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Stress and RA

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Rheumatoid Arthritis
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Posted 12/16/2012 11:40 AM (GMT -5)
Has anyone ever wondered what role stress has played in your illness? I've had a lot of stress in my life and I swear I feel it is responsible for a lot of my poor health. Currently going to a counselor to see what I can do. I can't miss one day of my antidepressants or I feel overwhelmed. Of course, I have so much going on in my life. I wish I could simplify and retire but I have 7 more years to work. At least my current job is not the stress, it's all the stress I was in before.
Posted 12/16/2012 4:18 PM (GMT -5)
I know when I'm under stress I feel worse.

My last 2 years of working has been so painful and I felt so rotten. It was a very stress filled job (teacher). Now that I'm not under that daily stress I'm feeling better.
Posted 12/16/2012 6:40 PM (GMT -5)
Glad you are under less stress couchtater!!! It makes a big difference, doesn't it?

Sometimes I wonder all the years of having undiagnosed colitis, a ton of other stressors in my personal life caused all of this. Life is better for me now, a bad first marriage caused me a ton of stress along with the death of my mother at a young age. It was very traumatic. It wasn't long after that, I started having health problems.
Posted 12/16/2012 10:41 PM (GMT -5)
Yeah stress makes it all worse for me too. I try to go through relaxation exercises at night to calm myself down but its not always possible. I think Tai Chi is suppose to be very good too, not that I've ever been to a class. Its on my to do list.
Best wishes, golitho
Posted 12/17/2012 2:42 AM (GMT -5)
Stress is the reason that tipped me into RA, I know it. Even though technically, I have removed most (say 80%) of the stress in my life, my immune system cannot go back to its original balance and I'm still working on this by getting myself treated for all emotionally aspects and stress in life.

I remember reading on Dr Mercola's article that mentions that all RA that he encountered has an emotional stigma and you can only recover well if you can free yourself/treat yourself of this emotional trauma. He suggest Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). You can learn free at http://www.thetappingsolution.com/
Hope this can be useful for you.
Posted 12/21/2012 8:11 PM (GMT -5)
For me it is stress plus lack of sleep that can make my joint pain increase. But I'm sorry I have to disagree with Hanyt..my emotional state was quite fine before I got RA. I was happy, and working part-time, going to the gym, active, you get the idea. Then while working around young children, which I very much enjoyed, came the dreaded stomach virus and took me down. There are so many different solutions to RA, but there is no cure. Although all of us wish there was on a daily basis. Although, this is not to say that we cannot minimize  our symptoms or reduce some of our pain by activities such as relaxation, yoga, mediation and such.
Posted 12/23/2012 8:12 PM (GMT -5)
So, momto3, did you start developing RA after the stomach virus? Interesting.... probably not all that unusual either. I got inflammatory arthritis when I had colitis.
Posted 12/26/2012 11:51 PM (GMT -5)
Hi and yes I sure did. A couple of weeks after, I was leaving work and I had weird shooting pains in my knees, and put up with it for a few days, finally went to my pcp with the complaints. He ran the usual tests for lyme, lupus, even RA if I remember correctly. Had no idea of how to help me so sent me to a rheumatologist. Had never heard of that type of doctor..so the rheumy was certain I had picked up some type of bug from the kiddos causing joint pain that would subside in a few months, so we did the wait and see, and well, that was years ago. Now it has turned into the dreaded RA diagnosis.

 

Posted 1/7/2013 2:06 AM (GMT -5)
I agree that stress is a big factor in your RA pain. My rheumy has told me many times that my stress levels most definitely aggravate my RA pain. And after journaling about my illness and trying to find a common denominator, I found a definite correlation between the two. I suppose though that everyone handles there stress differently and may not carry there stress in there physical body like I do. Some can release stress easier than others. There are a lot of factors that play in to it. I know getting regular masages, avoiding excessive stressful situations and just really paying attention to my body has helped a lot.
:-)
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