# IBS- Stealing My Youth Since 16



## Jimbob94 (Dec 27, 2011)

I'm not too sure where to begin really, but if you take the time to read through/respond to this then I thoroughly appreciate it. All I'm really after is someone in a similar position to give me some advice.

The main reason I'm writing this is because I'm just completely fed up of this illness controlling my life to such an extent, despite having come a fairly long way in the past couple of years. Between the ages of 16-18 it hit me pretty hard, as you'd imagine, to develop this condition (within months of developing an overactive bladder- which I still have, and makes you very self conscious as a 16 year old in a new environment), and I suffered with fairly bad anxiety which caused me to miss a lot of college and have no social life whatsoever. What should have been some of the most exciting years of my life, going out and meeting new friends and girls, was for the most part wasted in my room by myself, because of the daily struggle and embarrassment of IBS. This hasn't exactly changed a great deal but I am able to go out the majority of times I want to now.

I'm currently 20 years old and have recently started at university, although 2 years behind my peers because of said (post-infective) IBS-D I developed when I'd just started college. *Something that I have never quite understood is how the food poisoning that led to this was probably not the worst I'd even had, but from that point I've never been the same, developing intolerences to food etc. 
But anyway, back to uni... Morning starts are obviously not a good thing when you're urgently needing a bm at least 3+ times a morning- even when taking immodium. I have 4 of these morning starts every week therefore this is beginning to stress me out as I can feel the anxiety resulting from not wanting to get up during lectures and go to the toilet a lot, versus the not wanting to pull a 'Will from The Inbetweeners (exam episode)'. It does make me quite depressed and alienated when I see the fun that other people my age can have so freely e.g. drinking, and socialising- which I can now finally take part in to an extent (thanks to CBT and pushing myself of my comfort zone)- however for me I am always thinking of the consequences things will have on my stomach so it's hard to not feel frustratingly restricted by it all. Back when I was at school, I was an extremely popular, sporty and happy person before any of my health issues, so it's hard to describe how it feels sometimes being in this position.

I have tried many things up until this point, including: homeopathic remedies/reflexology; hypnotherapy; 'Body Talk' (an expensive waste of time), various probiotics/supplements, herbal teas, codeine phosphate (stopped D, but not good long term), amitriptyline (just made me even more tired). We're talking probably £2000 worth of treatment, which for the most part hasn't worked that well. I have been seeing a very qualified nutritionalist (whom I know has actually cured people of IBS) for almost two years now, and my condition has improved probably 20%, through the use of stool tests, good diet and tailored supplement regimes. The most recent test found that, confusingly, everything is fairly healthy besides blastocytis hominis (parasite). I'm currently taking ADP oregano oil, Paramicrocidin, and colon cleanze tablets so I will see how they go.

For the meantime I have been reluctantly contemplating speaking to my doctor about anti-depressants because i know that they can have a calming affect on the gut, and also I quite often find myself in low, anti-social moods and wondering what the point is in actually trying to do anything. This is my main question really: as in whether people feel this would be a good decision or not? And if there are any antidepressants work well with IBS without a lot of side-effects? I already try and deal with excessive tiredness so I'm not sure if they would be the best option but I don't know too much about them at the moment.

If you made it this far, thank you very much for your time and I hope to hear any advice you may have!

Best Wishes,
James


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## arigold (Dec 29, 2014)

Hi James,

I saw your post and wanted to reply just so you know there's one person out there in exactly the same boat! I can empathise with pretty much everything you said, even considering anti-depressants. I have my IBS under control mostly with diet (no dairy or gluten). Nothing else has worked for me (probiotics, enzymes etc.) so not desperate to experiment with prescription drugs.

But please don't make the same mistake as me and waste your time at uni. As an IBS sufferer you will have to try harder than others to create a 'normal' social life. I guess I didn't realise this at the time and spent most of my time at uni still experimenting with what helped my IBS and trying just to get through the day without having an embarrassing Inbetweeners-like moment. But trust me it gets even harder to make friends once you've left uni.

And please let me know if you tried anti-depressants and if they made any difference?


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## zeroblue (Aug 7, 2013)

Yep, exactly in the same situation as you... I'm also 20, M, with IBS-PI. I'm also behind in university, and I don't even go to classes anymore :/ (I'm still registered but i only write the exams)

I've also spent a lot of money trying to find things that work, the only thing that worked really well for me was the FODMAP diet.

