucleus, its inescapable. the side effects are hideous and embaressing.
ive so far avoided meds for anything, but its a losing battle...
 
Me too! I was in denial, though. My doc finally suggested that I try something "just to see if it helps". Well it has! I have been on Effexor since February and I find it is just a little bit easier to deal with this crappy disease.
 
I had anxiety very bad as a teenager, I have been able to deal with it since then much better. I describe my depression more as a lack of caring anymore. For the most part life is one big race from one flare to the next and a whole bunch of things I don't want to deal with in between. But I always tell myself it could be worse and I try to find the happy moments in my life, like a calm moment near a stream or waking up early to watch the sunrise. Even something as simple as a warm breeze on a summer day is something I look forward to now. I know it sounds stupid but you have to find the small things in life that make you happy especially with this disease.
 
I very rarely suffer from depression. When it happens usually a nice long night of sleep fix me right up.

I however do suffer a lot from anxiety. I'm always worried even when I have nothing to worry about.

Like right now I have nothing to worry about everything is relax my vacation start next week and yet I have a ball of stress in the pit of my stomach and I have no idea how to get rid of it.

that feeling is crazy
 
Crohn's has definitely caused me anxiety and at one point depression. I've noticed that getting enough sleep, and taking naps when I can, helps quite a bit. If I go several days without enough sleep I start to get headaches and that sense of anxiety.
 
I have horrible anxiety and bouts of depression with my Crohn's. I take medication but even that doesn't help much.
 
hannah-rose said:
I get very stressed by my illness and the medical appointments which affect my working life, last year my illness made me feel very down. At the moment I'm feeling up and down all the time and pretty anxious and paranoid about certain things. Maybe it comes from not being able to trust the only thing you should really be able to rely on - your own body.
Click to expand...

I could not agree more with this. I really struggle with thinking about the future and planning anything ahead. I worry constantly about making wrong decisions and committing to anything. IV seen a therapist who thinks this all down to the uncertainty and un-predictability that comes with crohns. The fact that with crohns you never know what might happen and you are often let down by your body (which you should be able to rely on) has meant that I hate any uncertainty. I try to control most aspects of my life to an extreme extent including my feelings. I question everything I think and feel, which is exhausting.
I never thought having crohns would have such an effect on me mentally.
 
I can only relate my own experience, but after reading one of David's threads where he mentioned magnesium deficiency and how easy it is, given most people's normal diets and especially Crohn's diets, for someone to be deficient in magnesium, I decided to start supplementing it with 3 133mg pills a day. Magnesium is present in some 300 metabolic processes in the body, that we know of. I'm not sure why it would be consumed in those reactions since it is a component in enzymes, but the US RDA for magnesium is in line with the dose I'm taking.

Since I started taking magnesium supplements, my anxiety, stress, and depression have sort of melted away. I also took some other steps like writing a budget to get my finances under control, since money is probably my single biggest stressor, but I did that two months prior to starting Mg and while I saw a reduction in my stress, it was nothing like the dramatic results I got taking magnesium.

Now, this is just my one anecdotal testimonial, but for those of you who are stressed out, anxious, depressed, and feeling generally miserable, supplementing magnesium may be worth a try. I was considering asking my GP about an SSRI because I was sure I had Seasonal Affectedness Disorder, at the least. I'm such a different person with magnesium supplements that I can scarcely believe it. I'm happier about myself, about life, about other people... my mood with magnesium supplements is like night and day with before and I no longer worry about asking my doctor about SSRIs.
 
Hia Muppet
Did you identify yourself as magnesium deficient before taking the supplement? How do you find this out? Is there any dangers in taking the supplement without knowing if you are deficient in it?
Thanks!
 
I only identified it through deduction (tests for magnesium serum level can be misleading, I've read) by taking a look at what I commonly eat, and what food sources of magnesium are. There's just no way I was meeting the RDA prior to supplementing.

I know that there is a potential for magnesium toxicity, so I wouldn't recommend just taking the stuff willy nilly, but the danger seemed pretty low to me as food sources of Mg are pretty often things Crohn's sufferers can't eat without consequences, not to mention issues with absorption.
 
I agree as well with your statement. I admit I had anxiety issues prior to diagnosis which I got under control in therapy, but I notice that since diagnosis, I go through occasional periods of ups and downs that are dependent on my symptoms, any new treatment plan or doctor visits I may have. Uncertainty can be a very evil thing for the mind especially living with anxiety disorders. I am actually impressed I have not driven myself entirely crazy. I thank the therapy I received prior to and at the beginning of my diagnosis for that.

I also try to have as much control over my situation as possible and I sometimes consequently bite off more than I can chew which sends me into a mild depressive state when I realize I can't get it all done because of the fatigue, bathroom worries or whatever.

However on the days I feel good, I am very appreciative of life and all it has to offer. But I still have a shadow hanging over me named "what if?"......

GEC said:
I could not agree more with this. I really struggle with thinking about the future and planning anything ahead. I worry constantly about making wrong decisions and committing to anything. IV seen a therapist who thinks this all down to the uncertainty and un-predictability that comes with crohns. The fact that with crohns you never know what might happen and you are often let down by your body (which you should be able to rely on) has meant that I hate any uncertainty. I try to control most aspects of my life to an extreme extent including my feelings. I question everything I think and feel, which is exhausting.
I never thought having crohns would have such an effect on me mentally.
Click to expand...
 
