AF caused by Stress

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AF caused by Stress

Postby England » 28 Nov 2013, 15:46

Does anybody else believe there is a link between stress on the onset of an AF?

I know it's caused by a lack of fibre and water in the diet. But looking back on my episodes they were all preceded by stress usually in the workplace

I would welcome your views....
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Re: AF caused by Stress

Postby Ever the Optimist » 28 Nov 2013, 16:48

Hi England,

In a word "Yes"!

My fissure started about 2 months after a big house relocation for me & at a time when we moved to a new area, my daughter started a new school for the first time, my partner started a new job & I was sat applying for job after job! Stress to say the least..........Bang - fissure arrives. This however was not helped by the fact that we ate a lot of take-aways just after moving because we hadn't a fridge or been able to go shopping etc. My diet was not so great for a few weeks and I was probably forgetting to drink enough water and I was not exercising as I had been prior to all that..........not a great combination of things.....

I'm not sure it's a direct cause but it certainly does not help - because our mind is tense, our body becomes tense, which as a result, messes with digestion & BMs, causing constipation or diahrroea, the whole toilet process becomes more tense both physically & mentally, which could lead to the cause of a fissure. I do believe that if you can manage your stress levels well, the mind/ body relax more which helps reduce the intensity of the above.

I also notice a pattern in myself even today.....I am "healed" but the discomfort I sometimes continue to feel in my bottom hasn't completely gone away, mostly I feel normal but there are moments when I'm still reminded the scars are there. I have noticed a pattern and when external stress kicks in, so does the internal mental stress - my bottom comes back into prominence! My mind starts to focus on the negative, my bottom, fears of retears, my BM's tend to be more difficult and stools harder and I return to an uncomfortable like state with physical feelings of pressure or odd twinges again......There has to be some mind/ body connection for sure.

If you are stressed, a BM can be a scary, strained & difficult affair and I also see this in my daily routine.

I wake in the morning, generally feeling good, deeply relaxed and switched off a little to everything until I fully wake - At this stage a BM is routine - I just go and it's a calm and easy & I don't stress about it.........
Come 1.00 pm, stress is setting in from a so-far busy day at work (with more to come), plus the other thousand thoughts of what I need to do, what I need to cook, who I need to email, what bills I need to pay & yes, when & how will my next BM be! that starts to creep in too (almost an immediate reaction when starting to feel overwhelmed by everything else)....so then I spend the next 2-3 hours almost "watching out for the BM" urge.......Compared to the early morning BM, this is much more stressful, plagued with more negative thinking & less relaxed. Once it's over, I'm pretty relaxed for a long while until we reach 1.00 pm the following day!!.................

Sorry I've rambled on a bit in a few different areas but I think it shows how certainly stress plays a big role in all aspects of having a fissure, from potentially creating an onset of it & then prolonging the agony whilst dealing & living with it (and the memories from even a healed one!)

I think it's definitely wise to always monitor your stress levels & to bring in some relaxation techniques/ therapy if things become too overwhelming. The calmer and more relaxed you are in life, generally the physically better, healthier & more positive you will be, thereby reducing the risk of stress-inducing symptoms of any kind. :)
Chronic Fissure diagnosed December 2011
Healed by Diltiazem around Feb 2013
Anal Fistula followed burst abscess in June 2012
2 internal troublesome piles remain & suspected, but undiagnosed, ongoing Levator Ani type symptoms & flare-ups
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Re: AF caused by Stress

Postby pinpin » 30 Nov 2013, 01:22

Yes!

My CRS told, he has patient - writer, when she was in country side writing books AF was going and healing. As soon as she was back to London to negotiate with publishers with a lot of stress, AF was back!
07.02.2013 - got open hemorrhoidectomy, leaded to slow healing wound. Link to story
11.12.2013 - LIS surgery
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Re: AF caused by Stress

Postby Superfissure » 30 Nov 2013, 06:54

Completely relate to what EtO has said.

About stress bringing them on,I went over 18 months without a tear although some days I could feel its presence and was close to a retear a couple of times. But when it did finally happen it was just after moving home. I've only moved up the road (due to landlord wanting to sell the other place), but timing was bad. I wasn't unable to move into new place due to referencing taking a while so had to start moving furniture into temporary storage but then suddenly on the last day I was able to get the keys to the new place so then had to start moving everything back again. Then when I first moved I could not follow my nearly religious diet. I also had no furniture (bed, sofa, wardrobe) as my main home is 200 miles away so had to arrange to go back and get some to get me started but spent about a week with just a mattress on the floor!. I wasn't thinking much about my butt to be honest as my mind was completely occupied. I had the attitude, well, if it happens, it happens, I'll see about getting the PITA permanently sorted if it does. Over a week I could feel it then suddenly minor tear (or at least it felt like that), then would seem to sort itself out over a few days but then finally full tear and now trying to get back into recovery stage

There is more to it than just stress though I feel, physical too. In some ways my life is much less stressful than it should have been when I was younger. Having said that, people can tend to worry more as they get older. My first two fissure really painful experiences I believe were after I tried a little bit of jogging. Before that I remember I had an odd feeling occasionally.
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