hi everyone,
i've been in a flare for over a week. its cramps, lower back pain, extremely tried, also my anxiety has been thru the roof.
i'm taking pills for all both colitis and anxiety/depression.
does anyone have anything they do to try to help with both when its happening at the same time.
my aunt is dying from colon/rectal cance, tumors have gone to all her major organs. so now shes in hospital shes only 54. she never got colonoscopies :-(
so with all this going on its taking a toll on my body.
im going to the beach for a few days tomorrow hoping that helps me relax.
had to vent... thanks for listening
~~~~ donna

I can relate to this but unfortunately I am yet to find a solution. In my case I am exiting a flare and my UC is improving, however anxiety has recently appeared out of nowhere. I am using Lorazepam to keep it at bay but this is not a long-term solution. I'm hoping it goes away by itself once the disease improves further and as my UC-induced stress levels subside.

I am sorry, that's awful. I have to wonder about the anxiety though, in my case it's always been a chicken or egg thing. Did I get stressed because of the symptoms or did the stress cause the symptoms. People usually start scopes at 50 here if they are healthy and have no reason to suspect anything, correct? I keep hearing about young people with CC. People should start earlier.

Meditation was helpful for me. Not the cross-legged "om" type of meditation. It was more of a focus on breathing, self-awareness type. I learned from two apps, Calm (free mini version with paid all-access) and Headspace (free 10 day beginner's program that you can re-do any time). You may wonder "how is this going to help?" because they are generally 10 minute sessions, but somehow they did. Nothing wrong with doing the sessions multiple times in a day if you need to.

I also took Ativan when it was really bad. Getting off of the prednisone was key.

Worrying about lack of sleep causes a lack of sleep for me.