# Has anyone's ibs improved after CBT?



## hope*

I've had three sessions so far, so i know it's to early to tell, i would love to hear from anyone, who has tried CBT.Thanks xx


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## Kathleen M.

Me!I did it as part of a clinical trial for CBT for IBS. About 70% of the people with the proticol they used got better.I did it for 3 months and didn't see much improvement at first, but about 1/2 way through I had a breakthrough in therapy and my pain went down a lot that week and stayed lower.Over time I was able to get off all medications for my IBS and rarely have symptoms. K.


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## hope*

Thankyou Kathleen so much, i feel so much better just knowing its helped you and other people.Thanks again


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## 19282

Hi Hope - Me, too! I went through a few months of CBT back in 2003 and the results were dramatic. I can't say the therapy "cured" me because I still have the occasional bad day when coping with my symptoms is a real challenge, but I can honestly tell you that it's given me 95% of my life back - which I consider a HUGE victory. Kathleen brings up a great point: your improvement can come at any point during the therapy. And because your coping skills get better with practice, you can often continue to make progress even after all your sessions have ended, too. Best of luck with the rest of your therapy and let us know how it goes, OK?Tim


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## hope*

Hi T.PWOW 95% of your life back, that is wonderful, i pray for the same, thankyou so much.I will keep you all informed


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## masterplan

Apparently this may be the next treatment for me. Can anyone enlighten me as to what exactly it is?


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## cookies4marilyn

Read this link which defines CBT and provides some links as well - scroll down a bit as both clinical hypnotherapy and CBT are discussed -Hope that helps - Kathleen is our expert on CBT!http://ibsgroup.org/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f...0261/m/70310974


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## 23150

Hope,since you're in the uk too, can you tell me if your therapy is under the NHS? Because it's quite expensive so I was hoping my GP to refer me...







Thanks!Claire.


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## hope*

Hi Clair,sorry this is a late reply to your post, i was offered counselling on the NHS but it is very basic, thats why i decided to pay private and see a CBT counsellor, it costs me Â£40.00 per session, and i am doing really good, worth the money.


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## 16229

I agree, of all things cbt and just about every other kind of therapy has been the best help. I'm still in pain mostly daily, but the ways I've been able to deal with it have drastically improved.Just remember, give it a little time, and find a therapist you like and get along with. It takes time to reprogram the way you think, especially in situations where you're body is running off of instinct.


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## MyOwnSavior

Seems like other people have had much more success than I've experienced (luckily).Essentially the theory is that, my therapist tells me, I'm always worrying about things, which in turn trigger "gut reactions", which bring on the IBS symptoms. So I've been keeping a stress log and it seems that I'm having trouble writing down instances in which I've been really nervous about something. In fact over the past week and a half I only wrote down one "event" that I made up -- I'm done with finals, I "work" at a library where I basically lounge around all day, then I go home and essentially eat dinner and watch TV for the rest of the night. Not exactly stress or anxiety inducing. Yet, my IBS pain was barely present during finals, when I was going crazy with anxiety, and shortly after finals were over my pain started up with great intensity again.The CBT just prescribes these breathing exercises to help me relax, but they don't seem to do much; and, in fact, they just make me more aware of the sensations going on within me, due to the fact that I'm sitting there trying to focus on phrases (basically a kind of mantra -- "one, in" and "relax, out"), which is of course are hard to concentrate on when you're in pain. I think I've had about 5 sessions now and I see no improvement at all; as I said the symptoms were better and now they've recently gotten worse again. It just seems to be cyclical with me; it doesn't matter whether I'm worried, relaxed, or whatever.Still, this is just my experience, clearly others have had some success it seems, so I suppose it's worth at least trying. Just don't go in expecting miracles.


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## eric

> quote:Yet, my IBS pain was barely present during finals, when I was going crazy with anxiety, and shortly after finals were over my pain started up with great intensity again.


