# frequency in needing toilet unbearable, help!



## emz** (Mar 4, 2011)

I have suffered with ibs for about 2 years now. started off with diarrhoea most days, but was able to control with imodium. Since then i've started working and constantly have the urge for the toilet. not always necessarily diarrhoea, but still the sudden urge to go there's no pattern or known cause as to what is causing it!! tried so many different medicines prescribed by the doctor, buscopan, peppermint, mintec (peppermint capsules) mebeverine, spasmonal (alverine), but still no help. I did fine amitriptyline useful, but then it prevented me from going toilet in the mornings before work, then i would have a sudden urge to go when i get to work...not good! such a mess! any suggestions? please help!


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## crstar (Jun 29, 2009)

since u get these sudden urges & not always D, then u may deficient in some or all minerals...........calcium &magnesium don't work alone...........there r many &u need to take them in proportion............& magnesium should b the same amount as the calcium............magnesium can cause D, but if u stay away from the acid forms & makes sure all ur minerals r chelated.......... cmt.......


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

It might be a case of learning to distract yourself away from thinking about the urge to go. Have you tried that?Sometimes I wait when I feel the urge. I try to keep as calm as possible and sure enough... the urge disappeared many times. Sometimes with IBS our sensations aren't what other people feel. Sometimes we can have visceral hypersensitvity. We feel things that folks without IBS don't feel necessarily.So we may need to train our thoughts away from our guts.You might want to seek some help with this via either Cognitive Behavior Therapy or Hypnotherapy.


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## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

You could have a problem with your pelvic floor muscles - sometimes if they are lax they give us the feeling that we need to go all the time and its incredibly uncomfortable. Its not just pregnant women who have problems with these muscles, if you have had either very bad constipation or diarrhoea sometimes the muscles get weakened over time. Luckily there's a few exercises you can do to strengthen them - just look up Kegel exercises online. This combined with a low fibre diet and Imodium should make your toilet trips much less frequent and urgent. There was actually a man on Embarrassing Bodies last night who had a similar problem and he went for a course of Biofeedback to strengthen the muscles and was advised to take Imodium everyday to stop the diarrhoea and it worked really well. His problem was a little different in that he had a fistula but from the sounds of your symptoms you definitely seem to have a problem with urgency. If after 6-8 weeks you are still having no luck, perhaps ask your doctor about Biofeedback - its quite a specialist service with only a few places in the UK doing it, but you might be lucky and find somewhere near you that does it. As well, with the amitriptyline could you maybe alter the time of day you were taking it. I presume you were told to take it at night because it can make you quite drowsy but maybe taking it a few hours earlier or after dinner might help? Just a suggestion.I might be way off on the whole pelvic floor thing, but might just help a bit whilst working out your diet and how much Imodium you need to take a day to stop being so frequent.


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## emz** (Mar 4, 2011)

em_t said:


> You could have a problem with your pelvic floor muscles - sometimes if they are lax they give us the feeling that we need to go all the time and its incredibly uncomfortable. Its not just pregnant women who have problems with these muscles, if you have had either very bad constipation or diarrhoea sometimes the muscles get weakened over time. Luckily there's a few exercises you can do to strengthen them - just look up Kegel exercises online. This combined with a low fibre diet and Imodium should make your toilet trips much less frequent and urgent. There was actually a man on Embarrassing Bodies last night who had a similar problem and he went for a course of Biofeedback to strengthen the muscles and was advised to take Imodium everyday to stop the diarrhoea and it worked really well. His problem was a little different in that he had a fistula but from the sounds of your symptoms you definitely seem to have a problem with urgency. If after 6-8 weeks you are still having no luck, perhaps ask your doctor about Biofeedback - its quite a specialist service with only a few places in the UK doing it, but you might be lucky and find somewhere near you that does it. As well, with the amitriptyline could you maybe alter the time of day you were taking it. I presume you were told to take it at night because it can make you quite drowsy but maybe taking it a few hours earlier or after dinner might help? Just a suggestion.I might be way off on the whole pelvic floor thing, but might just help a bit whilst working out your diet and how much Imodium you need to take a day to stop being so frequent.


Thanks i'll try that! so the pelvic floor can be a cause of diarrhoea then? Also i tend to take imodium before work etc, but i just get worried that i'm taking too much and eventually may stop working? I will definitely look into Biofeedback, everything is worth a try!


