Coping with Chronic Illness: Tips for Managing Mental Health

also even just having someone to talk to who understands is SO important. i have a friend in my personal life who has lupus, not UC, but we are soooooo close now bc of it. if you want to talk just dm me!

i saw u were on prednisone, not sure if you still are but my mental health was WRECKED when i was on prednisone but it’s so much better now. also, depression and inflammation are shown to have a strong association and having a strong microbiome is important too. i see a psychiatrist who works in the GI department specifically and that was a total game changer since she can take everything into account, not just the mental health

Depression hits really hard at this!! It’s hard I do nothing but sleep!! That’s when I feel the best!!

For me, it was a matter of it taking time to accept having this diagnosis and that it will be with me for life. It's still hard to accept sometimes, and that's OK. Try to be gentle with yourself for feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, or frustrated. A chronic illness is a big thing to cope with and it's normal to have a lot of feelings about it, especially when it's more newly diagnosed or when things are progressing.

Sounds like we have similar issues. Did you have depression before UC? I did, but it was manageable now it is exhausting.