This guest post is continued from Mental Treatment for a Physical Disease – Part 1, where Dr. Taft discusses how the brain and gut affect each other, and how our mental and physical health is intertwined.
Many people find ways to cope with IBD-related issues through healthy outlets. Using groups like the Great Bowel Movement for support and accurate information is one great way. Talking with others with IBD is another. Exercising, channeling your energy into fundraising or awareness campaigns, spending time with loved ones, focusing on the positive – all great ways to cope with feeling down or worried about IBD.
But sometimes our old standby coping strategies can’t keep up with all that IBD can pile on top of us. Combined with the ups-and-downs and stresses of everyday life (and don’t those flares always seem to come at the worst times?) living with IBD can feel downright overwhelming.
This is what you’re doing here.
It’s not because you’re crazy, or weak, or your symptoms aren’t real. Feeling sad, irritable, anxious, angry, helpless, or even hopeless because of IBD is normal. It’s when these feelings become overwhelming and start to affect your day-to-day life that seeing a therapist can help.
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I tell every person I see that stress isn’t good for any physical condition, whether it’s high blood pressure, a bum knee, or IBD. But for some reason, stress’s impact on certain conditions is more socially acceptable than others. If Uncle Steve has high blood pressure and he’s stressed out at work, we’re likely to say “oh well he’s about to bust that vein in his forehead because he’s under a lot of pressure from his boss”.
But in patients with IBD, sometimes acknowledging that stress can make symptoms worse feels like we’re being blamed. Like if you’d just get yourself under control, you’d be better.
Working with an experienced therapist who treats chronic medical conditions can be invaluable. And it’s not just because I’m biased, I have seen people’s live improve dramatically – often in only a few months. The research also supports this – sort of.
So, what can therapy do for people with IBD?
- 40% of studies showed that seeing a therapist helps reduce anxiety.
- 50% showed that therapy helps improve depression.
- 33% of studies improved quality of life.
- 50% showed that therapy can reduce some IBD symptoms.
- All studies that evaluated pain and fatigue found that therapy improved both of these symptoms.
Finding a good therapist is key, and you may have tried therapy in the past and had a bad experience. The most important thing isn’t the degree after their name, but rather, does your personality fit with theirs? Can you feel comfortable with them? The next most important thing is, do they have specialty training in working with people with medical illness? Ideally, you’d find someone experienced with IBD, but this isn’t as common as we’d hope.
To help with taking the first steps towards mental therapy for IBD, we’ve written on our practice’s blog about if therapy really works, different types of therapists, and questions to ask someone if you’re thinking about working with them.
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Dr. Tiffany Taft, PsyD is a licensed clinical psychologist who focuses on helping patients with chronic illnesses such as Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Experienced with IBD herself, Dr. Taft has been active in the community, including volunteering at Camp Oasis and participating in fundraising events. To learn more or make an appointment, please visit www.opbmed.com
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