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## emz** (Mar 4, 2011)

crstar said:


> since u get these sudden urges & not always D, then u may deficient in some or all minerals...........calcium &magnesium don't work alone...........there r many &u need to take them in proportion............& magnesium should b the same amount as the calcium............magnesium can cause D, but if u stay away from the acid forms & makes sure all ur minerals r chelated.......... cmt.......


thanks, is there any vitamins you know of or suggest that would contain a balanced amount? so that i'm not taking too much magnesium etc?


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## emz** (Mar 4, 2011)

BQ said:


> It might be a case of learning to distract yourself away from thinking about the urge to go. Have you tried that?Sometimes I wait when I feel the urge. I try to keep as calm as possible and sure enough... the urge disappeared many times. Sometimes with IBS our sensations aren't what other people feel. Sometimes we can have visceral hypersensitvity. We feel things that folks without IBS don't feel necessarily.So we may need to train our thoughts away from our guts.You might want to seek some help with this via either Cognitive Behavior Therapy or Hypnotherapy.


Yeah i have definitely noticed that worrying when i get the urge brings it on even more. If i were at home i could possibly control it sometimes, but when i'm at work or with friends somewhere that isn't convenient to use the toilet i over think about it. Although this isn't the main cause of the problem, it definitely adds to it!


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## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

Hiya Emz,Here's some weblinks you might wanna take a look at:The ones about taking loperamide (Imodium), guidelines for a low fibre diet and biofeedback are probably the most relevant:Factsheets


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## emz** (Mar 4, 2011)

em_t said:


> Hiya Emz,Here's some weblinks you might wanna take a look at:The ones about taking loperamide (Imodium), guidelines for a low fibre diet and biofeedback are probably the most relevant:Factsheets


Thanks for that, will have a read through!  x


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## VickiWin (Mar 4, 2011)

emz** said:


> Thanks for that, will have a read through!  x


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## VickiWin (Mar 4, 2011)

emz** said:


> I have suffered with ibs for about 2 years now. started off with diarrhoea most days, but was able to control with imodium. Since then i've started working and constantly have the urge for the toilet. not always necessarily diarrhoea, but still the sudden urge to go there's no pattern or known cause as to what is causing it!! tried so many different medicines prescribed by the doctor, buscopan, peppermint, mintec (peppermint capsules) mebeverine, spasmonal (alverine), but still no help. I did fine amitriptyline useful, but then it prevented me from going toilet in the mornings before work, then i would have a sudden urge to go when i get to work...not good! such a mess! any suggestions? please help!


I have had great results with a product called Digestive Advantage. It's available at Wal-Mart and Wal-Greens. I take 5 a day; one with each meal and 2 at bedtime. I had results at 2 doses with 85% results in a week - 10 days. This is my third week taking it and I have had normal morning BM for the past 4 day with no other problems throughout the day except for some gas later in the day. Stress and anxiety is also a big factor with my episodes so I have to be careful not to allow myself to get anxious about being away from home. I call it "mind over matter". When I start to worry about being away from home I have to tell myself that I haven't had any problems at home and being away from home is no problem and "to stop getting worked up over it" and this calms my stomach down. I also started taking Caltrate D with minerals (purple box) as suggested by someone else on this forum but have only been taking that for a couple days. I hope this helps. Sorry about the above post regarding emz.. I'm new at this.


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## cookies4marilyn (Jun 30, 2000)

> Yeah i have definitely noticed that worrying when i get the urge brings it on even more. If i were at home i could possibly control it sometimes, but when i'm at work or with friends somewhere that isn't convenient to use the toilet i over think about it. Although this isn't the main cause of the problem, it definitely adds to it!


Hi and welcome to the boards!Your comments above are a huge component of IBS called the brain-gut connection - it is a dysfunction in the way the brain and the nerves in the gut 'speak' to each other. Clinical hypnotherapy is great for this - I have had IBS since 1983, and I did the IBS Audio Program of hypnotherapy in 2000 when I found out about it here, and that has really helped - especially in that area of worry and anxiety - which leads to an attack, then that reinforces the cycle. Let me know if you would like more info on that - happy to help.Digestive advantage and Caltrate also can be very helpful - everyone has to find their way to get IBS sorted - sometimes it is a combination of things that help as well.All the best to you all.


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