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Anxiety and My Prolapse
Anxiety and worsening my prolapse for me is a vicious cycle. Understandably, having been diagnosed with prolapse can have a large emotional impact on the individual whatever age you are. For me, it personally exacerbated my anxiety and increased my stress levels. Consequently, as a coping mechanism for my anxiety, I tend to hold my breath and also exercise an excessive amount. By excessive amount I mean go to the gym twice a day which is sometimes even also accompanied by a run in the evening. Both holding your breath and partaking in high impact sports can make your prolapse worse. Breath-holding changes the abdominal pressure which puts excessive pressure on the pelvic floor and in high impact sports you land forcefully on the floor especially when running on hard surfaces which increases downward pressure on the pelvic floor consequently weakening it. So basically, having prolapse makes me anxious and to cope with my anxiety I hold my breath and also gym an excessive amount. These coping mechanisms are neither healthy nor beneficial to improving my condition. For that reason, I’ve had to come up with things that reduce my anxiety and stress but do not worsen my prolapse at the same time.
Breathing Exercises
Now I am going to be completely honest with all of you reading, at the start, I didn’t particularly love breathing exercises as I found them quite boring and believed that I could be doing something way more productive with my time. Having said that, breathing exercises have been scientifically proven to lower stress in your body as deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to your brain which promotes a state of calmness. One thing that has helped me get into breathing exercises is doing them before bed, whilst playing a nice calm and relaxing playlist on Spotify (I tend to just type in Before Bed playlist on Spotify). Additionally, I have a setting on my Fitbit called ‘Relax’ which has assisted breathing exercises for varying amounts of times. When I first started doing these breathing exercises, I tended to do them only for 3 minutes, however, as I began to do them more frequently, I can now do them 5 minutes a day without losing concentration. On my anxiety course, I was taught to breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds. Now when you initially start doing breathing exercises the 4-7-8 can be quite hard so if you prefer you can start off on 2-3-4 or something along those lines. Some apps that can help with these breathing techniques are Breath, Prana Breath: Calm and Mediate and most Fitbits have the Relax setting I talked about.
Yoga
My mum loves both yoga and meditation and has often claimed that yoga would be highly beneficial to me as someone who finds it hard to relax and unwind. The first time I tried yoga I went with a few of my friends which on reflection was probably not the best idea as I spent half the class in stitches watching my friends trying to bend and twist into different positions. The second time I went by myself which I found to be much more beneficial as it was much easier to concentrate and engage in the class as I wasn’t easily distracted. One thing I didn’t realise about yoga is that there are so many different types which encompass various styles and techniques. Therefore, it is important to determine what type of yoga you are interested in and whether you want a class that is more physically demanding or one that is orientated around relaxing and meditation. Qi gong is a great form of yoga that helps with breathing and pelvic movements. Yoga also increases pelvic and abdominal stability which can help alleviate symptoms for individuals with prolapse and for me it has also greatly increased my flexibility. Yet, it is important to take into consideration that some yoga poses involve intense core abdominal strength such as double leg lift which can increase downward pressure on the pelvic floor. However, these poses can be easily modified. For that reason, it is important to monitor your symptoms of prolapse on each yoga session and avoid which yoga poses worsen your prolapse.
Take an Anxiety Course
In London, every borough has an ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapy’ (IAPT) service which offers free, confidential talking therapy for individuals who have symptoms of anxiety or depression. Here is the to the webpage where you can find local NHS IAPT services local to you: https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/other-services/Psychologicaltherapies(IAPT)/LocationSearch/10008. I recently started psychological group therapy through IAPT that is via zoom, aimed at helping people to learn and develop coping strategies using cognitive behavioural techniques and other methods. This course has been extremely useful in helping me deal with my anxiety but has also given me an outlet to express and vent all my anxious thoughts to individuals I know are feeling a similar way without being judged or feeling bad for talking about myself.
Get A Diary
One thing that helped me deal with my stress and anxiety was getting a diary. Before that, I just kept everything in my head without writing things down which often resulted in me forgetting my commitments and things to-do list. Getting a diary can also help you prepare for the week ahead as you know what you got on so you can make time for yourself or for the yoga class you have been dying to try.
Above I have listed some of the things that help me to reduce my level of anxiety and stress, having said this, different things work for different people. Some people find listening to music, reading, drawing, hanging out with friends etc. reduce their anxiety so its best to try out what you prefer. Also, it is important to remember that you are not alone!! Don’t be so hard on yourself, you got this! And if today isn’t your day then there is always another one tomorrow.