# How/when did your IBS start?



## 15567

Are most of you able to pin point the reason why you got IBS? I'm wondering if anyone here had the same experience as me. I used to crash diet alot when I was a teen and one time I ate more than usual I decided to take an OD of laxatives- that (of course) caused a bout of D and I've been IBS-C ever since. I hate the fact that I did that to my body and feel so stupid that my dumb decision has inhibited the rest of my life


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## H. Lacey

i was born with a fat intolerance, and my parents didn't figure it out until i was around 5. incidently, i would throw up my dinner about every two weeks if i'd had too much fat, and i guess that triggered my IBS; however i do wonder why my IBS only started when i hit puberty at age 10.


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## ziggystardust00

I don't think I could pin point mine exactly as I've always had various problems of an IBS nature but I think things got worse when I was 16 and started sixth form- it was also around this time that I think I developed my wheat-intolerance- I didn't get that diagnosed until I was 18 though. It was at that time that things got worse really- more D, urgency etc. It wasn't just the wheat either I don't think. I was diagnosed with IBS at 17 though- about a month before I was 18.(am now 19, 20 next month)That all sounds quite confusing!! sorry!


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## lxdreamerxl

Physically I still don't know why I have IBS, because I don't have food allergies or anything like that. I think I'm lactose intolerant, but thats just a guess the doctor and I made together from keeping a food diary, we never did actual tests.I can remember the exact day my IBS first hit me. It was the summer before 7th grade, so I guess I would've been 12. My pap was in the hospital a lot, he had emphasema really bad and pretty much every trip to the hospital over the next three years, the doctors would say, "This is it, he's going to die this time." So that was pretty stressful for my family. Anyway, back when I was 12, we visited my pap and I guess it just really stressed me out but I got so sick all of a sudden and had to use his private bathroom because I had D so bad - his nurse actually came to check on me. I felt so stupid, and after that I had it all the time and was afraid to drive like 10 minutes from my house for fear of getting that way again. I've learned to handle it better since then, but it's never gone away.


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## Gassylassy

I don't know for certain, but when I was around 6-7 I got H-Pylori and it went undetected in my system for a few years because the testing does not usually work on children. When they finally decided to put me on the drugs to get rid of it it had already done its damage, and I've had IBS ever since. I'm 19 now, looking back it sucks to think that it was all caused by a small but very powerful bacteria.


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## Blackcat

my came on when i was 12. My mother passed away after many trips to the hospital and rehab. It was a lot on my system and I started to have D. I never really thought about it and believed it was normal. Also I contribute it to poor eating habits. When this was going on my father and I would eat out a lot and eat a ton of junk food. Im 23 now and have really really good control of it! +panda+


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## KayWill

I remember distinctly my IBS starting when I was in 3rd grade or so. I would get sick in the middle of the night while I laid in bed worrying about school the next day. So I suppose I can pinpoint my IBS as being always directly related to stess. It hasn't changed much since then.


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## 20601

My IBS started about 2 years ago, I was 19 and going through tons of stress, which I've had trouble with anxiety disorder for years anyways. I got constipated all of a sudden, got freaked out after a week or so, and started taking every laxative solution I could find. I don't think I OD'd, but I used several different laxative methods before I headed to a GI specialist who told me it was IBS, which I've been dealing with ever since.


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## 18784

I was 15. I had been out all day and late in the afternoon had a sudden urge to get to the toilet and it was only by luck I was in a good place at the time. It had happened twice before in similar situations but two-three years earlier and I never thought anymore of it.I have since put it down to the way I was eating, after some experimenting. Having breakfast around 7 and then nothing until around 1500 and having some fizzy stuff too, which after an hour or two gave me craps and D.When I returned to school on the Monday, first hour or so went fine then I had a little rumble in my stomach and it all came flooding back to me and I was worried I'd have to go and wouldn't be able to get out of class. I went through two days with that on my mind the whole time, as white as a ghost, in class. The third day I took off, fouth and fith I was back in. Similar pattern the next week, the last one before break for Christmas. I ended up taking the rest of the week off. Over Christmas I noticed I was still worrying about it when I went out and then the thought came to me what if I'm like this forever and can't get over the worry, what if.... I tried a few things the week before I was due to return to school but none did any good, so the night before returning to school I decided to go to the Doctors. I had been looking on the net (not a good thing to do, you'll diagnose yourself with everything!) and told him I thought I had IBS, he agreed and gave me some sachets you mix with water and drink, to stimulate the bowel. They certainly did something, I was in no rush to leave the house after drinking one of those! After a week of them I tried something else, didn't have the same effect but I was still scared of going anywhere. Doctor then said I was depressed/stressed/anxious and recommended councilling.To simplify the next month or two, I started going to councilling once or week and gradually less and less, now about once every 5 weeks just to check things. It was a long road, I missed around 40 days of school over 3months and some 'important' mock exams but I finally managed to make three full weeks of attendance before easter and most of three weeks after it, with two days off which were just bad days I guess. I slowly started trying to get out again, going places I felt comfortable knowing there was a loo there and here. Now, in my 6th month since it all started, I am back to some normality. I rarely turn down any outing unless I feel particularly bad. I am off on study leave now for the rest of the school term and have sat a few examinations so far which went fine, thankfully my concentration occupies my mind enough to stop any wandering thoughts about my stomach. I try not to look at the big picture, that I will be like this for life. I'm determined not to let it get me down but admitedly, some days it does.


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## jeanne2

I'm not a young adult by any means, but my IBS symptoms started when I was in high school...(in the 60's!) back then nobody knew anything about IBS. I too was anxious and high strung, always was my family tells me.I would get D before going out on a date...used Kaopectate back then. I never had an incident where I didn't make it to a toilet, in fact, once I went out, I was fine.But-I know with my girlfirends, I never worried about it...just up and took off.Anyhow...it kind of just faded away for almost 20 years! I went through college..I taught physical education for years...basically had a normal life.Have gone back to grad school had 4 children, have 6 grandchildren, travelled, etc...so please don't think you cannot have a good life-or indeed that they just may find a cure during your lifetime!Then in my late 30's I had a couple of bouts of D (caused by ????) where I had "close calls"...and ever since then, the IBS has been back.I know mine is a very strong mind-gut thing...I believe I talk myself into it many times. But, I have also had it during just laid back times at home too.It's a very curious disease-a combination of anxiety, depression, congenital irritable gut, and so on.I feel I manage mine well, and do a lot of things I never thought I could.Good luck to all of you youngsters..at least there is so much known about it now, and so much you can do to be able to live with symptoms.Jeanne


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## 17309

Indeed, it's amazing how similar all these stories are: stress + maybe something else too = IBS, but mostly just stress. It makes you wonder if we all couldn't stop this disorder by moving to desert islands and drinking mango juice all day??For me, I got sick in Mexico this December (I know, an idiot to have margs on land, ice = Mexico water! so cliche too), plus I have been stressed out all year from new grad school, and that put me over the edge -- I've had IBS all semester.I'm trying to work more on stress management. For a while I was extremely stressed, seeing a therapist and doing meditation, but once summer started I felt better and stopped...but I guess I should continue with the meditation







It does help if you can get yourself to do it!


