# My story



## alex86 (Sep 4, 2017)

Hello everyone!

My story about living with IBS starts shortly before going to college. As you can imagine or perhaps even experienced this yourself around that period, it was a very confusing and bothering thing, in a period when you are already confused enough with all the changes that take place in your life. Around that period of early 2000s, when the Internet access wasn't nearly as wide-spread as today, it sure made the confusion worse not being able to easily find information about this. My problem at the beginning was bloating. This made me determined to visit the doctor around 2002 which I'm not very sure if he put me the IBS diagnostic but I remember giving me some diet tips. Problem is that when you are already messed up and feel out of place because of this, following a diet is not an easy thing to do, especially around that age. My parents knew about as much as me about what was that problem and how to improve my condition, so it wasn't until 2004 when I decided to do something serious and avoid some food, which improved my life. But my issue with self-confidence and contact with people kept me from getting a girlfriend during this period.

About 2 years later, I decided to drop courses from an engineering university, for being too hard and stressful and I started working for about 4 years. That wasn't particularly easy either but I managed to do it with some diet, more like a self-discovered diet, quite restrictive and not entirely healthy. After graduating an easier university and not being able to find the job I wanted, after a year of staying at home I decided to do freelacing and work from home.

The real problems with IBS started around the time I decided to get a regular job again, but being far from home, my IBS kicked in full throttle and after less than a month I couldn't leave home, with a few neccessary exceptions, for about 2 months. During this period I returned to working from home and having a fairly large garden I decided to start some horticulture projects, like planting fruit trees and wines. Looking back I still think it was the best thing I could have done at that time, leaving away stress caused by my IBS and being tied to something you don't enjoy, like leaving home each day, go with public transportation and meet people who misunderstand you.

But too much isolation led me to depression at the end of 2016, which was really the ultimate test. This, coupled with insomnia, made my IBS getting worse again. A full month of sleeping pills along with Mirtazapine for about 7 months was my every evening recipe. I also took prebiotics. Gradually I gave up Mirtazapine too, and now I only drink rattle tea and take melatonin when I can't fall asleep easily. Doing new things like volunteering, learning wushu, reading some of Osho's books, meeting new people, meditate from time to time and controlling my thoughts really helped me during this hard period. Loneliness is still there to a large degree, but I found out that you really have to try to live the best that you can, to take control over your problems, not your problems over you, and respect your limits.

Looking to find supportive people out here and perhaps even a young lady with about the same problems as mine to make our lives easier. And I also hope that my story of how I coped with all of that will make someone's life easier too.


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## ccoleman (Apr 10, 2017)

Thanks to share this story


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## sunnyc (Sep 10, 2017)

I can totally relate to you. Your beautifully written story is one I can connect to. The constant pain, bloating, fullness and yuck really is a lot to deal with. I too suffer from some depression and an immense amount of anxiety. I am looking for answers and will keep you in mind as i seek a physical and mental cure.


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## Barney71 (Aug 1, 2017)

Hey, great story! I can definitely relate to you because I had my worst times in college as well, although it was a bit later, more like 2004- 2008 when I had states of hard depression, I felt rejected etc. The worst thing imo about going to college and having this happening to you on top of many things is because you feel alone. You live with people you don't know, you are not living with your parents anymore and for your whole live you were trying to be independent (as a kid) and you never needed your parents support and then when you needed it the most, they weren't there, but you have found yourself around many different people, random people, whom you don't know and you are trying to hide your problems from them because you feel embarrassed and you are afraid of what will they think of you - especially as I still consider people in college as kids and I was just a kid, a bit older, but a kid who wasn't mentally ready for having so much sh** thrown at him suddenly.


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