Can stress exacerbate your symptoms?

I went to see a psychologist last week and, amongst other things, she suggested that stress & worry could be either worsening or causing my symptoms due to the timing of my relief and my relapse. Does this make sense to anyone else?

My symptoms definitely completely stopped when I'd got some relief elsewhere in my life, and now I have some other major stress arising, my symptoms have come back full force!

Has anyone else found that stress, worry or anxiety have worsened their symptoms at all? If anyone could shed any light on this I'd be very grateful. It's the only thing I've got to lead with at the minute, and I've been told to find ways of reducing my stress levels. If you guys have any tips on that too that'd be brilliant!

Thanks for your help in advance!

Hello there, Yes, I do believe that stress can cause some problems in that area. I have chronic back pain and anytime I get stressed about something my back will really start hurting badly because I start to tense up. So when your stressed I figure you probably tense up in other areas as well. So thats my theory.

I hope you start to feel better really soon. It sucks to suffer with any kind of pain. Today is a bad day for me as well. gggrrrrr. Stupid vagina's. lol.

hugs

Yes i'd agree that stress can play a role (see my earlier post this evening about stress and tension). I find that yoga really helps relax me and manage my stress and i would definitely recommend it (make sure its gentle yoga though not the strenuous leaping about type- not sure that would be good for us vvd sufferers!)

Thanks for your replies guys!

I've been making a conscious effort lately to try and minimise my stress and anxiety. As you all know it's pretty hard when you've got all of this going on not to get worried and angry about it, but I'm hoping I can keep it up and keep finding new ways to keep my stress levels down.

If anyone knows of any other ways to cope, especilly things you can do whilst you're at home, that'd be very helpful.

Thanks again guuuyyys.x

My therapist taught me something called EFT Tapping. Its very simple to do and you will be surprised as to how much it can actually help. Im going to add a video link. She goes into detail as to how to use it. In this video she is teaching you how to deal with anxiety but you can use it for anything such as pain, stress, anger etc. Just replace the words with your own words.

One night I woke up with severe pain in my stomach. It felt like something was eating a hole in it. The pain was a lvl 9. I couldnt go to the UC until they opened in the morning. So I had to lay there in a fetal position for hours. My husband reminded me about EFT Tapping and told me to try it. After doing the tappings for about 15 minutes my pain level fell to a lvl 4. It was something I could deal with and I was actually able to fall asleep for a few hours.

I have a terrible memory and often forget to do the tappings. I think that I will do it right now because Im in pain. I hope it works for you and anyone else who tries it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWu3rSEddZI

Hopefully that will take you to the video. Good luck

A couple of really simple things for relaxation:

- lay on floor on your back stretched out flat, arms and legs extended but relaxed with palms facing ceiling, let your feet just flop out to the side (if you have a bad back then you can bend your knees). Close your eyes and do some deep but gentle (not hyperventilation!) abdominal breathing (i.e. breath in so that your tummy, not your chest rises and then breath out so your tummy deflates). Focus on your breathing and visualise the breath flowing in and then out of your body (I imagine it as a warm healing breath flowing in and out). Then focus on each part of your body starting from your toes and working up to the top of your head - really focus on each part of your body (to the level of detail of your kneecap, your fingers, your brow for example) and be aware of how that part feels - how it feels against the floor, how your clothes/the air feels against it, is there any tension there etc - and tell that part to relax (you can also tense that part of the body and then relax it to make sure you know that you are relaxing it). Once you've gone through the whole body finish off with just laying there, chilling! (you might like to have some chilled out music on quietly in the background but make sure its instrumental - words can be distracting - but don't get distracted by the music the important thing is to focus on the sensation of being aware of your body. And it does get easier to relax with practice so stick with it if you find it hard the first time you try this.

- another simple thing i've found helpful is just to try and stop THINKING and DO!! I think ( ) a lot of my stress comes from thinking too much! so just doing something physically positive can help steer me away from stress e.g tidying that drawer/cupboard that i've been meaning to do for ages, a vigorous bout of vacuuming etc. Even if I don't really feel like it, I make myself do it just to distract my mind. It usually works and you get the satisfaction of having ticked something off your 'to do' list!

Sorry if these seem a bit obvious but sometimes its easy to forget the simple things.