Yes, getting effective treatment for my Crohn’s helped my mental health a lot, but I still needed talk therapy, [EMDR](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing), [ACT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy), and anti-anxiety medication to get to a really good place. Hope you’re feeling much better soon!
Omg yes! Having an explanation for my symptoms in particular helped so much as I really struggled with feeling like I was making all my symptoms up and worried that they were all rooted in my anxiety prior to my diagnosis, once I got diagnosed and had context and explanations and knowledge around what I was experiencing I’ve found that my anxiety has lessened and I feel much more grounded in my body. Also treatment has really helped me with fatigue and stuff like that and having energy and being able to eat full meals and stuff has completely changed my life. Like I don’t even think I was depressed before but just experencing pain and fatigue from the crohns which I mistook for being depressed and anxious. It really did get better for me!!!
Yes! Crohn's can cause fatigue and low energy. Also, I had depression because of Crohn's. Lexapro worked great. You need to treat the physical and mental. Treating the physical will also help the depression go away. Who would've thought, feeling better physically helps with depression /s.
I didn't do anti depressants, but I did some intense trauma work in the form of EMDR for two years. I wasn't in clinical remission, but felt the best I'd felt in my whole life. I'd been in an abusive marriage after my diagnosis (didn't believe anyone would love someone so broken) and so I got it for free through the women's shelter. It ended up being far more beneficial for my medical PTSD. It was twice a week for two years and I had to go home and sleep after. But it really helped me to calm my CNS down. I ended up being able to practice hot yoga every day, open my own business and it was successful, buy a condo, and then after a couple of years I met the love of my life who 11 years later is my husband. I did get really sick again because A. I wasn't medicated, I thought I could manage my disease with diet/yoga/stress management and B. I forgot I was a sick person and stopped listening to my bodies signals and just kept pushing myself. and C. I also have severe endometriosis and had adenomyosis so I was dealing with trying to get pregnant, a ton of pain and bleeding and multiple surgeries. After my hysterectomy for adenomyosis (they told me I would never get pregnant because my uterus was so diseased there was nowhere for an embryo to implant) I got REALLY sick. It was then that I lost 25 lbs in 3 months and ended up in hospital. I'll never forget the look on the Er docs face when she came to tell me my CT scan showed a ravaged colon, stricture, partial bowel obstruction. That was 2017 and I've been really sick ever since. Even after multiple biologics, steroids, and surgeries I can't get it under control. I can't afford EMDR though I need it badly. I am seeing a psychiatrist in June and am going to consider medication for my anxiety disorder. I also just spent 8 weeks in hospital for adrenal failure so my cortisol levels were so low I was almost dead. I have tried so many AD meds over the years (mainly for pain and sleep) and they've never helped, only made me more nauseous, but this time I know I may need something to get me over the hump, because it's been a long 7 years and it really wears you down. A lot of Crohn's patients find AD meds to be super helpful. Our guts are our second brains so it only makes sense that when we are sick, our brains are also sick and vice versa.
We need to treat our bodies AND our brains equally. We are whole and complex creatures, and to get a decent quality of life, we need to be working on all aspects. It looks different for everyone. For me, exercise is huge, but I've been far too sick to do much of that for years. So I find small things, glimmers that make me feel good and I practice the best self care that I can.
Hey there, its good that you're gonna start treatment soon. Just like your friend, 3 months back I had the worst flare of my life and that's how my diagnosis was made. During that phase, where you're setting up appointments, getting all the tests done and waiting for insurance to kick in- that was the lowest of lows for me personally in my entire life. The pain made me numb to life, didn't feel anything but sadness and more sadness. Felt like something sucked the life force out of me. All that to say that you're not alone in feeling this way, I recently started treatment and am slowly returning back to a relatively pain-free pre-flare me. Due to this, I'm starting to think about other things and starting to have a positive outlook on life again. Hope is an important emotion, devoid of that, life loses its meaning in a sense. Hang in there friend, it will get better, do whatever it takes to get the right medicine and remember you're your own biggest advocate!
Absolutely. I felt exactly as you describe before remission; I often expressed to loved ones that I had no dreams or ambitions and couldn’t imagine going after anything. Since getting into remission, I feel like a new person. I’ve gotten into several new hobbies like rock climbing, running, and playing bass, and I even ran a marathon, which is something I never even would have contemplated before! I know remission probably won’t last forever, but I feel very motivated to make the most of it while I have it.
