PAC Moment: IBD & Mental Health

PAC member, Andi, once wrote: “I have learned that mental health is just as important as physical health.” Talking openly about the impacts IBD can have on mental health is important to shed light on how intertwined the two really are. Here’s Quint’s experience:

IBD has a couple ways that it affects me! I would say the most drastic way is that the medications I take (or sometimes miss) have a rather large impact on how I feel daily. For instance, during this pandemic, I have begun to notice that if I forget to take my iron, I start to get brain fog. When this begins to happen, I start to have a hard time focusing or sleeping and therefore my mental health starts to decline as my major things I have to do on a daily basis are unable to get done in a timely fashion.

These parts of my daily life and consistently staying on top of my mental health are influenced by often small, but disruptive problems that we, as patients, have to be especially cognizant of! As patients of invisible illness, it’s difficult as we have invisible burdens to worry about, which can lead to us having a hard time managing mental health sometimes!

Quint

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PAC Moments is a series of short stories originally shared by members of the Patient Advisory Council on their social media channels. They are being re-shared on LOOP as a way to reach more people and raise more awareness of IBD. We hope you'll share these with others and ask them to take a moment to read + learn more about #LifeWithIBD 💚💙

Fionna and Vanessa are co-leads of the PAC Communications taskforce. In this role, they help PAC members share their IBD stories and experiences on social media, #InTheLOOP and across the IBD Community - to raise awareness, build community and help others with IBD know they are not alone. You can connect with Fionna, Vanessa and the PAC on social media @ICNPatients or by visiting improvecarenow.org/patients and completing the contact form.