Supporting Your Teen Living with Ulcerative Colitis

I wasn't diagnosed with ulcerative colitis until I was in my mid-thirties. All my life, I'd been told that I simply had an 'overactive bowel', which didn't turn out to be the case. Living through my teens without knowing why I was constantly running to the bathroom or bowled over in bed with severe stomach pains was terrible, and I wouldn't wish that fate on any teen living with ulcerative colitis today.

Medical research is sufficiently advanced that any teen should receive the proper diagnosis of any inflammatory bowel disease, such as Chron's or ulcerative colitis. If your teen is living with this condition, you can certainly make his or her life better by knowing about the disease and how it affects his or her life. Although most teens put up a façade of independence and apathy, the pain of this disorder can be devastating without a support structure.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

My father used to tell me that I needed to 'suck it up' whenever I complained of severe abdominal pain or irritation of my anus. This isn't something that any teenage boy or girl wants to admit, and it's not a subject that comes up over polite conversation at the dinner table. However, if you adopt a 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy with your teen, living with ulcerative colitis will be that much harder.

What you have to understand is that a teen isn't going to talk to his or her friends about this disease. There will be no complaints of anal inflammation or constant diarrhea, and parents are these teenagers' only resource. Let your child talk to you about the embarrassment of ulcerative colitis, and don't wrinkle your nose or show signs of distaste when the subject comes up. If it bothers you just to hear about it, how do you think it feels to live with it?

Pain is Relative