It's quite frightening to receive a diagnosis of something we have possibly never heard of or are unfamiliar with. It's also frightening to have medical tests, privacy invasions, hospital stays and visits and many other medical procedures. Often, fear is reduced with education of the illness. This education will come with questions directed to the attending physician and by the events that occur in daily living with the disease. An excellent education resource is a support group in the area.
Support groups consist of others who have the same illness.
These participants can enlighten both the caregiver and the person with IBD on the daily happenings, expectations and psychosocial elements of the illness. Fear brings on arousal which can misdirect our focus during these times of arousal. For example, especially in the early stages of diagnosis, we may not completely hear the instructions of our physician because of our arousal due to fear. Instead, we hear bits and pieces which may prevent us from complying properly with the instruction. Our attention may be selective rather than focused on the totality of what the physician says.