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## 21315

hello everyone ,its very intresting to hear all your stories , i can always rember the day my IBS first started to get really bad ,it was on christmas eve/day id piged out a bit over the holiday so i wasnt feeling to great but then sometime during the night i woke up with bad stomach cramps and being sick it lasted all of christmas day , really ruined it but it diddent stop there i was ill for the whole holidays even new years day lol wasent the best christmas present id had, a few weeks after that i was diagnosed with IBS but before christmas id had a bit of a stressful time with school and my diet had a big effect on it to ever since then if i eat anything to upset it or find myself upset or angry i usally get ill then to


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## 14928

I started showing signs of IBS/UC/Crohn's after taking care of my father who had terminal liver cancer. I was 14 when he died, but did not start to really get sick until I was 17 or 18. I am now 24 and have been in flare for seven years. I have shown slight improvement since I started training for an ultrathon. I have always been a worrier and an insamniac. This has aggrevated the condition. Like many of you it most likely was triggered by dealing with a highly stressful situation, internally, at a young age. I also have a sister with ITP a immune disorder, so the genes that may be involved were definately present, and then the high stress triggered it off.


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## miranda

mine started after i broke up with my first bf, it was a traumatic experience for me and i started to have changes in my bowel habits. i was ok after about 3 months, then it all disappeared for about 3-4 years.For the last year and a bit my ibs has returned with avengence. I'm currently trying to pinpoint the cause...anxiety? food intolerance? those seem like the two most common triggers for ibs.


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## 17313

Mine started when I was 19 and pregnant with my daughter. I was ### work and started having horrible cramps that lasted for several hours. I had to lay on the floor while my husband came and got me to take me to the hospital. (they thought that I was in pre-mature labor) Come to find out as soon as I got to the hospital I had a horrible bowel movement. Every since then I have been dealing with it. That has been 8 years ago. Some days are better then others.


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## 17079

I remember that day very well.......It was the second day of my freshman year in High School (don't know why the first day didn't bother me) and as soon as I got off the bus at school, I needed to use the bathroom in a major way. But I always had this fear of going #2 in public so I waited for the bell to ring, then went and asked my teacher if I could go use the bathroom (even though I'd be late for class) she gave me this look like "I don't want to let you go, but fine, I will..." and that was how it all began. I was 13 then and am 19 now. I remember in Jr. High (6th or 7th grade) I had severe cramping in my stomach and my parents took me to the hopsital, but by the time the doctor saw me (about 4 hours later) the cramps had gone away, so they didn't do any tests or anything. Said it was probably menstural cramps (though it wasn't time for my period). I got the cramps a few more times, then never again until 9th grade. When I was a senior (17), I was put on Ortho Tri-Cyclen for mild acne, and that did not agree with my IBS at all. That was the "straw that broke the camel's back" and made me tell my doctor about my problem. Then I had a colonoscopy at 17 and was diagnosed with IBS. But stress was definitely what caused it and still does.


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## kateandtink

lol i had just gone 18 suspected food interolance as trigger... now almost 3years later htings arent so bad i have good days and bad like we all do


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## missytoe18

My IBS started in August of last year...I was in a tragic car accident and had 3 tears in my intestines. I had to have a resection. The doctors, and I, think that this triggered the IBS to start...


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## 21286

Mine started when I was about 22. I just remember feeling extremely crampy and lots of releasing of gas. It's gotten much worse w/ age.


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## 16138

My problems started at age 17. I remember lying in bed and feeling horribly nauseated. My stomach was as hard as a rock and it hurt to even breathe. I could not eat and began vomiting up green liquid (which I later learned was stomach bile). My mom could not figure out what was wrong with me. After a few hours we realized that it was because I had not gone to the bathroom in over a month. We called my pediatrician who immediately ordered me to take a laxative. Well that did not work. It took nearly 20 dulcolax to make me begin to pass some stool. I spent the night in the bathroom vomiting and crying and having horrible diarrhea.At first we thought this was a one time thing, but we were wrong. Soon after, I stopped going to the bathroom altogether. I would go 2-3 weeks without a BM, at which point I would have to resort to taking laxatives...a LOT of laxatives. My doc prescribed mineral oil, more fiber, more water, metamucil etc. NOTHING worked. Finally I was sent to a GI specialist who prescribed prescription laxatives (miralax and lactulose) which also did not work. She did a flexible sigmoidoscopy when I was 19 and it showed no gross abnormalities inside my colon. She told me there was nothing more she could do and I was back to square one.By this time I was 19 and in college. My life was hell. It is so hard to explain to friends what is wrong when you don't even know yourself! Plus, college dorm rooms are not ideal places to have bathroom issues! Finally my doctor sent me to a WONDERFUL GI at Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital in Boston. After 3 years of tests she finally diagnosed me with colonic inertia. We tried a gazillion different therapies and none worked. I was on Zelnorm way before it even hit the mass market. She finally decided that I need surgery to remove my entire large intestine and sent me to a colo-rectal surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Both my GI and surgeon explained that since colonic inertia is not very well understood at all there are very few studies about the disease and few treatment options. They wanted to run MORE tests to make sure that surgery was the correct thing to do. Finally in July of 2004 I was done with tests and the surgeon sat me and my parents down and told me that yes, I would need to have my entire large bowel removed to get any kind of relief from this disease. I remember crying because I knew what a difficult surgery this would be, but I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. At this point in time I was taking 60 correctol once a week in order to have a BM.I had to take a leave of absence from work for 6 weeks. My work was incredibly supportive and I took a short term disability leave. I had the surgery on September 29th, 2004 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.I spent 6 days in the hospital on an epidural and a morphine drip and was sent home in early October. The first few weeks were rough: It was hard to walk, sit up and even breathe or laugh. But, in the end it was worth it! I now have 3-5 BMs every day and I have my life back! I get teary when I think back about all that I went through but it makes me so thankful to be where I am taoday! No more vomiting, no more laxatives, no more drinking gallons of pedialyte because of severe dehydration!In short, I am SO SO SO SO SO glad I had the surgery. I look back at the way my life was and I can't believe I suffered for as long as I did.-Maura


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## 14285

I am not sure if it connected, but I seem to have developed IBS-D after a strange illness. I don't think I was ever that sick in my whole life. I was vomiting so much that only bile would come up. It lasted about 3 - 4 days. The ER doctors could not determine what it was and to this day it is still a mystery to everyone. Not right after, but within months, I started to develop IBS. I am not sure if the two are connected but it is the only thing I could think of that happened to me previous to my IBS symptoms.


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## devotchka

My IBS started when I was 15 or 16. I did have an eating disorder around this time and the IBS didn't help! I hadn't heard of anybody else associating IBS with an eating disorder until reading this thread, though.


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## 22291

i think that my ibs-c started like 5 years ago but i was diagnostic last year (i think so).. i remembered that i start not eating when i was in high school. and begin suffering of constipation and anemia.. last year the doctor make a blood exam and other examns and find it out,. i was really scared.. because this had affect my life a lot.. but now is a part of me and i try to live with it.. pd: sorry my english... i write and speak spanish better..