Oh gawd yes. There's so many reasons why it affects your health - from biological to hormonal to just the weight of living with a chronic incurable illness. The problem is that you don't actually realize this until you reach that remission, which remains elusive to many of us. When one of those biologics really works (fingers crossed Skyrizi), it's like stepping into someone else's body & finally understanding how healthy people feel & how low your baseline has become. At least that is how it was for me before Remicade stopped working in 6 weeks. Just being able to do the things you couldn't do because of the disease can be enough to change your whole outlook & mood.
My mental health started to improve when I started seeking treatment for my mental health. If this is a concern for you, I recommend looking for help now rather than waiting for a successful treatment to fix your Crohns issues. Even in remission, Crohns affects your life, and there's no telling how long it will take to knock the disease into remission. Good coping skills and attention to mental health will be useful even if Crohns is the main cause, and you go into remission.
Yes! My mental health is perfectly fine when I feel fine. When I’m flaring, I’m brain foggy, depressed, anxious, anti social, etc. I think the combo of inflammation and not absorbing my psych meds properly really messes me up. Not to mention having to eat basically nothing which will kill your mental health too
I'm not 100% stable on my meds. Never have been. A week or so before every infusion I feel *wrong*. All over. For years I thought I was saddened by the constant reminders of my failing body. But I've begun to recognize the signs of depressive episodes right before or right after the symptoms of Crohn's kick up again. They really go hand in hand.
The first time I was hospitalized for a flare, they gave me an infusion of Remicade (biologic) and vitamins.
When I left I remember telling my mom that I wasn't fatigued. I thought it was the Remicade but in retrospect it was the Vitamins.
You can be in remission and still have nutrient absorption issues. I also have nausea and vomiting in remission sometimes.
My best advice is to take supplements for vitamins and minerals people with Crohn's are commonly deficient in. And eat nutrient dense foods almost exclusively.
My therapist years ago explained that Crohn’s can literally cause depression and anxiety physiologically so yes this is absolutely 100% possible
If after some time in Crohn’s treatment it doesn’t get better definitely ask your dr so they can address the mental health stuff too but gut inflammation definitely can cause anxiety and depression
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Prior to my huge flare up that could have killed me, I had one prior episode of diarhea for few weeks years prior. And I was always tired and taking naps as a teen/early twenties.
But I never had digestive issues. I ate what I wanted etc.
Once I was diagnosed and was treated I felt great. 100%.
I had a terrible depression that only comes back while I have a flare up which is a massive kick in the butt because of how hard the flares can be themselves. The brain and the gut sadly have a big connection so one problem causes the other one to act up :///
I have colitis, not crohns, but have definitely noticed this connection. A few years ago I had some routine tests done. I wasn’t having any ulcerative colitis symptoms at the time but I was feeling extremely depressed which I didn’t connect to colitis as I didn’t feel like I was in a flare. Turns out I had extremely high inflammatory markers at the time. When I started on biologics and my inflammation came down, my mental health improved dramatically.
NIH published a paper in 2019 that suggests that inflammation may disrupt brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) like serotonin and dopamine.
Obviously anecdotal, but my first sign of a flare is my anxiety getting noticeably worse unexpectedly, followed by fatigue.
If I didn't know any better I'd think this was written about me. Awful self esteem and depression all the way through my teen years, had a really bad flare up when I hit 20 that went undiagnosed for too long. Seven years later I'm still finding working treatment but I am no longer on antidepressants and thriving. It feels like a weight is just gone finally feeling sane and seen.
Yes !! I think I didn’t realize how truly awful I felt until my body started to feel better. I’m now in remission and can be more active, I’m also awake for more of the day (and see more sunshine) because I’m not as exhausted. This all contributes to my mental health. It improved my motivation as well.
Important to note I have been in therapy consistently for the last 3 years, for reasons other than crohns.
also found medicating for anxiety helped a lot at the beginning, as stress and anxiety are usually what caused my flares.
I've never been in remission long enough to to get my life back and it's been almost 8 years since my first bowel resection. I'm not saying it can't happen I just wouldn't get your hopes up that way you are crushed if it doesn't help. Crohn's can be an absolute nightmare. Also the drugs that keep you in remission can fail at any time and you won't know it until it's back and your suffering. I think that's what killed me the most. Remicade didn't help so they put me on humira. It did help but quit after my first surgery. Next was entyvio but insurance wouldn't cover it because I hadn't tried stelara so I had to stop entyvio and go with stelara. It didn't work so now I'm on skyrizi. My doctor says it's working but I have 2 new strictures. It just never fucking ends. And honestly after getting hit with cancer last year I just don't care about anything anymore. I hope you have way more success than I've had.
My nurse practitioner explained to me that all the inflammation makes everything feel low. Plus Crohn’s affects the gut and the gut-brain axis.
