by 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