I think I'm chronically depressed but the intensity oscillates. Not sure if it is the crohn's , my meds, my lousy marriage, stress over money and work, stress over family relationships or all of the above. I do know it gets to be very difficult at times. Sometimes I get feelings of fear laying in bed, I mean pit in the stomach scared feelings about things that I should be able to handle. I got rashless shingles (at least I got the symptoms of it) over stress, but maybe the humira is to blame and it actually was. I'm not sure what to do about the feelings. I've felt this way for the last few years and I'm really tired.
 
Living with anxiety and depression is mentally exhausting. Especially when there are many factor impacting your life in a not so positive way. I would go to therapy, go to couples therapy the very next day, care for my sick and dying grandma and worry about my other family member on top of feeling ill it made me want to do nothing but sleep and pretend the week never happened. Its enoguh to make anyone fearful and stressed chronically stinky, even those that do not have chronic issues such as us. But I can say it does get easier when you learn to put yourself first. Make the choice to put your health and well being first without worrying how it affects others. Afterall, no one else has to live within your body but you so you might as well find ways to make the best of an better your situation. That's how I think sometime these days to help get through the rough patches as well as counting your blessings/accomplishments. Its always easier said than done but then that's how anyhting is that brings genuine and lasting and fulfilling change within your life.i I realized something needed to be done and fast so I chose help for myself. And as I learned (and continue to learn) to put myself first and relenquish control of things I had no control over to begin with, life started to get a tiny bit easier. Its a day by day process
 
I certainly don't want to trivialize anybody's suffering, but hear me out on this. :)

My parents are both crazy. My mom is severely bipolar, and my dad was so badly damaged by his dysfunctional parents that all he ever did, for the first 30 years of my life, was criticize me, every action and decision I took or made, and generally beat it into me how worthless I was.

I've been in terrible debt for almost 20 years, being a teenager with no medical insurance but very sick with Crohn's, I racked up bills I could not pay. My wages were garnished when I failed to appear at a few court hearings out of dozens as I was sued by hospitals and doctors. I've only recently gotten my finances under something resembling control, and it'll be 4 or 5 years before I'm out of this mess.

My oldest daughter has UC, possibly Crohn's, and it's refractory. The search for a drug regimen that works longer than 4 months or so is ongoing now for 11 years. My youngest was born 3 years ago with severe jaundice that was never properly treated and she suffered some sort of non-specific developmental delay from it, which is recently resolving in a dramatic way but was extremely disheartening and distressing for years.

I no longer have any contact with my mom. My maternal grandparents, who used to keep her in check, are dead. I have no contact with my paternal grandparents, aunts, or uncles, as they're all as cynical as my dad once was and are worthless for support. All they know how to do is tear me, and each other, down. My dad is only recently somewhat better after a decade or more of therapy.

My house is falling down. I bought my childhood home out of sentiment, from people who hadn't taken care of it. My plans to restore and repair it were derailed by debt and it'll be at least 5 years before I can even begin to address that.

My daughter has been hospitalized 5 times in the last 4 years. I've been hospitalized twice in that time.

Right now, we are around $60,000 in debt, not including our mortgage.

It's an understatement to say that I've got some things to stress about. I think I already tended towards depression, probably genetically inherited, to begin with. On top of the genetic component, add this situational mess.

I was barely getting any sleep. I was snapping at everybody. My life was a chore. My job was a torture. I was an intolerant and intolerable misanthrope.

Two things have made a dramatic change for me. Granted, it's only been a couple of weeks.

One was that I wrote a budget using a free online tool and made specific plans, with a timeline, to address our debt and the house's needed renovations. That took some of the anxiety away, but not much.

The second was that I took a close look at my nutrition after reading threads on here, and I focused in on Magnesium as an easy thing to fix. I try to stay hydrated, knowing that the body can't function without water. Water is the medium for just about every metabolic reaction in your entire body. Without water, your body doesn't work. Misery is a given if you don't stay properly hydrated. I always knew I felt better when I drank lots of water, but I was still pretty miserable.

Magnesium was a missing piece for me. Maybe it is for you. Maybe your depression/anxiety/stress has NOTHING to do with your nutrition, but you might be surprised just how much of your psychological health, let alone physical health, is tied to proper nutrition and a proper chemical balance in not only your brain, but your overall body chemistry.

I can't overstate the dramatic effect I've had from fixing just ONE nutritional shortcoming. I can't wait to see what happens if/when I can identify and correct any more.

Some people DEFINITELY need counseling, therapy, anti-depressants, etc, and it's great that those treatments exist for people who clearly have something exceptional going on that needs to be addressed.

I think nutrition, though, is really really really easy to overlook, and frankly I think it's sometimes voluntarily overlooked because taking a pill is just easier (yes, I'm taking a pill to address my deficiency, but that's different than just treating the symptoms, isn't it?)

Anyway, I hope I'm not coming off as preachy or holier than thou, here, but seriously, I addressed one tiny oversight in my daily nutrition and I can't believe the difference. It's something I think everybody should be aware of and take into consideration.
 
Yes, I do, Iam always scared getting sick again. And depressed how this disease has effected my life and seems to control it and will never go away.. But, happy that I feel soo much better.. Mainly scared of the outcome results of the med I take..
 

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