From the article: Is IBD Associated With Depression?
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is difficult physically, but it can also take a toll on your mental health. The symptoms of diarrhea, gas, and exhaustion can leave you isolated and feeling as though you are out of place. Family, friends, and coworkers are sympathetic, but it's not the same as true understanding. Has your IBD affected how you are able to socialize in professional and social situations? Do you struggle with feelings of loneliness? How do you cope with this aspect of IBD? Share Your Experiences
IBD and Depression
- Ulcerative colitis and celiac disease have caused me to be depressed many times. Years of illness and hospitalizations have made me a hardened emotionless person who is seen as cold and distant. Support from family and others has helped but it does not change the fact that ultimately I am depressed because of lost time from school and work (I have had non real jobs in my life my parents support me). Being in my later 20s and back at school and having to have been hospitalized during finals 3 times has made me more depressed. School has helped out a lot with this situation, but still I feel like a burden. So yes there is depression but also a loss or emotional affect.
- —Guest jtpnorth
Fighting Depression for 25 Years
- Tears as I write because I don't like talking about what pains me on the deepest level, but someone may get comfort. There have been a number of depressing moments in my growing life that I haven't been able to shake for over 25yrs. #1. As a baby my mother would walk the floor with me just to get me to have a bowel movement, which was her earliest memory of my long battle with IBS and now I suffer from IBS & IBD as a adult. #2 At age seven I was diagnosed with chronic hives, whelt, and itch attacts (Urticaria) all through school I was bullied and hit, called names because of my skin. #3. In 1992, I fell in love at sixteen, had a baby and became a single parent all at once. I was so confused, but looking back I was no match for a twenty something man who lived in Chicago while I lived in California, I was depressed from the start of the pregnancy to today from the struggles I faced. #4. I was raped at gun point at fifteen I only told my mother. I live in darkness and shame still today. :(
- —Guest lovlyles
If You Don't Have IBD, You Don't Get It!
- I am open with family and friends but I find that few have any idea of the pain, frustration and sometimes the fear that I deal with on an ongoing basis. I haven't been able to work for 18 months and people keep asking me about when I'll return to work. People are drifting away...maybe it's too hard to cope with someone who is sick more often than not. I sought therapy for support when I was facing the possibility of surgery and will continue as it is the only place I have to express myself freely, without fear of overwhelming or alienating. I also exercise as regularly as I can, both walking and yoga, and I pray and meditate daily. Still, I feel isolated and lonely. Cats are good company but lousy conversationalists! I miss my previous life and wonder if I will ever have anything resembling it again. I may not be alone in dealing with IBD but I am home alone and lonely. Thank goodness for my iPad!
- —Guest Jonah
On The Fringe of Fitting In
- I was misdiagnosed & properly diagnosed as a teenager. Pain started for me in infancy. I was miserable all through my schooling, except grad school. My high school years were horrible, though I was quite popular & participated in myriad extra-curricular activities, including gymnastics, National Honor Society & Future Teachers of America. In college, I got so sick with the UC that I was flown home to the intensive care unit of the hospital for 2 weeks & had to take a leave of absence from school for 2 years. My doctors neither had hope for me living long nor living well. I became very depressed. I had no friends at home as they were all away at college. Fortunately, I had a great mother who fed me at least 3 heavy meals a day & got some meat on my bones. Soap Operas became my friends -- Marlena & Samantha were the 1st characters I saw. I believe ulcerative colitis affected my grades, friendships, & romantic relationships, isolating me. I loved being a teacher; Now I love being an artist.
- —jewelrystore
