Therapy and Mental Health

I was wondering if anyone else had had positive experiences with therapy helping them deal with their CD or even, in some cases, having it help their disease.

I know for me personally, therapy was one of the turning points in getting through my first year after diagnosis. I was in the hospital a couple of times, couldn't work because I was too sick, and my well being was far from well. I was living under a pile of stress, I couldn't even have a normal conversation because I lived in constant fear of stress, perceived and real.

Every day I needed drugs to wake up, to go to sleep, to get through the day, to not freak out over a friend coming to visit. In therapy, I learned a lot of things that work for me, new ways to deal with stress and even ways to express it other than keeping it inside and letting it fester.

While I still keep my prescriptions filled for xanax and ambien, I went from needing them every day for what felt like forever to needing them maybe one or twice a month, if that. Some times are harder than others, of course, but I feel like therapy really made a difference in my treatment.

Has anyone else had this experience? Or perhaps a bad one? Has therapy or drugs for your mental state positively influenced your physical state?

-Kathryn

I work as a therapist in the UK & have treated a couple people with IBD. This disease can affect all areas of functioning & I feel strongly that there is a role for CBT.

I totally agree that this disease, and many others for that matter, can and do affect the mental and emotional well being as well as the physical.

I think there is still some stigma related to seeking mental help and I believe people can be reticent to talk about it.

-Kathryn

I visited a counsellor, psychologist and cbt therapist at various times in my teenage years for depression, however I never really 'gelled' with any of them, and never did feel confortable talking openly to any of them. But I do still put some of the cbt into practice when I feel the need. I was not diagnosed with crohn's at the time I sought help for depression.

I was going to see someone to talk to when I was really down and sick. But after the surgery I could only go up from there so I didn't pursue it.

Yes, I have lots of positive experiences with it.

I first got depressed when I was 12, 3 years after my dx. At the time I was really ill, on a high dose of steroids, and had a naso gastric tube which I used to puke up every night along with the enteral nutrition that was being pumped into my stomach over night. I wasn't allowed to eat anything for 3 months and I was being bullied at school and had no friends. I went to see a child psychologist at the children's hospital I was at, at the time, every week and it really helped to get over my depression.

Apparently if you have ever had depression as a child, you have a much higher chance of being depressed in later life and in my first year of uni aged 19 I got badly depressed again for no particular reason. I went to see a counsellor for 7 weeks at uni and again, it really helped.

Last year I felt like I was doing fine in life until I took a Crohn's and eating disorders survey and didn't think much of it till the outcome was that I may have eating problems. I was asked if I wanted to see a psychologist for a consultation to see if there was anything to it, which I agreed to. The appointment was 90 mins and it was awful. I cried the entire time dragging up old and painful memories of me ill and everything I had to deal with. The outcome was that I didn't have a defined eating disorder so they couldn't follow me up, but I obviously still had some problems there so she wanted to refer me locally. After that appointment I was a mess. I thought I was doing ok and actually I really wasn't.

I went to see a counsellor at my local GP and she was amazing. I got to talk about everything I'd gone through and how my relationship with my parents was effected by it all and why I had problems going to sleep before 5am. Not only that but I could talk to her about things I thought might not be normal behaviour and she reassured me if it was. Because I had such deep problems I had 10 sessions but by the end of it I feel great. I've never felt better mentally. I'm happy and determined to do well for myself and even go to bed before midnight now

I have a new tdoc, and so far so good. Only in the last few months have I really started attaching a lot of my depression to this disease. It's amazing to look back and see the correlation between my depressive periods and crohnsy-type stuff. It's not always directly related to crohn's but damn, it seems the two are always around each other.

I have a bad habit of beginning therapy, then stopping after several visits. This year I am going to give in and try to make therapy work.