Tuesday, June 3, 2014

stress...

Stress, something that we as people all deal with. Stress comes in many "forms" if you will. It may be type of stress that is short term, such as studying for an exam in college. It is stressful during that time but once it's over, it's over. There is the type of stress where we just get stressed to our max limit, also known as "stressed out" and we simply feel as if we can't take anymore. During these times, we tend to be emotional, a bit edgy, some could even say that we're hateful. I know I get that way when I'm stressed out. It's almost like I need a time out just to calm myself down and refocus.Change is a huge stressor for me. I have a hard time dealing with change because I like being in control and knowing as many details as possible. Another type of stress is when things happen around us and we simply can't control them like an illness, injury or even death. Events and situations like these happen and as people we don't have the control and sometimes fear creeps in. Fear in itself is stressful.

I use to be a big walking ball of stress or at least I felt like it. I was so wound tight and all about the "perfection" in life. Umm, there is no perfection in life. I don't know where I got off thinking that I could just go on being like that. Stress and gastrointestinal conditions and diseases do not mix. It took me a really long time to understand that. After many, many GP flares up and goodness knows how many talks about managing my stress levels, I finally learned to start letting go of things.

Stress affects everyone differently because as people, we're all different. Who would want to be alike? The world would after all be quite a boring place. For me personally, too much stress will send me into a GP flare up. If I am cleaning out and get too stressed out or upset, it will stop my clean out. (I know, it's crazy but it happens.) Last May after being in the hospital for nearly a week due to having my intestines enlarged and inflamed, I learned that stress could trigger this again. It was a new side effect of my GP. Luckily it hasn't happened since. I am a daily work in progress on handling my stress but aren't we all?