# PTSD & IBS



## Bravo06 (Jul 19, 2014)

Over the past few days I have been able to connect with a few of the many great people on this site. I am grateful for the connections I have made.

My story is I have PTSD from when I was in the military and also a situation at a VA Hospital. (Veterans Hospital) I also have IBS-D that I just recently diagnosed myself with after struggling with it for over 4 years. The va GI doctor I saw once said to just continue wearing protection for my issues. (True Story) I can not work a regular job due to the severity of my conditions. (Incontinence of both urine and feces most of the time) Due to my anxiety and IBS-D I have to use protection. I have an appointment with a non-va GI specialist in a week and hope it goes well.

Any advice on what you have found that works good for you? As far as with with anxiety or helping with your IBS stuff?

Recently I have been blessed with an amazing therapist that has IBS and has had it for 20 years. I look forward to going to see her once a week for an hour & a half. PTSD is such a tricky thing and I did not talk about my stuff for 10 years.

Deep breathing is a great thing to do but sometimes it actually makes me worse. (I try to meditate but have a hard time closing my eyes if I am not trying to go to sleep.)

What kind of calming techniques do you use or have you heard works for others? I have just started to use Essential Oils and they have been a real help for me. I have more to share but want to hear what you have to say first. Wishing you all nothing but the best.

P.S I just want to say sorry in advance for officially being one of the top 10 worst spellers in the world. (It drives my teacher friends crazy)

Bravo06


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## twonK (Oct 30, 2006)

if you have OCD aspects as I did alongside PTSD, then exposure therapy helped me a lot (see http://www.ocfoundation.org/cbt.aspx for brief explanation). If you want more info, I can post more resources and examples and such.

BTW your spelling is fine AFAICT


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## Shade711 (Oct 4, 2013)

I have MDD, panic disorder and IBS. I admittedly don't have experience with PTSD, but I found hypnotherapy works well for my anxiety issues. I bought an ibs hypnotherapy set and it helped me feel more in control. For me, it taught me how to feel deep relaxation, and with constant practice can call upon that feeling whenever I willed it. It was nice to know I could come back to that state whenever I willed it.

If PTSD is anything remotely like having a panic attack, I have a simple breathing excercise that slows my heart down. Basically you breathe in to the count of 3, and out to the count of 6, counting slowly. Breathing out twice as long as in makes your heart slow down, and can momentarily alleviate some of the physical symptoms.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

First Thank You for your service. I am sorry you have had to contend with less than stellar VA Dr's. I commend you for seeing this therapist! Sounds awesome.. keep us posted on how it goes.

Is your incontinence because of a specific injury?

Wish you luck with the new GI and do let us know how your appointment goes!


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## Nojokeibs (Apr 14, 2014)

I do know something about PTSD, but I don't have it myself. I take some of the same meds Vets do for different reasons, and I found out when I researched them. I have muscle stiffness and take baclofen. Some places I know prescribe baclofen for PTSD and have success with it. I can look for a reference for that in a sec. Here is what I know, anecdotally, about why baclofen works (also why deep breathing works and why closing eyes doesn't always help):

1. Baclofen modifies the GABA receptor, I think it activates it just like GABA would, but in not exactly the same way. For this reason, some people try GABA supplements but I find that for muscle twitches, GABA alone doesn't work as well and I have much better effects from taking small doses of both. It can be hard to find a small enough dose of GABA for me because even 500mg can make me almost loopy relaxed (the supplement). Maybe that's because of the baclofen I also take (about 20 mg/day, in small doses through the day). I haven't found that a large dose of either of these once a day works at all. It just makes me twitchy and then too-relaxed, in a cycle. It's a PITA, but nothing else works as well on my muscles. It also banishes all anxiety and helps me sleep, but not in the "knocks me out" way, in the "I'm more relaxed, so it's not so hard to go to sleep" way. I don't know how much of this will transfer to PTSD. If I find a reference, I will post it at the end of the message.

2. Deep breathing calms the vagus nerve, as does the meditation. The vagus nerve is only now being seriously studied. My opinion is that it's the remnant of the nerve net left over from evolution, and it is the one that lets us know instantly if we sense danger. It gives us the "gut feeling" of danger or safety and literally touches just about every organ system in the body. I'm not sure it's a bad thing, but it can obviously become overactive when you move from a dangerous situation to a safe one. Most of my reading on it has come from a book I've been reading called "Go Wild" by John Ratey and Richard Manning. it's kind of fru-fru, but the science in it is pretty solid from what I can tell. They're also pretty clear that they're talking about cutting edge stuff and there are no clear answers yet, which I think is honest.

In my experience, the calming of the vagus nerve takes longer than just "count to ten and take a deep breath" though. If I experience even something as simple as road rage, it can take 20 minutes to calm down if I do nothing, and about 5-10 minutes of deep breathing and focusing on a calm and peaceful image while deep breathing to truly calm down. It helps me also to think of the people who care about me and try to think of ways to surprise them with a very kind and thoughtful act. If I do that during a stressful event, it can be hard to focus on, but if I succeed, the stress does melt away as I make my plans. I'm not sure how applicable that is to your situation though.

3. Closing eyes feels dangerous to anyone with PTSD. I was reading in some of the comments on other websites that there are some commonalities among Vets like using a see through shower curtain and some actually sleep with their eyes open (they've trained themselves to do it - actually I know a Vet who does this). Cognitive behavioral training doesn't seem to help much with these behaviors. What seems to help a bit is having a dog or some kind of animal that "stands watch" and will bark if someone approaches, so you can tell yourself, "it's okay, the dog is relaxed, there's nobody dangerous there." There are plenty of meditations that are done with open eyes, or you can go to youtube and find a video that is titled something like "relaxing music" and look for one that has beautiful images of natural scenes. Obviously the choice of natural scenes might be carefully selected... you might choose mountains or islands if you served in a desert, etc.

Baclofen in PTSD (with Citalopram)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24525635

I've used citalopram and I found that I had to take microdoses in the beginning in order to be able to sleep (any SSRI makes me unable to sleep, but Celexa doesn't doesn't do that so badly as long as I take it in tiny doses in the beginning). It is actually the only SSRI that I will accept if a doctor insists that I should take an antidepressant. I've failed all the others, literally tried them all and was unable to sleep every time, for days and days. Not one wink. Obviously this effect doesn't happen to everyone, but I have some kind of issue with that.

One warning with GABA/Baclofen... if you are bipolar at all, it might bring on mania, or so I've heard, but I think only if you're overmedicated. A good place to check freaky interactions of mental health drugs is Crazy Meds. It has a certain sassy flavor I like:

http://www.crazymeds.us/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage

You should also know that the prescription list can get pretty crazy all by itself. I did a purge of my prescriptions myself when my own list (for chronic pain) got too long and I was becoming a shut in, so I know this effect very well:

http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/veterans-kick-prescription-pill-habit-against-doctors-orders

I'm only mentioning it so you know what it looks like when you're overmedicated. Well meaning doctors will give you whatever you want because they are merciful and want to help, but sometimes it isn't helping. Just FYI, so you know when to take the exit.

Best wishes and my deepest gratitude!


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## Nojokeibs (Apr 14, 2014)

Here's a reference for Go Wild. The parts I think might help you is the neurology of the vagus nerve, the tribal protection parts which might remind you of the behaviors of your unit, and the parts where they talk about why exercise balances your brain chemicals in a way that drugs simply can't.


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