How Much Stress Has To Do With Your Attacks Of Colitis or Crohn's Disease And What They Are Saying

Does stress cause Colitis or Crohn's attacks as many suggest or is it just hearsay?

Just recently while driving into work, and listening to a popular talk show in the Detroit, MI area WJR 760, the announcer said something that immediately caught my attention. The topic of this particular morning segment happened to be Colitis. And the reason that this particular digestive disorder happened to take such a prominent place in the lineup of news issues of the day, was because the Mayor of the city of Detroit...Mayor Dave Bing had recently been hospitalized for a particularly severe attack of Colitis...so severe in fact that he had to be admitted to the hospital, and receive emergency surgery to repair a perforated intestine caused by the disease. As part of the show prep, radio announcer Paul W. Smith had selected an area physician to interview and get information to the listeners about Colitis, including, what were the symptoms, and some of the possible causes of the disease.

One of the first questions that Paul W. Smith asked the doctor, was did he think the cause for the Mayor's Colitis might be due to the high degree of stress that he had been under over the past several months in trying to solve the huge debt problem that the city of Detroit was experiencing and the threat of possible bankruptcy. Paul W. Smith commented that he had heard that stress was a very important contributor to the cause of Colitis or digestive disorders like it. The doctor responded that in his opinion stress was not in fact the probable cause, suggesting instead, that it was more likely the effects of the Mayor taking antibiotics that led to the mayors Colitis condition. The doctor said that antibiotics, when they are consumed, tend to kill the good bacteria as well as the bad that exist in our bodies, specifically the stomach and digestive tract. The good bacteria exists in our stomach for the purpose of digesting our food. Without these vital bacteria in the stomach, proper digestion is disrupted, which in turn causes the stomach disorder Colitis.

However, I have a question as to if maybe the radio announcer might have been right in suggesting that stress could have been the major cause for the Mayor's Colitis attack. Many of the people I have written to recently about this possibility, who are actually Colitis sufferers themselves tend to agree that stress really could be the major contributor.

First of all, I have no idea if the Mayor did take antibiotics prior to his attack of Colitis or not, or whether it was the primary contributor to his condition. However, when I put the question of stress and its impact on their condition to other people who also suffer from either Colitis or the similar digestive disease, Crohn's disease, they agreed unanimously that stress was the most significant and long standing contributor to their relapses of Colitis/Crohn's than anything else they could think of. I have suffered with Crohns disease myself for many years (a digestive disorder related to Colitis) and I can definitely say that my flare-ups many times have coincided with heightened stress periods in my life, like during work, job loss, divorce, school or the loss of a close relative.

One gentleman from Minnesota responded to me in an e-mail with this statement: "There has been a lot of research done on stress and how it affects your body. It's not good. My own experience is even though the onset of the disease was antibiotic driven, every flare up since then (20 years ago) can be linked directly to a very stressful period in my life. Even while on maintenance meds, if a lengthy stressful period is occurring, I can almost count on a flare up. This one was brought on during a work project that had me traveling a LOT and things were not going well and 3 weeks into being gone from home, I had to return to go see the doc."

A person from the United Kingdom wrote: "I have never had any issues with my gut, and the first time I noticed any symptoms was just after my husband had an invasive cardiac procedure a year ago."

Another contributor wrote that while he didn't think stress was the cause of his Colitis he was diagnosed with, he definitely believes that it does make his symptoms worse.

One woman wrote that many of her past flare-ups were stress related, usually when she was experiencing a lot of stress either at work or at home. Her doctors however told her that stress was not the cause. Another person wrote "Anytime I am super stressed I get a belly ache. So I do believe that stress plays a big role in developing disease."

So the end result is this... for many Colitis/Crohn's disease suffers, stress really is an important contributor to flare-ups and steps need to be taken to reduce it in their lives in order to experience any relief from their digestive disorder.

Jim Gonsler is a health and wellness consultant whose mission is to help Crohn's Disease sufferers, like himself, overcome the restrictive effects of the disease and truly regain the quality of life that becomes compromised with this and other autoimmune diseases. For more information, check his website at http://www.getyourlifebacknaturally.com/ and get his Free Report.

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Social Anxiety Disorder Quiz

Using a Social Anxiety Disorder quiz or test can help you discover whether or not you need to seek further advice on your anxiety condition. Social Anxiety, also known as Social Phobia, is one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States today. Around 20 million of the American population has it at any one time. The statistics do not include those who have not reported their condition to mental health experts. If you feel you may be suffering from this type of anxiety, taking a social anxiety disorder quiz will help you make your own assessment. Asking yourself the following questions will help you verify if you are a potential sufferer:

1. Do you have an extreme fear of being in a social situation?

2. Do you always fear that people are judging you in whatever you are doing?

3. Do you prefer to be alone rather than going out with a group?

4. Do you need to drink alcoholic beverages before engaging in public speaking or performance?

5. Do you hate attending parties and other social gatherings?

If your answer is yes to the majority of the questions in the above social anxiety disorder quiz, then you are probably at risk for having social anxiety. Take note that doing a self-assessment is not a conclusive method of diagnosing the disorder. You would still need to consult the opinion of a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental healthcare professional for a definitive answer. Your Doctor would probably do another social anxiety disorder quiz, test or assessment before they can verify whether you have the disorder or not.