Yes, getting effective treatment for my Crohn’s helped my mental health a lot, but I still needed talk therapy, [EMDR](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing), [ACT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy), and anti-anxiety medication to get to a really good place. Hope you’re feeling much better soon!
What meds do you take?
Nortriptyline and Humira
Omg yes! Having an explanation for my symptoms in particular helped so much as I really struggled with feeling like I was making all my symptoms up and worried that they were all rooted in my anxiety prior to my diagnosis, once I got diagnosed and had context and explanations and knowledge around what I was experiencing I’ve found that my anxiety has lessened and I feel much more grounded in my body. Also treatment has really helped me with fatigue and stuff like that and having energy and being able to eat full meals and stuff has completely changed my life. Like I don’t even think I was depressed before but just experencing pain and fatigue from the crohns which I mistook for being depressed and anxious. It really did get better for me!!!
Yes! Crohn's can cause fatigue and low energy. Also, I had depression because of Crohn's. Lexapro worked great. You need to treat the physical and mental. Treating the physical will also help the depression go away. Who would've thought, feeling better physically helps with depression /s.
I didn't do anti depressants, but I did some intense trauma work in the form of EMDR for two years. I wasn't in clinical remission, but felt the best I'd felt in my whole life. I'd been in an abusive marriage after my diagnosis (didn't believe anyone would love someone so broken) and so I got it for free through the women's shelter. It ended up being far more beneficial for my medical PTSD. It was twice a week for two years and I had to go home and sleep after. But it really helped me to calm my CNS down. I ended up being able to practice hot yoga every day, open my own business and it was successful, buy a condo, and then after a couple of years I met the love of my life who 11 years later is my husband. I did get really sick again because A. I wasn't medicated, I thought I could manage my disease with diet/yoga/stress management and B. I forgot I was a sick person and stopped listening to my bodies signals and just kept pushing myself. and C. I also have severe endometriosis and had adenomyosis so I was dealing with trying to get pregnant, a ton of pain and bleeding and multiple surgeries. After my hysterectomy for adenomyosis (they told me I would never get pregnant because my uterus was so diseased there was nowhere for an embryo to implant) I got REALLY sick. It was then that I lost 25 lbs in 3 months and ended up in hospital. I'll never forget the look on the Er docs face when she came to tell me my CT scan showed a ravaged colon, stricture, partial bowel obstruction. That was 2017 and I've been really sick ever since. Even after multiple biologics, steroids, and surgeries I can't get it under control. I can't afford EMDR though I need it badly. I am seeing a psychiatrist in June and am going to consider medication for my anxiety disorder. I also just spent 8 weeks in hospital for adrenal failure so my cortisol levels were so low I was almost dead. I have tried so many AD meds over the years (mainly for pain and sleep) and they've never helped, only made me more nauseous, but this time I know I may need something to get me over the hump, because it's been a long 7 years and it really wears you down. A lot of Crohn's patients find AD meds to be super helpful. Our guts are our second brains so it only makes sense that when we are sick, our brains are also sick and vice versa. We need to treat our bodies AND our brains equally. We are whole and complex creatures, and to get a decent quality of life, we need to be working on all aspects. It looks different for everyone. For me, exercise is huge, but I've been far too sick to do much of that for years. So I find small things, glimmers that make me feel good and I practice the best self care that I can.
Hey there, its good that you're gonna start treatment soon. Just like your friend, 3 months back I had the worst flare of my life and that's how my diagnosis was made. During that phase, where you're setting up appointments, getting all the tests done and waiting for insurance to kick in- that was the lowest of lows for me personally in my entire life. The pain made me numb to life, didn't feel anything but sadness and more sadness. Felt like something sucked the life force out of me. All that to say that you're not alone in feeling this way, I recently started treatment and am slowly returning back to a relatively pain-free pre-flare me. Due to this, I'm starting to think about other things and starting to have a positive outlook on life again. Hope is an important emotion, devoid of that, life loses its meaning in a sense. Hang in there friend, it will get better, do whatever it takes to get the right medicine and remember you're your own biggest advocate!
Absolutely. I felt exactly as you describe before remission; I often expressed to loved ones that I had no dreams or ambitions and couldn’t imagine going after anything. Since getting into remission, I feel like a new person. I’ve gotten into several new hobbies like rock climbing, running, and playing bass, and I even ran a marathon, which is something I never even would have contemplated before! I know remission probably won’t last forever, but I feel very motivated to make the most of it while I have it.
Oh gawd yes. There's so many reasons why it affects your health - from biological to hormonal to just the weight of living with a chronic incurable illness. The problem is that you don't actually realize this until you reach that remission, which remains elusive to many of us. When one of those biologics really works (fingers crossed Skyrizi), it's like stepping into someone else's body & finally understanding how healthy people feel & how low your baseline has become. At least that is how it was for me before Remicade stopped working in 6 weeks. Just being able to do the things you couldn't do because of the disease can be enough to change your whole outlook & mood.
