# My both mild and severe IBS case...



## rdj (Apr 29, 2012)

Hello everyone, I signed up a few days ago and introduced myself as appropriate and now I guess it's time to tell a bit of my story.I'm an IBS-D sufferer though I'd only describe it as mild and occasionally moderate as a physical issue. I've been like it most of my life to a greater or lesser extent. As said, it's not that bad but there's a catch (yeah there had to be). I have social anxiety and it aggravates my IBS to a fairly horrendous extent. I'm fully aware of it being heavily related to anxiety, there's no reasonable explanation otherwise in that social situations (and situations where there's no toilet easily accessible) bring it on with a near 100% efficiency. Now I've never gone over the edge to losing control of my bowels but I've been in pretty horrible shape for hours on end sometimes (I remember a 6 hour bus journey that will likely haunt me for life).I've joined up here just to get an idea of what options I have. Right at the moment I'm looking at a couple of areas.Firstly, trying to see if there's a diarrhoea medication that I can take on an occasional basis that will control it and give me some confidence (for the record, Imodium has absolutely no effect).Secondly, I was looking at the hypnotherapy angle. I've done a lot of hypnotherapy in the past with a hypnoanalyst from my old hometown and am extremely experienced at self hypnosis but I'm intrigued by the specific gut-directed angle as my own self hypnosis is about my only workable defence right at the moment. Unfortunately it doesn't work as a pre-emptive thing. The only way it works currently is if I get into the situation and then drop myself into hypnosis and then it takes me about 15 minutes or so to regain control and stave off the symptoms. I'm pretty good from there on out but it's a hopelessly inconvenient way to control things...So, that's about my state of affairs. No fun and I genuinely feel for the people who have it so much worse than I do. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.


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## Dodai (Mar 30, 2012)

Hi rdj,You are so on spot. This is no fun at all. I also agree that nobody should go through this. I have regular bowel movements, but I am diagnosed with IBS-C, severe to be exact. I am always in pain. My primary care physician told me that it's gas that I can't release (something like that, cant remember). And that mine is very hard to treat. I can't eat acitic foods, fiber, most veggies, salad, carbs. etc. I think I'm allowed seaweed and cold water fish? It's so crazy with this diet that I have to laugh or cry and of course it's so hard to stick with it.I'm really interested in your hypnotherapy and that you can do it on your own. I tried it a long time ago and it didn't work. Maybe the lady didn't know what she was doing. Back to your hypnotherapy, if you can do it on your own, I truly believe that you can use your mind to rid yourself of anxiety. I had it very bad many years ago and I don't have it at all anymore. What I did was no matter how uncomfortable I felt in a situation I just kept going and going until the anxiety finally stopped. It took a long time to do and I was very uncomfortable at times, but the more I faced my anxiety head on and realized it was just a 'feeling', a bad feeling at that, but I just simplified it as just a bad feeling that will someday subside. And it worked. (I no longer have anxiety, but I'm depressed due to a numerous amount of reasons which I'm trying to work on now too.) I learned of the fight or flight symptoms from the adrenal gland. I worked on that too. Once you realize that you control your brain and can stop the fight or flight symptoms and just let go and think to youself, so what, it's just a feeling, your anxiety will decrease. I wish the best for you!


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## cookies4marilyn (Jun 30, 2000)

I used gut-specific hypnotherapy from England on CDs after learning about it here back in 2000 - I had very severe IBS and was almost housebound. It really helps to break the brain-gut connection and the anxiety and motility symptoms. The program comes with support if you need it and is very cost effective. I didnt really believe it would help me as my IBS was pretty intense, and everything else I tried didnt help so I pretty much did it as a last resort - the IBS Audio Program 100 by Michael Mahoney in Cheshire. Take a peek at the links below for more info if you think this is something that might be helpful to you - I went from having severe IBS attacks lasting hours almost every day, to having my life back. Feel free to ask any questions - this program has been available to the public since 1998 and has a great deal of positive feedback and research behind it. Hope that helps - all the best to you.


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## rdj (Apr 29, 2012)

Dodai - Hypnotherapy is an extremely useful tool in dealing with anxiety. What I learned was self hypnosis with targeting towards general relief from anxiety and the panic disorder I was suffering. Also regarding agoraphobia that I was experiencing, sometimes severely and not for ibs reasons. Funnily, at the worst point of these psychological problems I had very little trouble with my ibs. I think the brain gut connection was overwhelmingly distracted by other things (alas not good things) but the point being that I've become very aware of just how much of a dramatic effect hypnosis can have if you work at it. As mentioned I have used these techniques to help sometimes with the symptoms of IBS but only after the fact. But it does work. It's just not overly convenient and I'm looking for a way to deal with the problem rather than the symptoms. Often the problem with pharmaceutical solutions that they treat the symptoms only (not that I'd ever suggest that we should avoid medical approaches to IBS, I think it's a war that's worth fighting on all fronts).Marilyn - I've been looking over the program for a few days now. It does look interesting and my own experiences with broader therapeutic hypnosis definitely give me confidence in the idea of trying a far more targeted and regimented approach. I know for absolute fact that my anxiety IBS symptoms can be 'switched off' after they've come on. I know it responds so it feels very much like a good route for me to try and finally break the cycle from a cause rather than effect angle. Certainly enough so that I've just purchased the MP3 version of the program and it's currently sitting in my downloads folder. Will be starting this afternoon.


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## cookies4marilyn (Jun 30, 2000)

That's great! A helpful hint is while using the program is to try to refrain from reading, researching and writing about IBS as this takes you 'back' to IBS thinking - I know it can be hard, but this little hint will go a long way to better success with the program overall. And if you do need support along the way at any time, you can go to the contact page on the healthyaudio website and they will get back to you! All the best in your journey to feeling better.


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## rdj (Apr 29, 2012)

Thanking you kindly.Day 1 done and dusted. Not really feeling the need to do too much more IBS research right now anyway due to the immense amount I've done over the years so any more can wait a few months while I give this a proper try and, with luck, I wont have to It always helps that hypnosis is such a pleasant experience. Lovely feeling just drifting...


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