# Anxiety, what a load of...



## Agent47 (Feb 14, 2016)

Hello everyone! I'm new here, and I'd like to get started by posting about my story in progress. I found this forum by accident. I couldn't have imagined a forum for IBS existed, so I was quite pleased to find it.

So, I'm currently 28 years old. I've been suffering with anxiety and depression since an early age. It's the cause of my IBS, though this particular problem didn't begin until 2012.

I developed a lot of social anxiety problems and quickly became a sufferer of agoraphobia. The outside world was a nightmare to me. If ever I had to face my fears, besides feeling generally overwhelmed by my anxiety, I felt cold and would shiver a lot. I thought living like that was bad enough...

Fast forward to 2012, a lot was changing and I was sick of being a victim to my problems. I wanted to make more progress. By chance, I started doing some physical training with a stranger in a local park. A few months later, knowing they would head into the city once a week to train with a larger group of people, I decided to be incredibly bold for me and tag along. This meant riding a bus during very busy hours for a good two to three hours through bad areas with someone I barely knew to train with a group of strangers in the middle of a small city park to practise an activity that provoked egos and then come back at night along with a load of drunks (takes breath)! For a socially anxious recluse, that was a hell of a step, and I did it...

...and that's the day I had my first encounter with IBS.

Ever since that day, it was like my brain had learned something new, because any time I was stressed or had to face anything that made me even the tiniest bit anxious, I'd then get IBS. Oh, IBS-D. I forgot to mention that. It got worse, and really never stopped getting worse. I'd go to the bathroom over and over again until whatever was stressing me out was done. Eventually things that weren't even noticeable triggered it. But I continue to fight my battles and, in terms of where I am with anxiety and my life, I still have anxiety, but I am way more social and my life has moved forward in such a huge way. Yet the IBS remains. I still have massive anxiety problems despite my progress. Knowing I've got to face something stressful in a few weeks time is enough to set off my IBS immediately, which is absolutely absurd.

As you can imagine, and as I'm sure most of you actually know, living with this is very hard. It is taking its toll on me mentally. I'll be in the bathroom and I'll just throw the toilet roll at the wall out of frustration, haha. The problem is that the stools are sticky and hard to clean, so, getting into that TMI zone, I can wipe and wipe to what seems like no end and still I'm not clean. I'm usually in the bathroom for ages, sometimes wiping so much that I bleed.

On that note, before I ever had IBS, my stools were still a bit of a mess. I started taking a product that you probably know called Bio-Kult. It actually did fix that problem in general so I could wipe once or twice and was fine, but that was only in general, not when I had IBS. When I get IBS, I can feel my gut get hot, like my body is producing all these acids to speed up the process to clean me out. I realise, whatever it is, that's causing the stickiness and also a difficulty passing everything. Basically, my system is good until anxiety or stress makes me need the bathroom, but it's becoming harder to deal with this because I'm in a position where I have to keep facing more problems. I did once try anxiety meds but they made things worse. I've tried meditation but I'm just too anxious to do it as things stand.

Anxiety is tough to deal with, but I believe I could manage it and make huge progress if it just wasn't for the IBS-D. To go a step further, the IBS would be a lot more bearable for me if at least the stools could pass in a normal way and not require me to spend 20 minutes wiping. If I can just figure out a way to help that, I'd be a lot happier, but I don't know if it's possible because of how anxiety works and everything is so sudden and in the moment. I'm going to try Psyllium Husk (I think that's the name) and see if it makes any difference, but if it doesn't, I don't know what I'm going to do...

I'll post updates on Psyllium Husk. It's not tackling the root, but hopefully it helps


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## Kane the Undertaker (Feb 15, 2016)

I hope you get well soon


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## caroleb (Jan 31, 2014)

I too have IBS/D and have also been diagnosed with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) Now I have HBP too and the meds aggravate both my IBS and GAD. Dr. says "so what", take the meds for HBP or have a heart attach or worse yet a stroke (and then you'll be shitting and pissing yourself) direct quote







