# IBS-d went away, my stupid self brought it back



## roothead1 (Feb 23, 2014)

Well, when I was 16 in 11th grade, one morning in school I had the urge to poop, and had diarrhea. That was the start to all of this. I guess the anxiety of it might happening again made it happen again. Soon enough, I was late for school almost everyday and had to be excused from class to use the bathroom. I was fine on the weekends, and later on in the day on weekdays. The next year I did cyber school, and was much better, except for literally one day or two. Everything was going fine, no IBS d symptoms, went on roadtrips fine, didn't worry about where bathrooma were or much of anything. I could drink milk and eat chocolate and was fine. Fast forward to after high school, I worked in the afternoons and didn't have much to do in the AM, so I drank coffee, which gave me diarrhea. I didn't care, since I had nowhere to go besides maybe the gym, and the caffeine from the coffee gave me a boost. Anyways, I stopped the coffee and still had the diarrhea... Everyday. Also I became lactose intolerant and chocolate bothers me now too. What did the coffee do to me to permanently mess me up?? Did it kill all the bacteria or what? I was fine and just had to mess it up... I've had diarrhea almost everyday for the past few years, but in the past two weeks it's gotten worse, and I've had to go multiple times a day, more than the usual two or three. Immodium doesn't work anymore either... Looking forward to being a part of this community, and receive some help as well as hopefully give some.


----------



## Afoodjourney (Feb 23, 2014)

Ah dude I don't think the coffee started it, but it does encourage it. I think it's just like.... Age. Like your hormones decide to kill off good bacteria in your intestines or something. Your story is exactly like mine. Like I noticed it some in high school, but my freshman/sophomore year of college it just kinda took over. Really not a great coming of age present. In the immediate future try a low FODMAP diet, it mostly worked for me.... For a while. Definitely cut down on sugar, gluten, ONIONS and beans. But I went to an RD and had some samples taken. I had a common parasite and really low levels of any good tummy guys that normally kick those guys out, plus I have low stomach acid levels which means that I don't entirely digest my food so the bad gut guys have a lot of stuff to ferment. Fermented food=gas+extra water drawn to the gut= diarrhea.
These days I use coffee to keep me regular so that I'm less likely to be taken by surprise so to speak, but most people say stay away from it if you wanna have your body taken care of.


----------



## roothead1 (Feb 23, 2014)

I was thinking it was maybe a parasite or too much bad bacteria. I've been so angry at myself over this. Did the FODMAP diet stop working for you completely? Today I did the BRAT diet just to give my stomach a break. Usually I have d like two times, maybe three a day, but the past week or so it's been like 5 or 6 at least... Don't know why it randomly started. How would I kill the bad bacteria or parasite? Thanks for your time!


----------



## Afoodjourney (Feb 23, 2014)

Don't be angry at yourself, this mysterious illness woulda caught up to you coffee or no. You would have to see a registered dietician (I've found them to be MUCH more educated and helpful than general practitioners, even if some people blow them off) and have some samples professionally tested in a lab to identify what proportions of what bacteria you have, and to see if you have a bug. You can take anti-parasites or antibiotics for some stuff, but that would all be highly variable based on what you and your dietician discover and decide to do. I'm going a naturopathic route first, but there are lots of solutions to this stuff. 
But yes for me the low fodmap worked immediately, particularly because my body is sensitive to gluten, and the bad guy in my gut feeds off the ferment able sugars, so cutting those off starves those guys. But it only worked up to a point, partly because I didn't know I had a parasite, and my good gut colonies were shrinking. Also partly because being a young adult makes it hard to stick to such a limited diet, it's easy to eat chicken and salad for lunch but if you're stuck at a friends house and all they have to eat is top ramen, it sucks and you might break down and buy some shit food. Basically every time I cheated on the diet and bought a candy bar or whatever, I was giving the bad guy in my gut the upper hand, and lowering my own potential defenses by not taking probiotics to build up my good gut guys. That is the current state of my journey. I'm following a strict low fodmap paleo immuno protocol diet now, which is nearly impossible. But the idea is to kick out the bad guy, build up the good guys, then re-introduce foods and build up my tolerance levels for a lot of them. Hopefully at the end of the day I will be able to eat normal again. Well.. Maybe not ramen and taco-bell. But, you know hopefully an apple won't give me gas.
I think you're lucky that it's manifesting as IBS d, those with ibs c don't seem to have the same amount of success with control by diet and relieving stress.


----------