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## 19649

I think my IBS started somewhere around 3rd grade for me. I know that's very young for a person with IBS, but that's when I started really having problems with constipation. My doctor had me use laxatives and eat those nasty fiber waffers that are supposed to taste like apples and cinnamin. (They never really did though.)But my problems kept comming back.So almost two years ago my mom was at the hair dressers and she was saying that she just didn't know what to do about my health problems anymore because my doctor just couldn't find anything wrong with me. Her hairdresser said that it sounded a lot like what her daughter was going through and suggested that I see a psychiatrist to see if I had depression.So to the psychiatrist I went. And I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety and I was put on medication. For a long time, about six months or so, I was feeling great. I was so relieved that I could go out with friends and not have to worry about feeling cruddy anymore. But then the symptoms returned.So I went back to the old standby of using laxitives whenever I felt constipated.I ended up being switched to a different pill for my depression/anxiety which caused me to have violent diarrhea often. It got to the point where I could hardly work. So I was switched to yet another med. and the diarrhea got better, but now instead of worrying about being constipated, I had to worry about having the runs all the time.Well, I started seeing an OBGYN who was also in Internal medicine about a month before my 18th birthday. She made a note in my chart to keep an eye on the sypmtoms I was having because she suspected I had IBS. I have since seen her twice more and just today she told me that I most likely have IBS. She gave me a packet of information on IBS and some sheets on changing eating habbits to help make my IBS less intrusive. I'm so glad that I went to that doctor because if I hadn't, who knows how long I would have waited for my answer.PS. When I talked to my regular doctor after seeing a commercial for Zelnorm he assured me that it wasn't IBS and that everything I was feeling was probobly just in my head.


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## 18550

I was diagnosed as a baby with chronic constipation. When I was a kid they made me eat All Bran and drink metamucil







, butit never worked. It was awful. As I grew up no doctor followed up on me, I was only go about every 3 or 4 days. But every once an a while I would have diahrea and I would be on the floor in pain. Halfway through college the symptoms were getting worse. After I graduated and had my own health insurance I went seeking answers from a gastroenterologist. I was also having very serious acid reflux and heartburn. She diagnosed me with IBS and GERD. She said my system is slow and need medication to stimulate me. I am on Zelnorm and eating a good amount of fiber. I can now say I am going normally. But I can't eat too much fiber because then I go the other way and get diahrea. It is a never ending process of evaluating and managing this disorder.


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## thegirlleastlikely

i'm not sure. i can't remember not having it to some degree.


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## 23682

I've always been the nervous worrying type for as long as I remember. When I'm nervous I get D and/or throw up. In my earlier years before the D I would throw up every single morning before school.My earliest memory is when I was 4 we were going on vacation to the Jersey Shore and from where I live it's a good 4 hour drive. I remember screaming and crying saying my stomach hurt, I remember stopping at a few gas stations to try and go but nothing happened. I think up until about 5th grade I was IBS-C then 6th grade came it was time to go to middle school, the D started up. I was getting D, taking stuff to stop that then I would get C so I'd take a laxitive and so on. To make things even worse 6th graders go away for 4 days in November to some place that has cabins,it's like a camping class trip. I had never been away from my parents I was making myself sooooo sick over having to go on this damn trip. My mom finally took me to the doctor he told me take some stuff called Donnagel and he wrote me a note saying that I didn'thave to go on the trip. Thank God I didn't have to go, and there were other kids who didn't go because they didn't have the money so I felt better knowing that I wasn't alone. I've had IBS for I'd say 21 years...maybe more but I don't remember the other 4 years.


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## 13371

This is a question I never really asked anyone...maybe because I never had anybody to ask! but what a great question.I began to exercise moderately and eat healthily during the summer (a lot of Round Table Pizza salad bars) following freshman year of college-I was 18. I wanted to get in shape and feel better about my body. Well, I had always had a little trouble with C, but had never really given it too much thought. At times I would tell my mom that I hadn't gone to the bathroom in a few weeks and that I was uncomfortable. A very few times she gave me a correctol and that was the end of it. I remember my tendency toward C beginning around the age of puberty, but it was not something that I dealt with often...we all have certain times of discomfort. I didn't find it abnormal to use the bathroom once per week. I didn't think about it much other than that I didn't like how my stomach stuck out and my mom told me that was normal. Anyhow, when the summer of 18 I began to think there was something wrong with this, and decided that taking a 5mg bisacodyl laxative would help. It did. For about a month, until I began to get weird feelings of incomplete evacuation, hypertension (the worst --I am still afraid of it), and body cramps especially if i took a laxative too soon after eating. I continued on with the laxative use daily, until it had been about 4 months and I knew that something was definitely wrong. I had to take 4 of the pills and be sure to take them long after eating. It had become a real nightmare which I was afraid to tell anybody about. I felt like a criminal and sometimes I still do.I now have this condition which I have learned to better control since the initial onset, but which alters and changes periodically, and is to a certain degree, hard to predict. Its awful for me, my family, and I really don't feel that I am a joy for anyone to be around. My life revolves around IBS. I take zelnorm, fluoxotine (an antidepressant), and sometimes xanex which I am going off of now. I have had every test done to eliminate the other possible problems, and am so diagnosed with IBS. I have good weeks, provided that I do not eat ANY solid foods. in particular, salty, processed foods seem bad. I live on sour cream, milk, and ice cream if i want to be free of any attacks. I hate it, but its the only thing i can find to do at this point. I have to keep strong for my family and hope that it goes away.


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## 13371

I also forgot to mention I have now had it for about 3 years. I regret what I did to myself, but I hope that it gets better and that everyone else someday is FREE of this very obnoxious condition. take care.-jacki


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## 14416

Truthfully, I don't really know for sure when mine started.It started to get really bad in 9th grade. I had acne really bad and went on like a 6 month course of a tetracycline antibiotic. Long-term courses of anti-biotics completely mess up the digestive system, especially all that good bacteria it kills.I had had problems with D before then, but after that WOW!Then I was stupid enough to go back on a 6th month course of Doxcycline(antibiotic) in 12th grade... after I was diagnosed with IBS, not knowing the antibiotics were going to make things much much worse again.I don't think this is what causes me to have IBS, although I think it definitely made the symptoms more apparent, and put me that much further behind, because my intestines were so outta whack.


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## 18535

Mine started in college, but back then I blew it off and never really thought about it as possibly being a medical condition. For years the only real problems I had were getting really bad diahrrea when I was nervous or under a lot of stress, and also when I ate certain things like greasy foods or veggies/greens. Over the years it has evolved into IBS-A, and abdominal pain and gas have become a real problem. I manage it with lots of fiber, exercise, and stress reduction.


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## 22144

When I was 3 I was hospitalized for 5 days because I got salmonalla food poisoning from a regional supermarket's milk.It's not like that was a huge thing, but docs misdiagnosed me for 2 weeks (keep vomitting and D for that entire time) and one of them gave me donnatal. Evidently I was about 10 minutes away from having my colon burst.Since then I've always remembered having terrible digestive problems (always cramping and diarrhea).


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## 20895

> quote:Originally posted by Gassylassy:I don't know for certain, but when I was around 6-7 I got H-Pylori and it went undetected in my system for a few years because the testing does not usually work on children. When they finally decided to put me on the drugs to get rid of it it had already done its damage, and I've had IBS ever since. I'm 19 now, looking back it sucks to think that it was all caused by a small but very powerful bacteria.


It is not the bacteria that has done the damage, it is the antibiotics that you were given probably caused your IBS. Who told you that H.Pylori can cause IBS?


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## 15939

My IBS-C started in college - I am almost 28 now. I have struggled for the past 10 years. I used to take MoM in college to get occasional relief...and also stopped eating. I lost weight...and i didnt feel as sick since there was less in my stomach.I was on herbal laxatives daily, than moved to Miralax daily. Recently I have started zelnorm (2 a day) and it is really working for me. I am in the middle of a bad situation now since i was otu of town and my routine got messed up. I took two dulcolax laxatives this afternoon. Green Tea has also helped me a ton! I buy it at a local asian mart and i buy the water soluable packets and drink 2+liters a day. So glad i found this site!