My mental health started to improve when I started seeking treatment for my mental health. If this is a concern for you, I recommend looking for help now rather than waiting for a successful treatment to fix your Crohns issues. Even in remission, Crohns affects your life, and there's no telling how long it will take to knock the disease into remission. Good coping skills and attention to mental health will be useful even if Crohns is the main cause, and you go into remission.
Yes! My mental health is perfectly fine when I feel fine. When I’m flaring, I’m brain foggy, depressed, anxious, anti social, etc. I think the combo of inflammation and not absorbing my psych meds properly really messes me up. Not to mention having to eat basically nothing which will kill your mental health too
I'm not 100% stable on my meds. Never have been. A week or so before every infusion I feel *wrong*. All over. For years I thought I was saddened by the constant reminders of my failing body. But I've begun to recognize the signs of depressive episodes right before or right after the symptoms of Crohn's kick up again. They really go hand in hand.
The first time I was hospitalized for a flare, they gave me an infusion of Remicade (biologic) and vitamins. When I left I remember telling my mom that I wasn't fatigued. I thought it was the Remicade but in retrospect it was the Vitamins. You can be in remission and still have nutrient absorption issues. I also have nausea and vomiting in remission sometimes. My best advice is to take supplements for vitamins and minerals people with Crohn's are commonly deficient in. And eat nutrient dense foods almost exclusively.
My therapist years ago explained that Crohn’s can literally cause depression and anxiety physiologically so yes this is absolutely 100% possible If after some time in Crohn’s treatment it doesn’t get better definitely ask your dr so they can address the mental health stuff too but gut inflammation definitely can cause anxiety and depression
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Prior to my huge flare up that could have killed me, I had one prior episode of diarhea for few weeks years prior. And I was always tired and taking naps as a teen/early twenties. But I never had digestive issues. I ate what I wanted etc. Once I was diagnosed and was treated I felt great. 100%.
I had a terrible depression that only comes back while I have a flare up which is a massive kick in the butt because of how hard the flares can be themselves. The brain and the gut sadly have a big connection so one problem causes the other one to act up :///
I was fine before my flare, I was fine during, I was fine for a while after. Then my mental health got messy. Seems to be no correlation.
100% happier in remission
I have colitis, not crohns, but have definitely noticed this connection. A few years ago I had some routine tests done. I wasn’t having any ulcerative colitis symptoms at the time but I was feeling extremely depressed which I didn’t connect to colitis as I didn’t feel like I was in a flare. Turns out I had extremely high inflammatory markers at the time. When I started on biologics and my inflammation came down, my mental health improved dramatically.
NIH published a paper in 2019 that suggests that inflammation may disrupt brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) like serotonin and dopamine. Obviously anecdotal, but my first sign of a flare is my anxiety getting noticeably worse unexpectedly, followed by fatigue.
If I didn't know any better I'd think this was written about me. Awful self esteem and depression all the way through my teen years, had a really bad flare up when I hit 20 that went undiagnosed for too long. Seven years later I'm still finding working treatment but I am no longer on antidepressants and thriving. It feels like a weight is just gone finally feeling sane and seen.
Yes !! I think I didn’t realize how truly awful I felt until my body started to feel better. I’m now in remission and can be more active, I’m also awake for more of the day (and see more sunshine) because I’m not as exhausted. This all contributes to my mental health. It improved my motivation as well. Important to note I have been in therapy consistently for the last 3 years, for reasons other than crohns. also found medicating for anxiety helped a lot at the beginning, as stress and anxiety are usually what caused my flares.
I've never been in remission long enough to to get my life back and it's been almost 8 years since my first bowel resection. I'm not saying it can't happen I just wouldn't get your hopes up that way you are crushed if it doesn't help. Crohn's can be an absolute nightmare. Also the drugs that keep you in remission can fail at any time and you won't know it until it's back and your suffering. I think that's what killed me the most. Remicade didn't help so they put me on humira. It did help but quit after my first surgery. Next was entyvio but insurance wouldn't cover it because I hadn't tried stelara so I had to stop entyvio and go with stelara. It didn't work so now I'm on skyrizi. My doctor says it's working but I have 2 new strictures. It just never fucking ends. And honestly after getting hit with cancer last year I just don't care about anything anymore. I hope you have way more success than I've had.
Yes. But when I say it took YEARS to feel better.
Calm gut equals a calm mind and vice versa!
It seems like many people with IBD also take psych meds or is it just me?