Irritble bowel syndrome

[cas]

Does anyone know anything about it, off to see the doc in a bit and am in complete agony 

[Argie]

Not something I would want to discuss in any great detail in open forum hun but yes, I suffered for a while with it. It very often goes hand in hand with stress. There are quite a few treatments & the trick is finding a combination that works for you, whilst you're passing through the time of acute stress. But at least in my case, once you find the right combo of lifestyle changes and medications, the whole thing is pretty controllable.

It resolved completely spontaneously in my case, in parrallel with emergence from a dark period in my life after a bereavment. But it can be very worrying whilst you're suffering - you tend to imagine allsorts wrong with you.

If you want any specific details of treatments I found effective drop us a PM or something - but I do think everyone's very much different in this, you have to hunt around a bit under your doc's guidance to find what works for you..

The real cure is recovery from stress / depression / anxiety etc.

But the drugs do work pretty well as a stopgap (at least they did in my case)

[cas]

cheers neil

just more wondering about diets etc

may not even have it but tummy pains got so bad rang for advise and was told they sounded like symptoms

[Argie]

Don't look for a definitive diagnosis, that way madness lies. If you "think" you've got it after reading around the symptoms & discussing with doc, you probably have - but really it's not so much a physical digestive illness as the action on the gut of a troubled mind. I speak there in relation to my own experiences, not trying to pass judgement on you.. but that does seem to be the way it works.

It is such a variable condition that you can end up chasing your tail thinking, I have got it because; I haven't got it because; no I have got it; no I haven't.. ad infinitum. This is actually part of the condition itself!!

I found an antispasmodic medication to calm the awful wrenching spasms, an anti-acid 'omeprazole', and imodium as and when neccessary were a lifesaver. You might find none of these do diddlysquat for you, or you might also find one or more helpful.

It's just so variable "a mind of it's own"

But if it gives you hope, after something like 2 or 3 years of suffering myself, and having the doctors in a complete flummox, it resolved itself pretty much completely. Basically once I'd fully gotten over the shock of my mother's sudden death.