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## 18797

i 21 maybe 22.... the australia day weekend, had a massive weekend with my mates, too much partying, not enough sleep... on the train to work on the tuesday i felt like i was going to **** my pants, freaked me out, got off the train found a bathroom, had to go another time aswell on the way there... got to work, realise i couldnt stay, went home.... been like it ever since. Possibly a combination of stress (just broke up with my girlfriend/work problems) and not looking after my health enough.though in uni i used to get bad stomach growling alot, but thats about it.


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## 16269

Mine started when I was 15 years old.


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## 21517

I have had IBS D since I was born. My mom remembers it when I was still on formula. And 23 years later, its still here and still out of control. By the way, I'm only 23!!!!! Shoot me now!!


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## Gassylassy

> quote:Originally posted by Mika275:
> 
> 
> 
> quote:Originally posted by Gassylassy:I don't know for certain, but when I was around 6-7 I got H-Pylori and it went undetected in my system for a few years because the testing does not usually work on children. When they finally decided to put me on the drugs to get rid of it it had already done its damage, and I've had IBS ever since. I'm 19 now, looking back it sucks to think that it was all caused by a small but very powerful bacteria.
> 
> 
> 
> It is not the bacteria that has done the damage, it is the antibiotics that you were given probably caused your IBS. Who told you that H.Pylori can cause IBS?
Click to expand...

I already had IBS before I was put on medication for H-pylori, it was the effects of this bacteria on my intestines which made them more more sensitive to certain foods. My ibs did improve after I had the drugs, but not enough to rid my system of it. it was the lasting effects of having an intestinal bacteria. H-pylori itself if treated properly and within reasonable time should not leave any lasting damage. It was my GI who explained that over the years of being agitated by the bacteria my intestines have grown extreamly sensitive to food,(and also stress and nervousness), however this all started wiht H-pylori


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## 22199

hey i just gor diagnosed with ibs last week. with me it started after really bad food poisioning 4 months ago which i had for 3 wks, they put me on medication and i was great for a month but then randomly it came again and iv had all these tests n they havnt found anything so everyone is saying its ibs caused by food poisioning.sometimes you really regret those barbeques lol


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## 13585

After 8th grade. I've had it all through high school. I'm a senior in high school and am homebound- have been for 6 weeks. I had a colonoscopy (normal results) and was diagnosed 2 weeks ago. I go back tomorrow for more information as I'm only slightly improving. Am on new meds.


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## 17733

I started noticing a few problems last Fall but they got worse in the Winter and I was finally diagnosed this past January. I've always been one of those that has a small number of movements a week, but was normal to me. I'd never known what it was like to be C. In fact, I didn't even know what it was. I just knew I felt different and hadn't gone for a while. I tried to regulate it with a vegan diet and yoga but that wasn't helping. I was put on Zelnorm and tried that for a month and it worked wonders on me. Too bad I can't afford it. I'm a college student just scraping by.I'm on a mostly vegan diet and take 2 or 3 FiberCon pills a day and Immodium at the first hint of an attack. It seems to be okay, but still managing to ruin my life.(I'm new. IBS-C and glad to have found this forum!)


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## 20422

I had stomach problems for a week before I was in a major car accident. Then the problems got terrible. I have a history of eating disorders, and I had upper GI problems when I was a kid. I couldn't stop burping. Then it went away.


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## 22711

I have never been formally diagnosed (I have never been able to follow up with the gastroenterologists) but one doctor suggested I may have IBD or IBS. Years ago, I'd commonly passed blood in my BM but recently, for the past three to four years, none at all. I've been much improved. My diet is also so restricted (by my own accord from knowing what I can and cannot eat) that I sometimes feel almost normal, as long as if I don't mess up. I don't remember the exact day it started but I remember my health started to go downhill once I hit about 14 or 15. I'm in my late 20s now. Back then I didn't know, but now I know exactly why, and it's the same reason why my brother had to get an ileostomy when he was 16 - we'd been drinking contaminated tap water.


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## 17539

I think mine started when I was about 12-13 (24 now.) I went on a crash diet, losing about 4 pounds a week. One weekend I ate more than I had been in a few weeks...I was at Haverty's furniture store with my parents and all the sudden had horrible urgency. Over the next 10 years I would have periodic urgency (maybe 2 times a year or so.) All of this however became 100X worse last summer. I had my wisdom teeth cut out and was but on Clindamycin and 3 weeks later developed c-difficile toxin. I could not shake the c-diff until this past April. Since then my IBS has been acting up pretty much every day except the days where I take imodium.


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## 14448

I've had ibs since early childhood and have always been embarassed about it. I remember having attacks of d and cramps when I was 4, and my parents being cross and frustrated. They thought I was making a fuss. Once my dad found me crying in my bedroom (I was too ashamed to tell him it was pain), but he guessed + got angry and said i was just 'feeling sorry for myself'! I remember stealing 'Entrotabs' out of his medical kit as well.Now I'm 21 and it's such a relief to b living away from home! My ibs is still bad but I cope with it much better now I'm under less stress.


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## Girl

It's quite an old message.. I found it while I was looking for a messages to deal with problem of gas.My story of Ibs began when I was 12, but one thing that I remember is that when I was 11 I had an embarrass moment about gas, one girl heard that and I was so panic and so sad that it happened cuz my bro was near to me...We came home back and I wanted just to put end to my life cuz I was feeling so shame. Later, at the age of 12, I had something that put me under so much pressure and then.. IBs came, I remember sitting in the class and my stomach did so much noises and having problem of gas, the people there were so rude to me, but before Ibs everything was normal with me, my life has ruined.Since then until now I have no life, I don't know how is to be normal again. It's so interesting that for the most of us, Ibs started at the ages 10-20. And something happed that made us in one point to get panic so much that it changed something in the the digestive system. The weird things is, that in a normal person it need to stop but in our stomach happened something else so in every situation that we know that can make us feel frightened the trauma that happened in the first place is repit over and over again.I don't think that a psychologist will help much in this, our problem I believe moved to a physical side. But there is a thing that cuz we are so worried all the time, the hormons must going through a change and has tight relation with the brain to the the digestive system, I don't know if it's true but after 8 years to be in no normal life one start to get some points.I have a question for you guys,Do you see yourself as a person that always worrie? I am talking about how you were BEFORE the IBS. Hope you understand my english,Girl.


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## gottogo

Mine started the summer before 7th grade. At least this is when I think it started. I got some virus and I was sick for a few days. I started having gas all of the time. Which I never had before unles just once in awhile. I knew something was wrong, but really did not know what. I told my mom, but back then they said it was caused by nerves and did not do anything. Then when I got out of high school and on my own, I went to the doctor who told me that I had IBS. They gave me a prescription for some meds, which did not help at all. Then they gave me a prescription for Combid Spansules which was wonderful. It helped so much. Never had the gas problems when I took it. Then the manufacturer took it off the market. Thats the way it usually works. As soon as something works for me they take it off the market.


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## 22144

As far back as I can remember (age 5, 6)... I've had frequent problems w/ nausea and diarrhea/cramping. The most commonly held theory for myself is that I got Jewel Foods Milk Poisoning in 1985. I almost died, was sick (vomiting and diarrhea/cramping/crying) for 2 weeks. My mom kept me very well hydrated. I had some crappy doctors that put me on crappy meds (can't remember) that almost caused my bowel to rupture. I had to be rushed to the hospital and treated for food poisoning. I was in the hospital for 5 days.Since that time, I've had an aversion to food (it makes my symptoms worse). However, it was a once in a while occurance until highschool. Then it was a couple times a week. Then in my second year of college it was a daily thing. Then it progressed to a multiple times in a day thing.


