What came first? It's not the chicken or the egg.

You were a self-motivated, ambitious kind of person. You liked to think that nothing could stop you. And most of the time you're probably right.

Well, that was until you got Crohn’s Disease.

I often like to ask what came first – the stress or the Crohn's disease. It is a little like the chicken or the egg. I guess the best answer is it doesn't matter. What matters is you are stressed.

I know ‘stressed out’ seems a bit like old news but we're experiencing more stress now than we did when “I’m so stressed” was the catch cry. Most people report an increase in their stress levels over the last few years. AND RIGHT NOW IN CO-VID TIMES THIS HAS BEEN TAKEN TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL. No-one seems to be saying it’s getting easier.

NOW add the impact a chronic illness like Crohn's disease brings to the mix and no wonder you feel like your chest is going to explode. And that is when you are feeling relatively well. 

What if you succumb to a stress-related illness as well as the problems associated with having Crohn's disease? That could mean a long time without income. It could even mean never being able to work at your full capacity again. And that could mean giving up on your dreams, giving up on your ambitions and settling for a life you never imagined for yourself.

It is VITAL that we learn to manage our stress much, much better than we do now.

Now stress is a funny thing. What stresses us one day may not rate a blip on the stress radar the next. The traffic jam might drive us crazy on Tuesday, but on Wednesday we hardly notice it. Believe it or not, this is good news. It means that there’s something other than just external events that trigger our stress response and it means we can learn to control those other triggers.

Stress exists because of stressors – things that are happening that are outside us and inside us too. Stress occurs because there is something we perceive as being beyond our ability to manage well. Because our stress comes from our perceived ability to cope with external pressures, then it makes sense that we can change our perception or enhance our ability to manage our stress.
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For most of us, we would find that our stress management IQ is probably a bit low. On average most people would get pretty poor grades on a stress management test. We learn a lot of things in school – equations that we'll never remember when Emily Bronte lived and died – all handy things (yes that was sarcasm) but learning how to deal with stress is left to chance.

So why talk about Stress And Crohn's Disease?  Well, stress can be one of the triggers of a Crohn's flare up and yet it is something that most of us choose to ignore and do nothing about. THAT is about to change.
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Let's do something about a Crohn's flare-up trigger NOW.​

​If you have any more questions then please free to email me at [email protected] or visit my Facebook Page at My Crohn's Doctor. 
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Yours in Health and Wellness
Dr Michael

​My Crohn's Doctor
www.mycrohnsdoctor.com

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