Stress is all around us, but it’s not too late to stop and take a deep breath. In fact, your very health depends on it. Here are some common ailments associated with stress: obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, depression, asthma and gastrointestinal problems.
Many professionals have found that there is a strong link between stress and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). In fact, it is estimated that as many as 60% of IBS patients meet the criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders, the most common being a generalized anxiety disorder.
Dealing with IBS-D (Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Diarrhea) alone is complicated. Normal life is suspended as you’re forced to worry about always being within sight of a bathroom. Let's discuss methods for managing stress, coping with difficult pain and emotions, and reducing anxiety in the hopes that your digestion problems will act up a little less.
Worry is a major contributor towards stress. We worry about lack of finances, strained relationships and too much to do with not enough time to do it in. I once heard someone say that worry is the interest we pay when we borrow from tomorrow’s problems. Here’s the clincher: In a study reported by the Huffington Post, researchers found, “that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.”
So what are you worried about? Some of the best advice I’ve heard is to take a deep breath and calm down. Pause from the craziness of life and ask, “What is the most important thing I need to focus on right now? How can I make the most of this moment?” The big picture is overwhelming, but slowing down to pick apart what is necessary versus what seems urgent can help you to prioritize your tasks and gain the right perspective.
Visualization is another way to relax. Can’t sleep at night? Imagine yourself on the beach with the waves crashing just yards away. Having a bad day at work? Picture your last vacation and how you watched the sunset from the balcony of your hotel room. Did you get in a fight with a family member? Visualize them getting hit by a bus. (Okay, not really, but laughing is a great way to relieve stress, too).
When we hold onto our stress without sharing the load, it eats away at us like poison and does nothing to change the situation. Talk therapy, also called psychotherapy, is based on the core principle that talking about the things that are bothering you can help you to realize your feelings, understand why you feel the way you do and puts everything into better perspective. “There have been some studies that show that many physical ailments are ameliorated when someone engages in therapy,” says Marian Margulies, PhD. “When people do not express feelings but swallow them and keep them buried and out of conscious awareness, one's body often reacts. It acts as a barometer that reads: danger! Something is amiss and needs attention. Somatizing via stomach aches, headaches, sleeping problems, and ulcers are just some of the ways our body reacts to stress and psychic pain.”