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## 19899

i first got it at 21 years old. i had been in college for a few years, really doing all sorts of stuff and drinking way way way too much. big time athlete in college pushing myself further and futher ignoring the pains of my body and taking all sorts of painkillers to keep playing. dunno if that had anything to do with it, but i just started getting the desire to run to the bathroom more and a lot of stomach cramps as well as excessive gas. it got progressively worse over the next few years. more and more foods started triggering D almost instantly and anytime i was stressed out or anxious (in large crowds, traveling) everything snowballed and got worse ten fold. became a vicious cycle, got cramps and D, made me more selfconscious, made me more anxious, made me feel worse. that's about it.not sure what started it, i've always been a fairly stressed out individual, but i can't imagine the drinking helped anything. The frustrating thing is i knew so many people and friends who did the exact same things i did or worse and didn't have any of these problems. it's hard to pinpoint the direct cause, probably a combination of factors.


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## 21198

Mine started at 10 as moderate IBS -C then from poor diet (cheese , bread, potatos and no fruit ever )and the phobia of no being able to go in public when I started 9 th grade , i developed full blown IBS-C , mega colon ,impacted intestinal tract, and anal fissures .I had to stay home from school a lot from being so plugged up I had to go potty with help from a mineral oil enema every week ,and have exams where the doc stuck his entire hand up my rectum which hurt like hell,so he could feel if I was impacted more or less than last month . I totally know what your going thru ,and iuts probably even worse for a female , but try new treatments until something works (enemas/colonic theapy/etc.)and try to get over the phobia of public restrooms , just remember everybody does it from kings to homeless people , dnt be uptight about it , ok


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## MyOwnSavior

Hi all. This is my first post. So far, this site has been very helpful! Nice to know there's a community like this around...Anyway my IBS started at the beginning of college (about 3 years ago now). I guess I was really nervous about being away from home and meeting new people and everything, and that set my IBS symptoms off. Although I don't think I was ever "normal" in regards to bowel functioning, it did not dominate my life until college started. Essentially IBS started with severe pain -- I was taking Pepto Bismol like there was no tomorrow because I thought I had a stomach ache from nervousness; being away from home, etc. The pain was (and still is) always the worst thing about the IBS. It mainly comes on when I'm sitting down for a while (say, sitting in front of the computer typing). At first, that was the only time I would notice it. Of course, because I was away at college, and pretty much the only time I would be in front of the computer or sitting down in general would be if I was writing a paper, I just attributed the pain to stress. The thing that made me mad (and still does) was that I never drank (at all), never smoked, never did drugs, etc. Yet, I have this chronic pain that doesn't go away irregardless of things I do (eating right, exercising, taking meds the doctors prescribe as required, not sitting down for long periods of time, etc.) to try to prevent it.


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## 22166

I was 15 (now 27)... cousin died, got depressed - not sure in what order.I find the eating disorder posts suprising. I was down to 1 meal a day from ages 15 - 17, but I thought that was a reaction to the nausea & intest. pain I was in.


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## Johnny

Started in Jr. highschool. 8th or 9th grade. D would come around like an alarm clock set for Geometry class. Luckily my mom spoke to my teacher and he was very understanding. The school i was in generally didn't allow students to use the restroom during class so that was hell!


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## 21989

You know, I have no idea.I know I made a cross country trip one time when I was 19 and almost didn't make it to a rest stop. That's one of the first times it really hit me.


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## roseran

my mother claims i had attacks earlier in my life, but i believe my ibs began after my appendix ruptured when i was 6. i had been sick for weeks, but my i went undiagnosed until my appendix burst. i feel like the severe trauma to my bowel during this time must have triggered my ibs. i was sick several times a week in second grade. i would be in tons of pain at school but would be smiling and happy on the car ride home. the kids at school would take bets as to what time of day i would go to the nurse. i went undiagnosed until sixth or seventh grade, when finally i got the doctors to take my symptoms seriously. now i'm happy to say that i have my ibs under control. it is totally triggered by anxiety/excitement for me, so i work every day to keep my body under control. i developed breathing exercises to manage my adrenaline.


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## postmortem

when i was younger i was prone to getting D ever since my dad did not cook the chicken very well. i remember spending at least long school break each year at home just toileting... mostly due to steak or chicken







sometimes lotion that gets in my mouth by accident. then when i was 14, i got really bad D-- maybe some kind of poisoning? had arizona drink but the opener thing fell into my drink but was heck thirsty cus its the summer so i drank it anyway. next morning i ate breakfast, ran for the bus, threw up midway going to school, went home got D for almost a week, went to doc and got antibiotics. had to #### a lot for a month or two after that even if i barely ate... i had anorexia at that time and then on halloween that year i binged so horrible and have been C ever since =\ RAWR.


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## Dandaman

honestly cant tell, but i believe i have had it for a very long time, im about to be 19 now and i can remember instances when i was around 10 or 12 that it affected me. but it was rare up until high school it started being more noticable. up until high school i would be outside every day all day playng sports and doing whatever, soon as i had some major family issues happen and my depression started seemed my IBS came out with it


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## Lizzie_mummy

I was first diagnosed with IBS when I was 14. After the birth of my 2nd son I got really sick, so went for tests. 2 years later I am now 23 and on Dosulpin. I have been taking it for about 2 weeks now. Its helped me a little but nothing major.


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## Guest

I started in the summer of '06 when I was 20. It had something do with me being extremely stressed at a job I got for the summer. When I was in school, I had a regularity of going every day right before lunch at about 11 in the morning. Once I got the job, I held it in until I got back home, about 5 o'clock, and sometimes I was so tired I just slept it off.At the same time, I had my wisdom teeth removed, all four of them at the same time. Bad choice because I couldn't eat anything with all four areas hurting. I had to go back to the surgeon four times because it kept getting infected with pieces of food. This drove me beyond crazy and on top of the pressure at work, I was extremely stressed out.So, extreme stress and a bad bathroom habit caused it for me.I'm much more stable now but that's because I've realized I'm lactose intolerant and eggs cause constipation. But even avoiding those foods doesn't create regular BMs. It's still a big problem but not as bothersome when I first realized it.


