Years ago, I had to go for a business trip to Ireland and as I was approaching Schiphol airport, I was getting these fierce cramps in my lower abdoment. I had no idea what was going on, never had any such pain before. While ready to check in, I started to panick, had bursts of sweat that really made me soaking wet. Eventually I cancelled the trip, went back home and decided to see a doctor. He told me I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and should look after my diet.
Years went by and every now and then I would have an attack, but usually they were over in a couple of hours, until last week. All of a sudden, while at work, it started. I went back home and straight to bed, slept for 24 hours and started feeling a bit better. Now it's four days later and it's still not really going all that well. I guess I have to seriously look into my diet and skip a couple of the bad habits and see how I can reduce my stress. Over the last months I've been putting a bit too much pressure on myself, having to maintain a job and being on PPL almost all the time. I believe I have to learn to pace myself, otherwise I'll end up not feeling well and that's not productive either.
For as long as I can remember, I have known about the mind's ability to rule the body, and how stress affects function. There's a good page that discusses the mind-gut reaction: http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/mindbodygut
My a.mother was always "sick" with stomach problems, and I myself have developed ulcer-related problems. Some conditions are hereditary, lethal and dangerous, and some are simply really uncomfortable, but self-limiting.
The questions of main concern are: when did the physical pain start, what got it started, is there any bleeding and how does the pain go away?
For the functioning belly (and bowels) to react so violently to a triggered-stress, one should easily guess that the pain is related to a long-term issue that has been building in the body over a significant period of time. Rarely does something just "suddenly" appear. The sudden factor is the pulled-trigger, not the loaded gun. Even cancer cells need time to grow and cause damage. A life-time of stress can easily lead to an early death, one way or another.
I wonder what doctors would do if we didn't have such painful signs of body-breakdown?
Crohn's disease, which I have, was once thought to be stress related, it is of course an auto-immune disease but the immune system can be affected by stress I think. One therapist that I went to told me she thought I was crying through the wall of the gut. Not sure that's the way I like to think of it, but there might be something in it I suppose. I have on several occasions spotted the same people on adoption forums and on the Crohn's and colitis forum, which made me wonder if there could be any connection
Considering the consistency of things coming out, and the direction of this discussion, I find it amusing that my response to fear or stress is usually the oral-route.
(how's that for today's very visual visceral conversation?)
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ibs
Years ago, I had to go for a business trip to Ireland and as I was approaching Schiphol airport, I was getting these fierce cramps in my lower abdoment. I had no idea what was going on, never had any such pain before. While ready to check in, I started to panick, had bursts of sweat that really made me soaking wet. Eventually I cancelled the trip, went back home and decided to see a doctor. He told me I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and should look after my diet.
Years went by and every now and then I would have an attack, but usually they were over in a couple of hours, until last week. All of a sudden, while at work, it started. I went back home and straight to bed, slept for 24 hours and started feeling a bit better. Now it's four days later and it's still not really going all that well. I guess I have to seriously look into my diet and skip a couple of the bad habits and see how I can reduce my stress. Over the last months I've been putting a bit too much pressure on myself, having to maintain a job and being on PPL almost all the time. I believe I have to learn to pace myself, otherwise I'll end up not feeling well and that's not productive either.
Fluid Thoughts: The Mind-Gut Connection
For as long as I can remember, I have known about the mind's ability to rule the body, and how stress affects function. There's a good page that discusses the mind-gut reaction: http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/mindbodygut
My a.mother was always "sick" with stomach problems, and I myself have developed ulcer-related problems. Some conditions are hereditary, lethal and dangerous, and some are simply really uncomfortable, but self-limiting.
The questions of main concern are: when did the physical pain start, what got it started, is there any bleeding and how does the pain go away?
For the functioning belly (and bowels) to react so violently to a triggered-stress, one should easily guess that the pain is related to a long-term issue that has been building in the body over a significant period of time. Rarely does something just "suddenly" appear. The sudden factor is the pulled-trigger, not the loaded gun. Even cancer cells need time to grow and cause damage. A life-time of stress can easily lead to an early death, one way or another.
I wonder what doctors would do if we didn't have such painful signs of body-breakdown?
Crying through the wall of the gut?
Crohn's disease, which I have, was once thought to be stress related, it is of course an auto-immune disease but the immune system can be affected by stress I think. One therapist that I went to told me she thought I was crying through the wall of the gut. Not sure that's the way I like to think of it, but there might be something in it I suppose. I have on several occasions spotted the same people on adoption forums and on the Crohn's and colitis forum, which made me wonder if there could be any connection
<the juicy details>
Considering the consistency of things coming out, and the direction of this discussion, I find it amusing that my response to fear or stress is usually the oral-route.