What Stress Does to AiArthritis Disease and How I Deal With It

Patient Perspective

Stress often leaves me irritable, angry, impatient, overwhelmed, and anxious. I become uninterested in life, lose the ability to concentrate because my thoughts are racing in a million directions, have difficulty making decisions, my memory worsens, I find it hard to enjoy life and feel insecure. Stress causes me to eat too much or too little, clench my jaw, become restless, and not exercise as much as I need to. I often withdraw from friends, family, or any other engagements.



Stress is a constant presence in my life and if I don’t do something about it, it can consume me, leaving me trapped and paralyzed with intrusive thoughts. What’s even worse, stress can cause a lot of uncomfortable symptoms and make my arthritis worse.

What Stress with Chronic Pain Feels Like

Stress is a vicious cycle for our bodies, especially when living with a disease that causes widespread chronic pain. The fact that stress causes more pain is stressful itself.

Stress has the ability to impact our nervous system. When our nervous system is impacted by stress, it causes us to feel tense, which can lead to painful muscle spasms. This aggravates joints and causes higher fatigue. Let's not forget that stress also increases anxiety and depression, which worsen the perception of pain.

When I am stressed, I feel my breath quicken, my heart rate increase, and my muscles tense up. I can feel myself getting warm and my body stiffens. This can increase tension in our muscles and amplify our arthritis pain. If a stressful event happens one day, I will have a massive spike in fatigue within hours and it can impact my ability to function for a few days. I’m left groggy and fatigued. Stress can stop me in my tracks and leave me feeling paralyzed by it.

Stress has caused me many symptoms including hair loss, cold sores, cystic acne, muscle weakness and tension, headaches, increased pain, insomnia, and crushing depression or anxiety that consumes me. Stress even causes me to gain weight suddenly, either by a chemical imbalance or because stress often makes me crave unhealthy foods or coping mechanisms like cannabis, alcohol, or excessive shopping. A huge part of my financial stress as someone getting by on disability means I often can’t afford the healthiest groceries to combat my illness, which is not good for my overall well-being either.



Not just that, but stress also affects you on a mental level, making you less resilient and able to deal with the symptoms of your disease. The longer the stress, the worse the inflammation and impact on your immune system. I don’t need a doctor to tell me this, I’ve felt the physical response to stress and it can be debilitating with autoimmune and autoinflammatory arthritis.

This is because stress works on a physical level by increasing levels of the hormone cortisol in your body, which triggers the immune system hyperactivity that is the hallmark of inflammatory types of arthritis while also reducing your immune system’s ability to fight off harmful germs. After prolonged stress, I can find myself sick and have a difficult time recovering.

So yes, stress makes our arthritis worse. It makes everything worse. Stress sucks.

How I Deal With Stress

Ask for Help: I can’t control everything, however, I can control how I respond to things, to some degree. Being proactive, realistic, and productive helps me eliminate some stress. I definitely can’t completely get rid of stress, at least not until I win the lottery and they find a cure for this disease. Asking for help from people I know who are supportive and trustworthy is crucial. My support network is essential.

Say No: Learning to say no when I need to was a lesson for me. I am a people pleaser, I want to make everyone happy, but doing so can cause me a lot of stress. If I know it will overwhelm me, put me into a flare, or throw me off my self-care management, I may need to say no. It is okay to be highly protective of your time and energy.

Pace Yourself: Chronic illness is bumpy and I move at an arthritic speed. I make an attempt to remind myself that I am living with a debilitating illness and not to feel guilty about that if I need to ask for an extension or cannot be present at the moment because life is getting too overwhelming. I will tell my editors, researchers, clinicians, media companies, or whoever I am collaborating with when I need more time and that I may need reminders.

Stay Organized: I make a point to stay as organized as I can possibly be. I write everything down: my thoughts, my concerns, my to-do lists, and so on. This helps me remember them easier and create an action plan when needed.



Plan Ahead: After several years of living with these diseases and knowing how stress can impact me, I try my best to plan ahead to avoid any surprises. Not always possible, but certainly helpful.

Have a Good Cry and Swear: Sometimes things just get to be too much and you need to cry and swear your frustrations out. I am a big fan of swearing, and research has proven it does relieve stress. Again, stress sucks.

Let Go of Guilt: I remind myself that what I go through is not my fault. I do my best to try to remove as many emotions of guilt that come with living with a chronic illness. They do me no good. I’m not always successful at this, but I do make a point to try to rationalize my negative emotions.

Keep Moving and Take Time to Breathe: Even though stress paralyzes me in my tracks, I need to make sure to keep moving as it does help alleviate pain and how I handle stress. This is because our body releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins when we regularly exercise.

I don’t just exercise one way, I will hike, swim, use my treadmill, the elliptical at the gym, strength train, or do gardening. When stressed, I try to do the exercises I enjoy the most.

Yoga is a great movement when stressed because it also incorporates deep breathing. When I feel overwhelmed with stress, I make a point to sit quietly for a few minutes and focus on breathing deeply as this does help put my body into a calmer state, even if just mildly, it helps.

Eat Healthy: I do the best with what I have, of course, inflation is making this more and more difficult as prices increase. Avoiding sugar and processed foods when stressed can make a difference.

Get Out into Nature: Did you know that stress can be partially relieved when exposed to nature? Nature has the ability to reduce our stress, which is measured by muscle tension, blood pressure, and brain activity. This happens because nature spaces work by reducing that pesky inflammation-promoting hormone cortisol and instead boost endorphins and dopamine production.

Cuddle a Pet: I have four cats for this. The squishy chonks really hit the spot when I cuddle them.

See a Therapist and Your Doctor: If stress is consuming you, there is no shame in reaching out for help from a professional. You may benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which aims to help you reframe the issues that are causing your worry and can help guide you to deal with them in a more positive light.

National Stress Awareness Month

April is recognized as National Stress Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about the negative impact of stress and promoting effective stress management strategies. Since 1992, this month has been an opportunity for open conversations about the causes and cures for our modern-day stress epidemic. Stress Awareness Month encourages individuals to recognize the difference between good and bad stress and to find healthy ways to manage it.

During this month, various organizations and healthcare professionals provide resources and support to help people cope with stress. Activities such as meditation, exercise, and spending time in nature are promoted as effective ways to reduce stress levels. By becoming more aware of stress and learning to apply coping mechanisms, individuals can improve their overall well-being and lead healthier, more balanced lives

Check out AiArthritis RANT (Rheumatology Action Network Teams), a platform where patients can raise their voices and advocate for change in the autoimmune and autoinflammatory arthritis community. Join the movement and turn passionate ideas into impactful action!