hello I am new!

rachie1986

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to say hello as I am a fairly new member who has had arthritis since November 2011.

I am 26 years old and I live in Oxfordshire,

I do find I struggle with many of my day to day tasks but I am lucky I have a very supportive partner and family.

I feel frustrated I would say 100% of the time and I think this is mainly due to the fact that I am highly stressed at work. I only started my Job in may after making the move from London to Oxford. Since then Ive had a few bouts of sickness and just more recently an inner ear infection.

Do you feel your arthritis and general health is effected by stress?

I feel a bit lost and don't want to always burden my partner with how I am feeling.

Thank you
Rachael :?

hileena111

Hi Rachael
Welcome to the forum
We aren't doctors but I would say stress makes the arthritis pain much worse.
Not sure that it has anything to do with my general health
Hang about and I'm sure someone will come along with another answer

Love
Hileena

snowdrop123

Hi there,

I don't know whether my OA is the reason why my general health has been so poor for the last couple of years. At times it has felt like everything that can go wrong has from sinus infections to problems with my stomach and a whole long list of other things. The stress of trying to cope with constant pain from OA in my hands and back hasn't been easy to talk about to my friends and family and like you I haven't wanted to burden them with my problems all the time. The GP referred me to a counsellor which has been a great help and has allowed me to have a good moan to someone who isn't a friend. I wish I had gone to see one sooner than I did so if you are feeling very low and need someone to talk to then perhaps it would be worth thinking about seeing a counsellor or speaking to someone at the arthritis care helpline.

Good luck and very best wishes
Snowdrop 123

dreamdaisy

Hello, it's nice to meet you and I hope we can help with information and support. It is generally recognised on here that stress can exacerbate matters arthritic, as can the weather, being tired, feeling down etc etc etc. I am very lucky (not) in that I have a an arthritic foot in both arthritis camps, my auto-immune one revolted over the summer thanks to the heat and humidity and now my OA is back to the fore thanks to the drop in temperature and general dampness. Life is great. :roll:

As for my general health, well, I have no idea what good health feels like but I suspect it must be pleasant. In terms of the daily effort required to live then I am used to wading through soup on a good day, custard on a more diffcult day and then nearly-set concrete on a rubbish day. I am seventeen years in and have recently given up work thanks to a very stressful past ten months - something had to give and I thought it was better to be work rather than me.

I don't moan too much about stuff- what is the point? It's a dull topic for those around me - and me too. This is my trouble, no-one else can make a difference so I have to get on as best I can and that is what I try to do. I wish you well. DD

stickywicket

Hello Racheal and welcome from me too.

Stress definitely makes arthritis worse. My early bad flares coincided with O-levels, A-levels and finals. Nuff said? However, minimising stress can be very diffi. It sounds as if your stress is made worse by the infections. Is yours an auto-immune form of arthritis? If so, are you taking DMARDS or anri-tnfs? They can make us more susceptible to infections and also make it harder for us to throw them off.

I, too, dislikee burdening my husband and family with my arthritis problems but there is a fine line between that and shutting them out. I think feelings should be shared with partners otherwise they become a barrier between us. It's not easy.

bubbadog

Hi Racheal, Welcome to Arthritis Care Forum, as some of the others have said stress doesn't help with Arthritis, we all understand how you feel about not worrying your partner but sometimes it helps to share how your feeling, it will be hard for your partner as well, he will feel he can't help to take away your pain. As for general health we aren't doctors so we can't really answer that question we can only share our own experiences. Hope you enjoy Arthritis Care Forum and find it helpful as well as enjoyable.

barbara12

Hello Rachael
And a warm welcome from me...
I am always sad when I hear of young people with arthritis..and count myself lucky that I had so many years without it..
But things are moving on all the time and hopefully in the near future they will be able to help you ,
I do find that stress effects my arthritis, I hope you can get the proper help, I say this because some dont...have you ask about about getting help at work.. :?:
You look after yourself and I hope you stay with us.. xx

Airwave!

I try hard not to 'do' stress these days, tiredness/stiffness/pain caused by arther causes more pain and that is stressful.

sailrib

Hello, welcome.

I live in Oxfordshire and I'm 26 years old.

Hope you find this forum a good place for advice.

I do feel my arthritis is worsen when I am stressed but that maybe because I find when I'm stressed I don't sleep which then makes my arthritis worse.

Good Luck

hileena111

Hi
Its a vicious circle...stress makes the pain worse......pain makes you more stressed......pain and stress you don't sleep very well and it starts over again Its trying to break that circle somewhere
Easier said than done

Love
Hileena

frogmorton

Hi Rachael

Lovely to meet you and welcome you to our forums

In answer to your questions I do think proper stress does make things worse for me

I agree 'burdening' the family/loved ones isn't the best thing in the world - that's where the forums come into their own.

Share some of the rubbish with us lot. It won't upset us and we know where you are coming from.

Love and ((()))

Toni xxx

Kittkat

Hello Rachel and welcome
My arthritis never changes no matter what but stress doesn't help.
x

lily

Hi Racheal

Welcome

I for one feel that stress does not help our condition, its a vicious circle that I for one is still trying to control

Talking to someone outwith the family maybe helpful for you as it seems to help a few of us on here,

Meds can take a while to find the right ones to help so take them one step at a time,

Take care
Lily x

[Deleted User]

Good afternoon Rachel!
I can relate to what most of the others already wrote. Stress (negative stress, of course) apparently weakens your immune system. That's what my docs tell me. Will say- your system can't deal with inflammations as in a stress-free phase. That's how I understood it. And that's how I experience it. But how to become 100% Zen? I try hard, alas....

Toots

Hi Rachael x

This is a really friendly forum and you're in the right place for off-loading! Hope the stress settles down a bit soon and you start to feel better for it x