In terms of anti-depressants, I think you might benefit a little bit from a low dose try-cyclic. You can use their side-effects to your advantage: For instance, some of them cause a little bit of digestive system "slow-down" (it might help with D). It also helps with pains and may actually help treat the moderate depression you are experiencing. I would certainly recommend discussing your options with your doctor (provided your doctor isn't an imbecile, at which point you should find another doctor or talk to your pharmacist).

I don't really have much more advice... I am pretty lost as well, if fact i'm usually the one who is asking for advice haha


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## Jesse1234 (Jan 4, 2009)

I'm so over it like you guys. Sometimes you just want to give up. I'm 25yo male and have been dealing with this since I was 17. The only thing I have found that relieves it is the low-FODMAP diet - trying to maintain it with the amount of elimination is a struggle in itself. Especially when people your age socialise by going out to dinner, going out for drinks... Oh sorry I can't do that as I have to stick to this diet. Ibs = social disaster FODMAP diet = social disaster. Cool. May as well just stay at home in my room and suffer in silence, oh wait I do!

A bit over it tonight! I too am going to try the tricyclic antidepressants. Hopefully they shut my mind off for a while so I can catch a break.

Good luck guys, sorry I'm not more positive! I used to be!


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## vanessa6801 (Apr 12, 2014)

Hi James,
I know this was posted a while ago but I wanted to out in my 2 cents. 
I have also suffered from IBS from when I was 16, and now I am 18. 
Last year, I decided to go on zoloft due to the high levels of anxiety I was experiencing during my university entry exams. (I had also been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder for a few years).
I did a lot of googling and reading on the effects of SSRIs (a class of antidepressant) on IBS. One of the things that I noted was that different antidepressants tend to have different effects on the bowel, eg zoloft tends to cause diarrhea or make it worse whereas paroxetine tends to have a constipating effect. Ive read a lot of success stories on effexor (an SNRI) for IBS-D. 
I have IBS-D, and Zoloft did not bring about any changes to my bowel habits, but I have consistently been on a low dose. 
Like you, I also suffer from fatigue and I found that zoloft helped with that. 
I dont know whether you have made a decision yet but I would definitely encourage you to give antidepressants a try.
By the way,there is a mental health section on this forum where there are some posts on antidepressants for ibs.


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## Jimbob94 (Dec 27, 2011)

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on this post. I'm truly empathetic and sympathetic to your struggle with this, but it's comforting for me to know that I'm not alone, as I don't actually know anyone besides my Dad who has this illness (at least on such a continuous and inconvenient scale). I've never met anyone around my age who has to suffer with this. Even since I've had it I'm probably the only person I've seen who has to rush out of class, so I appreciate your support. I hope that everybody manages to find a way around this as soon as possible, because I'm a firm believer that IBS can be cured/well controlled with the right treatment.

arigold- I'm pleased that a no dairy/gluten diet helps you control your symptoms- I too avoid them because they make me feel a lot more unwell. Thank you so much for your advice regarding university. I'm trying to stop the attitude of 'I'll do it when I'm better' because I spent my time from 16-19 doing that and I highly regret it, but it's frustrating because there are some things I simply cannot do because of it. I did tell my doctor that I think i might be depressed but he said he wants me to try and control my symptoms before putting me on those kind of tablets, so I may try his recommendation of co-phenotrope before anything else.

zeroblue- I'm sorry to hear that this is affecting your university life too. I can relate, despite being able to make more classes than not, thankfully, but I do find lecture theatres quite anxiety provoking if I'm unwell because my stomach rumbles a lot and I hate feeling like I can't leave a room (for either physical or social reasons). I did try a low dose of amitriptyline for about a year but that did nothing for me but make me more tired (that as well as codeine just made me oversleep all the time) but I appreciate your recommendation, i may look into the effects of some of the other ones. Best of luck to you with your studies and finding something that works!

Jesse1234- I completely hear you, it's tough finding places to eat out. It's the worst having to carefully plan everything like that e.g. how you're going to feel the next day because you ate something slightly interesting. But I encourage you not to lose hope, honestly there will be something that works for you if you carry on going, be that supplements, diet or treatments.

vaness6801- Thank you for your post. I'm sorry to hear that you are dealing with this so young as well. That is interesting to note about the medication, I will certainly do my research into those tablets. Also, may I add that for me my anxiety become far less consuming after a course of CBT, so I just want to recommend this on the off chance that you've not been told about it.

Best wishes to all of you, 
James


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