Hi all,

I've been fighting a fissure for over 2 months now. It occurred during a very stressful time in my life when I was also dealing with IBS (moved to a different city, job project deadline).

Fortunately I'm a software engineer and they let me work from home. So I decided to work from home for three weeks, drinking lots of water, watching my diet, applying Rectiv everyday, following all the best practices in the forums, etc. After one week I started seeing a healing trend. After two weeks I felt 90% healed. I was very happy!

Then week three came along. This was a very stressful time for me: relatives visiting, job deadlines and emergencies, general anxiety with other issues, not enough sleep. Even though I kept my strict regiment and diet, I started having setbacks and feeling like I was going back to square one. Also knowing that my 3 week work vacation was coming to an end made it worse.

So stress made it happen and stress made it re-tear. I guess the advice I'm trying to give is to focus on reducing your stress. I would seriously consider being very honest with your manager and seeing if maybe you can take some time off. Maybe go somewhere that makes you forget about work and stress (my mom's house does that for me). I know that most are not as fortunate as me to have the option to work from home, but if you've been fighting this for months I would seriously consider working out an arrangement with your manager. If you can exercise I strongly encourage that too, maybe even try Yoga. I started using my wife's Yoga videos at home and it has helped a lot.

Cuz, I agree and same thing happened to me. For 3 weeks I was working from home and I was feeling great and came time to go back to work and guess with all that stress at work made me retear. I guess under stress our asshole constricts further and then retear happens. I might quit my job as a IT manager and become something else.

I have honestly considered taking a leave of absence or even quitting (in my worst days). But my manager has been very understanding and supportive. They have told me to work from home as long as I need.

I think we just have to put better boundaries between personal life and work. For example I disable my work email on my iPhone on the weekends now.

I really notice that when I'm stressed or anxious, my bum starts to sting and throb a bit. I've started trying to consciously relax my bum. Not that you can actually relax your internal anal sphincter - it's an involuntary muscle. But I know I carry a lot of tension in my body generally, and now I realise that much of that tension is in my bottom. I clench it when I'm worried. I'm trying to let go of that clenched bottom feeling, and also mentally let go of stresses. I think it does help.

Great post, Cuzco.