This is a delayed reaction to stress. It doesn't get you until you wind down and the stress hormones subside.Also its partly about stress and about axiexty and even emtions themselves.Its also about the fight or flight responce. This can happen faster then we can conciously think about it. You might want to read thisReaders' ExchangeDefining Stress in IBSFall 2003From Arizona -- Thank you so much for your efforts and support for those of us with GI disorders. Your first issue (Spring 2003) of Digestive Health Matters is both professional and informative. I would like to comment on one of the articles - "The CNS: Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women's Health at UCLA." I am encouraged to know that steps are being taken for funding research of IBS and interstitial cystitis. However, it is discouraging that researchers are still expending time and money to research "neurobiological mechanisms by which stress modulates brain-visceral interaction." I realize that stress is a popular theory in the discussion of IBS triggers, however, I believe this is completely backward and it is the chronic pain and totally unreliable bowel function of an IBS sufferer which causes the greatest stress. If research would focus on "fixing" the bowel, no doubt the panic and fear of IBS would be greatly alleviated. Comment from Emeran A. Mayer, M.D. -- In contrast to the common interpretation of the term "stress" as a psychological phenomenon, it should be understood as any real or perceived perturbation of an organism's homeostasis, or state of harmony or balance. For example, in this viewpoint a severe hemorrhage, starvation, extreme temperature, or worry about the unpredictable onset of abdominal pain all qualify as stressors -- some as "physical" stressors, others as "psychological" stressors. The fear to leave the house in the morning without knowing if one can make it to work without having to stop on the freeway because of an uncontrollable bowel movement, or the fear of experiencing uncontrollable abdominal discomfort during an important business meeting are sufficient stressors to activate the central stress system. The central stress system involves the release of chemical stress mediators in the brain (such as corticotropin releasing factor), which in turn orchestrate an integrated autonomic, behavioral, neuroendocrine, and pain modulatory response. This biological response in turn will alter the way the brain and the viscera interact, and this altered brain-gut interaction can result in worsening of IBS symptoms. Thus, pain and discomfort, fear of these symptoms, activation of the stress response, and modulation of the brain-gut interactions by stress mediators are part of a vicious cycle which need to be interrupted to produce symptom relief. The neurobiology of stress is not a theory, but a topic that can be studied in animal models, and one of the hottest topics in drug development for treatment of IBS (e.g., substance P antagonists, corticotropin releasing factor antagonists). The Neurobiology of Stress and EmotionsBy: Emeran A. Mayer, M.D., UCLA Mind Body Collaborative Research Center, UCLA School of Medicine, California http://www.aboutibs.org/Publications/stress.htmlHowever what are your symptoms?


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## MyOwnSavior

I remember my therapist going over that stuff. I think I understand it on a theoretical level, but I just don't think it makes any sense on a practical level; i.e.) the techniques that he gave me to try to alleviate stress do not eliminate my anxiety about what might go wrong with my bowel; because there isn't a whole lot I can do to control when pain will occur, and so on.My symptoms basically involve pain on the left side of my abdomen. The pain is kind of a low grade thing that is present pretty much all the time, but it does flare up from time to time. I've heard a lot of people say about how eating fatty/greasy foods will activate their IBS. For me, that isn't true at all. My symptoms (mainly pain that always seems to be accompanied by gas) occur most strongly when I _don't_ eat a huge, fatty meal. For example, eating a sandwich with a piece of fruit, pretzels, and water for lunch will not make me feel full, and later on in the day will produce severe pain accompanied by gas. Yet, if I eat a rather large meal of chinese food (even fried stuff like, say, General Tso's chicken), I will feel much better than if I had eaten a relatively smaller, healthier, meal. Also, if I make the slightest change in my daily routine (for example, not eating lunch around 11:30AM or not eating dinner at 5PM) that can also set off my symptoms. For example, I had to take a class from 4:30PM - 7PM on mondays this past semester, and by the end of that I felt like I was going to die. I was also diagnosed with GERD, but symptoms from that I only experience _very_ rarely, and they don't seem to affect anything in relation to the pain I experience because of IBS.


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