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## 16963

For a couple years before having real bad IBS problems, I was taking a medication that caused D. Before that medication, I only went a couple times a week. It's hard to say exactly when the D started getting bad, because if I ate poorly and paid for it the next day, I always figured it was the medicine so I didn't take a great notice of it. Last summer I realized that I had some problems when I took a new office job after working from home for a couple years and caught myself trying to make it through the day without having a BM because the bathroom was right by the office where I worked with several people and it was embarassing of course. It was annoying but bearable until late September. I think it was about the 25th. I was feeling bad all morning in classes, but only left for the bathroom once and figured I would feel better. I didn't, and in the middle of my afternoon class I got bad cramps and felt like I had a fever. I started sweating really badly, got very dizzy, and was extremely anxious. I had a really strict professor, so I knew I couldn't be going back and forth to the bathroom for the 75 minute class. It was a music class, and within the first 10 minutes the professor put on a song for us to listen to. I packed up my bag and left in the middle of that. I called a friend to drive me home because I wasn't sure I could make it the whole bus ride home. I tried to go to classes the next couple days, but sometimes I wouldn't even make it to campus before getting off the bus to catch the one going back home. When I did make it to campus, I didn't make it to class. I figured it had something to do with my medication, like maybe I was suddenly super sensitive, and tried going off of it to see if things got better. Of course, they didn't.I basically quit going to class for the rest of the semester. I dropped two classes and had to work closely with my professors to complete the rest from home. Thankfully, most of my professors were very understanding and the classes I took were easy enough to teach myself from home with a textbook. Those first few months were hell - my doctors told me to quit taking Immodium until we finished tests. I was in and out of the hospital for tests all the freaking time. I was on a variety of strong antibiotics (my GI dr thought perhaps I had an infection he just couldn't detect during any of the tests) and started amitryptiline around the same time. All of these medications have "confusion" as a side effect and originally that didn't concern me, but within a day I went CRAZY. I was afraid to even drive down to the grocery store because I felt like I was going out of my mind and couldn't trust myself not to get in a wreck. I would lay down in my bed for hours not doing anything, not even sleeping or watching TV, just because I was trying to get control of my mind. Thankfully I got used to the amitryptiline well enough, and the dr let me decrease my dose which helped too. I'm in the midst of going off of it gradually right now. I quit the antibiotics (obviously it wasn't an infection!) and was still homebound for months afterwards. I was afraid to go to the store or even my boyfriend's house. Thankfully I've gotten a handle on things now. I can actually go to school and had one of my best semesters this spring! I'm about to graduate in July. I can't wait, but part of me is also terrified about what IBS will do to my career. I work part-time from home right now, so it's not a big deal. But a full-time office job? I'm scared just thinking of it!


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## Haunted

Last year in April I was taking in more vitamin B5 than my body could handle (20 grams per day). I ended up with severe D for a week, and even after I recovered my BMs were never the same.Wow. When this thread was made I didn't have IBS and didn't even know what IBS was


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## mypainfulself

I was pretty young when my first symptoms came about.Actually, I was only eight years old. I had horrible constipation for almost two years, but somehow it stopped completely after those two years and I was fine until I was twelve...when I found out I was lactose intolerant. Since then, I've had horrible abdominal cramping...and I still do.


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## megflyin

I think mine started last summer when i was studying for the MCAT's (age 19). I got really stressed and would go through periods of hardly eating and then periods of extreme pigging out. I think all of this wreaked havoc on my body and I started losing weight. I got down to about 92 lbs (I'm 5'8'') and all my friends and relatives (and myself) got really concerned because I was eating like a horse yet the weight just kept dropping off and I was having bowel movements 6-7 times a day. I was finally diagnosed with Gastroparesis (slow emptying stomach) in december 2006 and started following the low fat low fiber diet prescribed. After my weight stabilized around 95 my nutritionist wanted me to get more fat into my diet by drinking it because my stomach doesn't have problems with liquids. However, every time I would get D and my weight started dropping again. Finally my GI tested me for fat malabsorption in May and it came back positive so I basically cut out all fat from my diet. Things got much much better and after researching online i found IBS and mentioned it to him and he said he definitely thought i had it. So here I am. As long as I stay away from fat and fiber I am fine.. but those restaurants can wreak havoc on me if they put oil in something.Meagan


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## SBR

Mine started in my mid to late teens. Then it got worse in my early 20's. There were some signs that things weren't right when I was an adolescent but I really didn't start having problems until I was 16-17.


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## notoriuskitty

i think it was when i started college and we had community bathrooms. I would get really paranoid and anxious. After that I would find that I would be scared to go to class in fear of my stomach going crazy. I have even walked out of classes because of it. I don't know exactly how it started though. I never ate really healthy, and maybe that's why. I noticed that eating at the right time of day was good for me


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## hr2help

I was 12. Before that I was perfectly "normal." I remember sitting in Math class right before lunch in sixth grade and getting bad gas. I also got anxiety when I was 12. Disturbing obsessive thoughts. I don't remember which came first, they seemed to come at the same time, and for no apparent reason. I wasn't sick as a kid, I had a great family, and a lot of friends. I didn't tell anyone though. That's a lot to deal with for a kid. I guess I didn't know how to tell my parents, so I didn't go to the doctor until recently, as I am an adult now. My D has gotten worse over the years, especially with stress. I got over a lot of my anxiety, but the IBS didn't go away with it, unfortunately.


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## notmybestday

I've always had stomach cramps, food sensitivity, and trouble with bowel movements in one form or another. Always a bit of an anxious kid, too. Didn't become truly bothersome or regular until my first year of college though. I think it was the away-from-home-anxiety, damn bad food, and general stress (thus, tight gut) that did it. Seems to be a common trigger for most IBS patients.


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## misty`eyes

I was diagnosed with ISB-C, PCOS, almost two years ago. I was having bad cramps and couldn't go to the bathroom for like three days. I thought I was going to die, the pain was unbelievable. I know that flare-up was brought on by stress from work, and home and what not. But, looking back, I know that I had symptoms of IBS around 15. I remeber getting in trouble in class for not coming back from the restroom within 5 minutes. My teachers used to think that I was running around when I was actually in the bathroom. I know that when the stress gets high I feel the flare-ups coming on. I also know that the more fatty foods I eat, the worse it gets. I don't have a lactose intolerance or a wheat intolerance. I have found some relief by cutting out caffeine, and vinegar based foods like salad dressings and BBQ sauce. The hardest thing is to try to pretend like you are okay. I work in a place where there are 26 workers, and one co-ed restroom. It is awful, and sometimes I just want to lock myself in there for awhile, but can't cause everyone needs to go right when I get in there. I have been diagnosed with infertility, but there is no known cause for it. I mainly remember the first IBS problems at around 14-15.


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## 23601

Summer between 8th and 9th grade. I got home from going out to eat with my parents on the 4th of July. I remember clearly saying to them as I was getting out of the car in the driveway "I'm going to go see the fireworks at the park." I went straight from the car to the park which is about a mile away walking distance.I get there, the fireworks are going, and I felt that I had to go. So I got up from the park and started to walk back through the subdivision. I couldn't hold it any longer and I had an accident, basically. And even again, before I got home, it happened again. Luckily it was dark out by then. I was a complete mess. I stopped in a porta jon near the house and tried to clean off some. Got home, cleaned up, didn't tell anyone.I'm 29 now, married, working, etc. Basically I don't have any problems with my stomach like the problems lots of people have on this site, but mine is more of a head game my mind plays. If I feel the urge to go AT ALL I will start to look around for a way to a bathroom. I could've just gone, but if I get that small feeling in my stomach or down further, I'll start to get anxious and I'll try to leave to go to a bathroom, even though about 99% of those times I actually could've held it. My wife knows that's just a part of who I am - I gotta know where the bathroom is.I work in an oil refinery, and often the jobs I'm involved in are at great heights and for a long time for each job. During the work week I'll hardly eat anything while at work. When I get home at around 4pm I'll stuff my face silly. I try to be done eating by 6pm. I'll then wake up the next morning at 4:30am to start drinking coffee and lots of water to help get last night's dinner out of me. Usually I'll have gone once before getting to work and at least three times before I actually start working. Therefore, if I do start a job in the morning and I feel a little push or something wanting to come out, I'll have that piece of mind knowing that I just let my dinner out and I didn't eat anything after that. Like tonight, after work I had a meatball sandwich from subway with hot peppers. Tomorrow morning, like clock work, I'll have to go something fierce after about an hour of drinking coffee and water.But yeah, it's a mental thing. Sometimes if I'm stuck on a job and I know I won't be leaving that job for ANYTHING, I'll simply pray out loud and breath deeply. And just like that, after I know I'm in control of what's going on with my body and that I can hold it or that I don't actually have to go, I'll feel totally at ease and I'll be able to focus on my work, and most often I'll start to sing out loud and joke with my coworkers.My coworkers tease me when at lunch all I eat is either oatmeal or a nature oats bar. I sometimes watch them eat lunch and I get jealous. They'll have two hamburgers, a hotdog, chili, a pop, then go right out on the job and work for a few hours at a time. I'll watch some of them during the day, and I know that some of the guys don't go EVER during the day while at work, and they eat and eat and eat, while I'm usually going to the bathroom #2 at least eight times a day.Funny, though, during basic training I didn't go #2 for the first week and a half of training.


