# Mental Illness and IBS



## Dreyfuss (Dec 19, 2011)

I was diagnosed bipolar a few years back. According to my pdoc and a great deal of research, there is a powerful link between mental illness and IBS. Are other folks on this board diagnosed bipolar or any other mental illness?


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## sick2much (Jan 18, 2012)

Dreyfuss said:


> I was diagnosed bipolar a few years back. According to my pdoc and a great deal of research, there is a powerful link between mental illness and IBS. Are other folks on this board diagnosed bipolar or any other mental illness?


 The research I have done: Certain dishorders that cause a person to be overly stessed, angered, excited, and anxious usualy have IBS-D due to the adrenaline causing hper motillity in the intestines. The pressure sometimes presses on nerves, in my case the vagus nerves, this can cause anxiety, passing out, fear for life, etc. The episodes of passing out or vascal vagal synascope causes damage to short term memory, motor function, speaking abillity, and sensory perception. This is short term. A lot of people get overly exited because there is now pain, noise, frequency to go, not going, and emberassment that comes along with it presenting itself as generalized anxiety dishorder. If not brought under control the emberassment of going in to public can develop in to a agoraphobic like state. Some other people have had very bad boughts of viruses, cognitive problems, and neurological problems that cuase damage to the nervous system, hypacampus, or temporal lobes this in return can cause motillity problems. Certain cystic problems attach itself to the nervs causing motillity problems and giving brain damage. Certain vascular diseases, stokes, and hypertension can kill blood supply to the brain or the intestines causing nerve death and certain disorders. The cyst can also sometimes attach themselves to one or both of the vagus nerves, vagus squanama, this can mach parkinsons, and other nerological and brain dishorders. So I guess it depends. Is the condition causing the IBS or is the IBS causing the condition


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## sick2much (Jan 18, 2012)

Oh, I had minor ADD, becoming severe by vascal vagal synascope, and short term memory loss. I control this with Ritalin.


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## Amideans (Jan 26, 2012)

I suffer with severe depression. Just diagnosed with IBS-C, but have had depression for years. It is weird though.. because until a few weeks ago, I hadn't had an anxiety attack in 7 years. I get horrible anxiety now, for no apparent reason. But I have noticed that since I started having the anxiety attacks, my constipation has turned into the occasional diarrhea. It will be diarrhea once then go back to being blocked up, the adrenaline would explain that! I'm going to make an appt tomorrow with my family dr to discuss my current meds and possibly changing them, as I dont feel like they work much anymore..


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## paraAdrian (Nov 5, 2010)

don't feel bad this IBS has lead me to suffer all type of mental problems like anxiety , depression , rarely I get panic attacks , sometimes I even feel bi polar . This IBS has turn me Into a $$$$$$ing lunatic , I hate sometimes to even go out cause since I am always feeling bad and also I bearly have friends and I haven't had a girlfriend since like the age of 18 and now I am twenty two .


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## TheOutlookChild (Sep 2, 2011)

I have had anxiety problems since I was very young. I had really bad OCD that manifested later as anorexia. When my main OCD symptoms stop IBS started. I have IBS-C and I feel like its OCD internalized.


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## DWalla (Aug 30, 2007)

I have ADHD and pretty bad anxiety that shows up from time to time.I find that L-Theanine supplements tend to aid my anxiety quite a bit. Also.... taking a sustained-relief melatonin nightly also makes a drastic difference in this arena.Side note.... they found that 88% of IBS sufferers have improved symptoms after 6 weeks of melatonin usage. The mechanism as to why is unknown at this point.


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## chookie (Feb 9, 2012)

hello







yes I have Dyspraxia and General Anxiety Disorder and I am a very nervous person. I take Venlafaxine and Beta Blockers for my anxiety and they do work well for me. I hold my stomach in and my shoulders up, not by choice but by default and I think that makes matters worse. There has got to be a link there, don't you think?


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## smooth (Feb 11, 2012)

YA, I have always had GAD, social anxiety, anxiety and kind of more developing OCD.My IBS had gotten terrible over the last few years. Feel like my nerves are shot. Ive been out of work for a long time and thats probably one of my biggest stress factors.But the last time i was working i still had ibs. definately feels like a curse.


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## sick2much (Jan 18, 2012)

Amideans It is believed that the pressure in the intestinal tract, the pain, causes anxiety. It is connected to the same part of the prain that the vagas nerve connects to and can stimulate a flight or fight response without actually having something to respond to; thus anxiety. paraAdrian; because of the pressure on the lower intestines, it is believed, or hypothetical, that the small intestine pressure pushes on the prostrate, decreasing testoterone, causing drop in labido, inactivity, and mood swings. I haven't had, well you know, in over three years. Only within the last four weeks has my T gone up. When tested I was low. The friend and meeting people is becuase the diesease, especialy in C and P dominant, causes system toxicity and pain. This makes people focus on themselves and people, even when they do want to be around you, actualy have a hard time being around you because you are focused on your problems. Most people want to talk and talk about everything going on with them then they want to let you talk about yourself if there is anytime left. So if they feel they are going to loose this time they tend to make excuses. The sufferer in return then doesn't even want to try anymore as they feel there is no point because they are not being heard. It is a tragic cascadian affect.TheOutlookChild: Most OCD people are type A personality. They want to get everything done, are incredibly focused, and in a effort to get all those things done to there standards they get anxious. The fact that you are now type C dominant leads me to believe that you are more sededintery than you use to be. Your body was use to high activity levels and now the lower activity levels has cuased all of your body to slow. The problems have caused you to focus on them more thus making you more OCD about your current situation until you feel you can fix or resolve it. Just my opinionDWalla: So a lot of IBS sufferes have a whole hell of a lot of sleeping diffuculties becuase they wake for need to go or from pain. The brain produces melotinin making a person relax, the synthetic does this and then you sleep. If a person sufferes from hyper or reverse motillity then the intestine could slow done and start to move correctly. So when we sleep our anotomic neural response is slowed. Most all sufferes of IBS suffer from a motillity problem so the when they sleep the contractions are longer, harder, and not a quick spasmadic response.chookie: I am six foot three, I use to be in body building and weight lifting. I stand like this by default. It has nothing to do with it. The only thing is the taller and broader you are with less muscle it can allow for a greater area of inflammation or gas. It's kind of like water, the swelling will go to the area of least resistance.This is just my opinion from my schooling and research, I am not a doctor, but I hope it helps you understand more of what is going on.


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## mark22 (Feb 14, 2012)

My doctor put my on ssri's for anxiety when my tummy problems first started (i was getting anxiety attacks due to not knowing what was going on inside me)I was taking them for 6 months and i found they really helped with my ibs symptoms,then when i tapered off them my ibs symptoms have came back worst then ever,with me i really think that anxiety issues can make my ibs alot worst.


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## TheOutlookChild (Sep 2, 2011)

@sick2much: I am not much less physically active now than I was before. However I used to have an eating disorder that might of threw my body completely out of whack. The IBS however came atleast a year after I had recovered from the disorder. Before all that I was completely seredentary. Now I am pretty active. I have a theory that my IBS may also have to do with my hormones as my symptoms are very much affected by my period and my IBS started right after coming off of birth control which I was taking to regulate my period. Thanks for your input though!


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