This was most certainly true in my case.

I have wanted to do a poll on this. The old thinking (1970's-1980's) was that "stress" might be a cause of IBD. It has been all but discounted as a / the cause, but most of us would agree like this article states that it is a trigger.

When I was diagnosed at 12 years old, my Mom took me to the best of the best GI in St. Louis for children. I think I met him once since Children's Hospital there was affiliated with St. Louis and Washington Universities. I saw his staff instead. As such, I recall being asked LOTS of questions about life, activities, and stress. I did not reveal some of the home struggles, however, and I wondered later how many of us kids that didn't share our family's dirty laundry skewed studies like theirs

I think I will post a poll about this.

Steve

I did not develop UC until my mid 40s. Therefore, it was not my childhood family stress, but my relationship with my husband who was on meth and being a Landlord that caused insurmountable stress for me. Our ugly divorce threw me over the edge during my last flare. I am not saying stress "causes" auto immune diseases, but it certainly exacerbates the flare.

It certainly does aggravate it!
I cannot attribute family stife to the origin of my problems but it definitely made things much worse.
I met a lot of young people at the time, in group therapy at the Sick kids hosptial in Toronto, that were suffering from various mainifestations of IBD...we were a small group with 2 therapists and about a dzn teens...none of us were "enjoying our teens to the fullest" but suffering from both family conflicts & IBD.
My only question is if it was the IBD that caused the family conflicts or the other way around????
In my case I think that it was the disease that distroyed my family.
sharon

I did not receive my UC diagnosis until I was 40 but had it for years before then. I told myself it was colitis, like IBS. I didn't have it as a child but was abused by my mother as a child until I was able to move in with my father at age 13. In the 60-70's the mother always got the child until the child was old enough to tell a judge where they wanted to live.

Fast forward, I was receiving massages every other week for my fibromyalgia and I had the most horrible UC accident ever coming home after visiting my mother. My massage therapist told me she noticed that I always had a flair every time I saw my mother and she was right. Still as an adult she bothered me so she through me into flares!

I believe the abusive parent(s) or the abusive childhood household can induce flair ups in those suffering from UC but I still don't think that stress causes the disease.