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## overitnow

My D started late in life, in my early 40s; but my digestion had been deteriorating slowly for years. Blame it on smoking, drinking, eating fatty foods..._whatever!_...one morning I lit my first cigarette of the day at work and ran to the toilet. I did that two more times over the course of an hour (slow learner) before I finally figured out that something had definitely changed. That started a 10 year down cycle that saw daily D and worsening indigestion that eventually became chronic, from my first bite in the morning until I went to sleep. If it didn't calm down by then I could end up waking up with reflux.Fortunately I lucked into the flavonoids I have been using faithfully for the last nine years. While I no longer qualify under Rome 2 or 3, as my bowel problems are limited, I am not cured; but there is no more indigestion, no more D, and no more coming home with poop in my pants. I no longer smoke nor drink as heavily and my diet has a lot less red meat, gravy, etc; but there are no longer any foods that I must avoid. Poops are still soft and I still get to go 2 to 3 times a day and sometimes it is itchy as hell; but in the most important ways, I am a "Normal" again.Mark


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## Guest

Mine really kicked in in my early 30's but I've never had anything very severe - more on the C side and alot of indigestion and gas and stomach noises. Eventually things got alot worse in the autumn of 2005 and I had all the usual tests - they found that I had an extra loop in my descending colon. What caused the worsening of my symptoms I am convinced is that I was hitting a downwards spiral in the depression that has dogged most of my adult life (and probably before - having had a miserable teenage existance at Boarding School). That is now very well managed by anti-depressants - I take 30mg of Mitrazapene at night and guess what - my IBS is now almost non-existent - with a slight worsening of the symptoms (some pain in the splenic flexure apparently - good name for a group???) around ovulation.I'm very fortunate.Sue


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## kate072666

I am 41 now, i think mine started back in high school when i started eating alot of fast food. I don't know if i ate some bad food or what, but i just vaguely remember having bad diareaha from it. And it's not stopped since. It comes and goes in it's severity, but right now is good. I have always been ibs/d but lately i'm on the constipated side. It is so strange. I've been on all sorts of meds for it...nothing really ever helped that much...the only thing that ever worked 100% for me was Lexapro....the first time it was out. That was a miracle drug for me. I used it for one year, and they pulled it off the market. So sad for me!!!


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## Kelthink

Mine 'happened' after I ate a bad sandwich, when I was 16. I was eating it, thought it tasted funny, and said to the girls with me "I'm probably going to be sick tomorrow" 'cause the sell-by-date was from the previous day and I got food poisoning. Never did fully recover, I guess.


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## Kiss-Me-Deadly

I think mine was aggravated by my having a major stomach operation 2 years ago. After the op i had really bad C for about a week but that went away and nothing seemed to bother me for a while but then I would get these awful stomach cramps and I didn't know what the hell it was. This went on for a few months and then I finally realised i needed to see a doctor when I was curled up in a ball screaming with the pain. The doctor said it was IBS but never gave me any medication ideas ¬ ¬. So I cut out all the foods that made me ill and found a good anti-spasm pill that I take when it gets bad. I've basically been the one whose found out about the medication and what it is cos the doctor wouldn't do anything about it. I'm getting used to handling it now, no thanks to the doctors.


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## 21794

yup. I remember the exact occasion I got it. My mom was having a party and she made the typical tri-tip, chicken, beans, bread...the good stuff. Well me being a bean lover since I was little couldn't resist her yummy frijoles. I think I ate bowls of her beans for two days. Well on Monday when I went back to school my stomach was hurting so bad. I didn't think much of it so I ate more leftover beans. From then on everything just went downhill. It has taken me years to get back to where it used to be. But every year my stomach does get stronger


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## Sophie2009

I cannot pin-point it to an exact time in my life.Since a child I have been obsessed with my weight and the way I look. I was doing the Weight Watchers diet when I was 14. I think the constant yo-yo dieting doesn't help the situation but then I don't think it was the cause of it.In the summer of 2008 I lost 2 very close family relatives. However, I never experienced and IBS-like symptoms.During the first year of uni I had food poisoning in the first semester, roughly Nov 2008, I think that was what triggered it. As I was put on anti-histamines from March 2009 which was later confirmed as a wheat allergy. I had a bad reaction to some antibiotics, aka vomiting and diahrrea during the second semester of the first year as well which may also be a trigger. Over the summer of 2009 things were extremely bad but like I say that just happened over-night. So I think it may be an accumulation of the food poisoning and the bad reaction to antibiotics which caused my IBS. But hopefully my body should adapt and one day my symptoms may go.Sophie.


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## puzzel

i remember having trouble with c when i was about 10 or 11. very mild though and not that often. but every year since then it got progressively worse. im 21 now and ibs has basically taken over my life, so I cant even thinking about what next year will be like. Or ten years from now. Until two years ago I never thought about going to a doctor for it. Once I did, it took another year and a half of countless tests and medication trials (I keep a container of one pill from every type I tried) and five different doctors to figure out what was wrong. 2 docs referred me to other specialists, one of which told me eating yogurt is all I could do for myself. The other took an x-ray, decided something was definitely wrong because I was backed up, so he administered every test he knew of over the course of a year and then, in a stroke of brilliance, decided I should eat all my trigger foods and go take an x-ray. His diagnosis? You guessed it, something is definitely wrong because im backed up.So I switched doctors and finally got diagnosed with ibs. It was amazing to find out that im not a freak of nature and that what’s wrong with me actually has a name! Until then I literally thought that I just had some unheard of deformity or something. So imagine my surprise when I goggled ibs and found this site with tens of thousands of members! It was a bittersweet shock though because it was difficult to learn that there where so many other people suffering the way I was.


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## darkangel

i can allways reme havin tummy problems allways being in pain and never needin the toilet much my doctors never new what was wrong with me my life has never been all the good as i have almost allways been feelin ill i only got diagnosed with ibs today and not rele sure what to expect i have worked out that i seem to have •IBS-C i have been givin some medication and told to look at my diet i am glad that they have found out whats wrong but now worried about what ibs means for me and my futre i gusse my new life starts today at 20 and advice would be a help


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## psiloveu

When I was in Jr. High I had a bad time gas/bloating/constipation. It was like that for about a year. I became some what normal for a short term. I didn't start experiencing any really problems until I got my appendix out. I had appendicitis and emergency surgery. Since then I've had IBS-D. Everyone once in a while I get constipated, but its RARE, but I aways have TERRIBLE D after that passes. I was 14 when I started experiencing symptoms and 17 when I got my appendix out and the significantly intensified.It's a shame, when I was younger I could eat ANYTHING I wanted and I had a great stomach. Now, not so much.


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## Pinkett

my IBS started when i was 15, it was first when i ate junk food but then it began to happen when i would eat normal food too and has just gotten worse over the years and i ended up becoming a agoraphobiac, not wanting to leave my house incase my ibs went off.