If your doctor does indeed diagnose you as having social anxiety disorder, they will recommend that you start some sort of treatment right away. Mental health disorders are highly treatable when they are still mild, because they have not yet caused any significant disturbances in your way of thinking. In this early period of the disorder, counseling is an effective form of treatment. Through counseling, your thoughts about your social anxiety are addressed and then challenged. In this manner, you will be able to construct positive thinking about this condition that will help you recover faster.

In cases where counseling has not proven to be effective, the Doctor may prescribe medications. Anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs are given to relieve the symptoms of the disorder. The doctor can also give medications that will control the physical manifestations of anxiety. It is important to continuously monitor for side effects of medications, especially the psychotic drugs. Psychotic drugs can induce irreversible side effects when taken in high doses.

If you are presently undergoing therapy, it is important for you to cooperate with the Doctor to facilitate fast recovery. The treatment can be very frustrating and difficult to cope with, especially during its initial phase, because you are subjected to a lot of changes and interaction with different people. It is also important to be compliant with your medication schedule. When you miss or do not take the prescribed dosage, your treatment can be rendered ineffective and this can set you back in your recovery. Improper treatment will eventually lead you to Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD, which is very difficult, but not impossible, to manage.

If your social anxiety disorder quiz suggests that you have social anxiety disorder, do not hesitate in going to the Doctor for assistance. Your information is kept confidential, so there is no need to worry about other people knowing of your condition.

George Hunter is a writer and blogger about Social Anxiety Disorder and other anxiety related topics. He has created a website resource to help fellow sufferers find a solution to their condition. Why not try out one of the most common Social Anxiety Disorder Tests right now. It only takes a few minutes to run through it.
Also, have a look at http://www.socialanxietydisorderguide.com/ to find out what you can do about Social Anxiety (Social Phobia) and other Anxiety and Panic disorders.

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Overcoming Test Anxiety To Pass Any Test

I have written other articles talking about abuse issues and how verbal abuse can be so harmful to self-confidence and self-esteem. In this article I will talk about how this impacts children and even adults with test anxiety. When we think of having test anxiety we normally think of kids. Not true many careers institute tests for promotions. Police Officers and Fireman for example have to pass a test to be able to advance in their careers. Law students must pass the BAR to be able to practice law. My point is that test anxiety needs to be addressed as children. The Institute of Heart Math and Claremont Graduate University states that students high levels of anxiety may jeopardize validity, thereby compromising testing results. What does this mean. 61% of all students report being affected by test anxiety. 26% of students reported frequent high levels of test anxiety. Twice as many females experienced high levels of test anxiety as compared to males.Students with high levels of test anxiety scored on the average, 15 points lower on standardized tests in both Mathematics and English-Language Arts than students with low test anxiety.

Why does this happen? As I have talked about in my previous articles, the mind can be your friend or your enemy. This means it responds out of programming from the input it hears. If the student hears negative be it from teachers, students, parents or even from outside stimuli. The confidence is effected. These are called blocks in the hypnosis world. Have you ever studied all night, went to take a test and totally forgot everything you know you remembered before taking the test? What happened? Blocks. The subconscious has retained the information it just will not allow you to retrieve it. Hands start to sweat, heart raises, sound familiar. Ever been there?

What do you do about that. As hypnotist we work with the subconscious. The first step is to get rid of the blocks. The next step is to give the subconscious a trigger that will be allow the subconscious to retrieve the stored information. When self-confidence is restored, relaxation is replaced. With relaxation, the subconscious will allow the stored information to come forward. Sounds easy? It really is to a trained professional. The rewards are life long.

I would like to talk a little bit about what I call the writing on your walls. This is your belief system. If we believe we cannot do something where does that come from. We are born with only 2 fears the fear of falling and the fear of a loud noise, the rest of the fears are learned. They are instilled in us by what other people have written on our walls. If your Grandma instills her belief that you must always be an over achiever, that very well by be your belief. Lets explore how that may impact you in regards to test anxiety. Let me be clear some anxiety is good. It keeps up motivated, but when it becomes emotionally stifling, that is a condition that can stay with you your entire life. Hence test anxiety occurs. In the instance of the Grandmas writing on your wall being an over achiever you may be very hard on yourself and expect perfection from your efforts. The result? Nervousness and anxiety about failing not only the test, but yourself and others you think may be disappointed in you. When I work with a Client the first thing I talk about is relaxation. This is the key. Some of the methods that work are meditation, yoga and self-hypnosis. How does self-hypnosis benefit someone with test anxiety? Simply this it not only teaches relaxation but also helps to train the mind to think differently. More positive, productive and respond to retention of what has been read and studied but also being able to retrieve what has been learned. With this method a trigger object is used. For example a pencil could be used as a trigger object that will stimulate the retrieval process during a test. Relaxation is important. With self-hypnosis someone can learn to use his or her mind to automatically relax.

With this article you will learn techniques to use to over-come test anxiety. If you suffer from test anxiety you can learn the signs the solutions to solving this problem and the possible causes of test anxiety.

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