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## Craptacular

I have never been formally diagnosed, but I dont need to be I know it's IBS C+D.It's always one or the other and never in between.I have been overweight my entire life almost, when I was 19 My life was full of stress (still is) but I stopped eating and was basically surving on redbull (energy drinks) and dried fruit bars. I dropped close to 50lbs in less than 3 months. I loved my new body.. but because I was not eating properly I had the worst constipation.. I litterally could NOT pass a stool even though I needed to BADLY. I went to a doc and was prescribed ducosate sodium and that helped immensley. Ever scince then I always have either C or D and never have "normal" stools. Even though my eating habits have improved.. I also had a child scince then... and recently I had a tooth extracted and couldnt eat properly.. that has brought on a severe case of D followed by a severe case of C.I wish I had lost that weight the proper way, maybe I never would have gotten IBS if I had.


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## IBSisEVIL

I started to notice it about a year or so out of high school. My dad got me this job where he worked that was about 1 1/2 hours away and I was usually able to control my bowels. As time went on I would start having to go to the bathroom while on the way to work. No biggie right? There were no available bathrooms to use that early in the morning and the McD's didn't open it's doors til 6. So i'd catch myself speeding up the highway and making it to work just in time. My new morning routine would consist of a few cigarettes trying to "jump start" my system into making me go to the bathroom which sometimes it worked and even on days when I'd go to the bathroom before I left I'd be so nervous that I'd have to go again that my stomach would cramp up and eventually would have to go. It progressively got worse over time and for the most part I wont leave the house unless I go to the bathroom first. I have my good and bad days but I still get nervous over stupid stuff such as going to the bar and it being too hot or meeting new people. I mention the hot because when I get nervous my head sweats and I feel embarassed alittle bit becasue I'm standing theretalking and wiping sweat beads from my head. Sorry for the rambling on. I'm new and it's somewhat nice to vent it out to random people.


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## geetargal

mine started when I was in elementary school. Probably because of genetics and stress, stomach issues run in my family.


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## aishy264

Well I had it since iv been about 8.. and it was triggered by a death in the family, and since then iv always had problems.. I have type A .. and have only been diagnosed this February 2010 .. and im now 20.. Iv just lived with it and thought it was normal. When i get stressed/anxiety or any nervousness ... thats when mine is reallly baddd. Iv just recently had an Endoscopy just incase it was colitus.


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## Cb-ibsa

Ive been fighting it for years. Since highschool. It started gettin bad when i was working as a roughneck. Sick on locations all the time. That went on for a while as the life of a roughneck isnt spent not working... I got a new job. And for awhile everything was fine. I started getting sick more and more. So the wife made me start goin to the doctor... I was to embarassed to discuss it with him. So i went on with life. I started getting sicker and sicker. I started the worst bout at 210lbs. I dropped down to 145. They took my apendix and that did nothing. Had a colonoscopy, upper gi, camera pill, gall study, ect... The list goes on. Mind you im 22 while this is goin down. So, finally went to a speicalist and he looked at all my test work and decided I have ibs-a. So on elavil and fiber(which helps) but doesnt do that great of a job. Pain management is something i struggle with. Im 23, have a beautiful large home, new vehicles, great income, and anything id like to have with in reason. And i cant even go see a movie with my wife because my stomach peels me out. I call it gods sick joke. Just had a bad bout after being up at buff wild wings. I barely made it home.







Its been a couple years since i was diagnosed. I hate it. Worst thing tht can happen to a person is be diagnosed with ibs.


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## srfrgrl

Thinking back, there were signs of mild symptoms in early teen years, but it definitely became apparent at 15 years old after an operation and major family stress.


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## Miami25

I always had stomach problems like the occasional bout of nausea and D as a child and into my teen years. I remember once in high school I would get D everyday after school but hat lasted onl about 2 months and it stopped I was stressed at the time so I can see why I had it. I always had D when I am about to get my period literally every month w/o fail lol. Then everything changed one day. I moved to Miami like a year and 3 months ago. I was fine for the 1st 3 months but then my symptoms started. At 1st I would get D after every meal, no matter what it was...that lasted about 2 months. Then it changed to having alternating C and D every 5 days or so. So that is what I have now but I have it under control with fiber supplements. I do have the occasional flare up about once a week to 2 weeks sometimes they aren't that bad and sometimes the flare ups have me on the ground in a ball from the pain one minute and rushing to the bathroom the next. It usually hits at night and I can usually tell if it is gonna come on that day in the morning or not I can kinda get a feel for it and stay home. I also get the D if I'm nervous no matter what lol and I have had that problem my whole life. If I knew I had a date that I really liked the guy...I would have D all day until the date I would be all empty for lol.


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## BritishStudent

Hi - sorry if this looks like an essay - I've just included absolutely everything I feel is relevant,I'm 19 this weekend and have had diagnosed ibs (didn't say which type- my best guess is A) for almost 6 months now and it's becoming an unbearable problem. Prior to university I went to a public school on the immediate outskirts of the city centre where I was in many of the schools sports teams and a leading figure in one of its largest extra curricular activities (the cadets). My group of friends lived all across the city and without thought I would find myself venturing miles out to go clubbing, play or use the gym at the rugby club, and spend hours in parks or on the golf course.Since moving to university over 100 miles away I've gone through many considerable lifestyle changes. I've been in catered accommodation where the food has been "substandard" although I never would expect the university doctor to admit that. Also I've spent most of my time in my room (a city centre apartment block) with little to do. I had a job as an RAF(VR) where I played rugby on a Sunday and attended a training night once a week, and joined the university rugby club - although strayed from that because I wanted to play rugby, not pick up an £80 drunk and disorderly fine.Approximately 8 weeks before Christmas I sprained my elbow and came down with a heavy cold. This was when I stared getting midweek bouts of D and recovering over the weekend. Convinced by my mum to see the doctor a week later I had given "samples", over Christmas I had a colonoscopy and at Easter I had a barium meal. Of all these tests the only substantial information was that I had a 15 minute passage of time for my digestive tract and Loperamide should help this. There is no real discernible result and I've been getting steadily worse ever since.I've been back at home a week and have stopped taking Loperamide to see if a healthy meal can help. (I'm keeping a food diary). I'm slowly becoming more regular but when I go to the toilet I get the sense of not having passed completely. "Like ribbons" is the medical simile I've found. Also I suffer incredible anxiety from simple things like picking up a prescription from the town centre or exams (I had to ask to leave a 2 hour business exam). I'm also unable to make the half hour journey to the gym or do anything on a definite basis.With so much contradictory information on the internet and such an incredible variety of treatments - how do I tell which is right? I've lost my job and all the effort I put into physical training - 1stone is a lot to lose when you only weigh 10 and still can't understand how i can just go from 18-21 hour days in military training to struggling my way though a 7 hour day. Are there any suggestions you have that might help?Thanks.


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## chazmonet

I'm not sure exactly when my ibs started but the first time I can remember getting it was in high school. Awkwardly enough I would get D before being 'intimate' with my gf, I think just because at the time it made me anxious. I also had it occasionally early on in my undergrad before exams, but I never realized until later that it was the anticipatory anxiety that was triggering it. In the last few years my life became incredibly stressful, which lead to bad D, which in turn led to anxiety about having D, which lead to even worse D.... Fortunately anti-anxiety meds have helped me lots! Best luck to all ibs sufferers


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## AndySike

I remember exactly. It was the last day of 7th grade, and I had the flu a week earlier and had some regular shots needed for school. I woke up and pulled my back out. Didn't go that last day, and I have never been the same. It's like the flu never went away.


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