I tearfully told him I already do that, and he just left the room. My problem is much like yours with bowel movements being soft, and have to use diaper wipes (a lot of them) to clean myself more thoroughly. I take a probiotic with Bifidobacterium infantis 500 million cells and FiberCon with Polycarbophill both recommended by my Gastro Dr. I only take the FiberCon occasionally but feel I might try taking one pill everyother day to help regulate my soft stools more effectively. I occasionally have bouts of uncontrollable watery diarrhea, with no warning, which is horribly embarrassing. I'm hoping the more frequent use of FiberCon will help as I don't want to wear Depends whenever i leave the house for the rest of my life. I will say the Probiotic has helped my stomach cramps a great deal though. My Dr. also says I can take Imodium or Gas Ex whenever it's needed or as a pro-cautionary measure. I know find another Dr. but who, my choices are very limited where I live due to my health insurance coverage? And anybody got an suggestions on how to get a Dr. to respond to your complaints, side-effects or questions?


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## Agent47 (Feb 14, 2016)

Thank you, Kane!

Hello caroleb, sorry to hear of your battle with these problems. It's bad enough that you have to deal with this, but also an arrogant doctor? I wonder why they bother going into these professions sometimes. I've had doctors who just want to get rid of you, even tell a load of rubbish so it's sooner rather than later. I figured maybe some therapy for my anxiety might have been useful again, but when I mentioned it to the doc, he shrugged it off and asked if we can talk about it another time, to which I replied that I had only been having palpitations for 40 minutes straight in the waiting room, but ok. We use a public health service in the UK, so I'm not sure what you can do about your doctor other than trying to find another who may be of more help.

IBS-D literally drives me mad these days. It's also one of those topics we can rarely talk about with people because, you know, everybody freaks out over toilet-talk. I'm not sure what I'm expecting from the Psyllium Husks. I started last night. I know it's meant to add bulk to the system and help get everything through the system, but seeing how this IBS-D works, it will probably have no effect. It really does affect life in a big way, doesn't it? I had the problem with watery diarrhoea while I was on a training course far from home. That was such a horrible time for me, everything from trying to survive the course with my stomach making loud noises, my gut breaking down, the train to then stay with a friend but not having a great deal of clothing with me.

Does music impact your IBS at all? When I get IBS and listen to the right music, it sometimes goes away. The problem is that as soon as the music stops, it's there again.


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## caroleb (Jan 31, 2014)

Thanks for your reply. I'm a music fanatic my car won't run unless I have the radio on







It must have some effect at home also because my meditation CD's have really nice, soothing music in the background...so? Here's a suggestion for you, look for meditation CD's by one of your countrymen Glenn Harold. I buy mine on Amazon, and my favorite titles are Complete Relaxation and Heal Your Body, you can also download them to other devices I just haven't figured those out yet. Meditation has helped me a great deal, for easing stomach cramps. Try one sometime and let me know how and if it works for you.

TTYS


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## Agent47 (Feb 14, 2016)

caroleb said:


> Thanks for your reply. I'm a music fanatic my car won't run unless I have the radio on
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks! I'll look into it. It'll be interesting to see if they work because usually relaxing music doesn't help much (I've tried a bunch on Youtube). It's usually some metal music or something or a fiery or driven nature that helps me. Meditation music generally helps me when my day is done and I've got nothing left to do. That helps ease me down. However, I'll let you know any progress!

One thing I do want to add to this post is that there has already been a change with the Psyllium Husks. I had quite intense IBS-D within the last hour. I thought at first it was going to be worse than usual. Stools were darker, yet to my surprise much easier to clean than usual (though that's not to say still not tedious). Anyway, progress is progress.


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## Renie5 (Mar 4, 2016)

Thanks for sharing your story. And yes progress is progress!  I hope you are still improving!

I'm finding it hard tackling my anxiety. I want to be spontaneous, travel the world, visits friends whenever I like but at the moment I'm struggling to leave the house for longer than a few hours!! I used to be social and deal with whatever challenges my ibs throws at me but I feel I've gone through so many bad experiences that I find it extremely difficult to socialize at all now. I constantly feel overwhelmed with symptoms of ibs-d that I can never relax and enjoy social gatherings. My doctor told me to YouTube EFT (Emotional freedom technique) so I started that yesterday and hoping it will help. I've had to stop working for a bit because my of my ibs and plan to do my first shift back in a couple weeks. I'm also trying meditation. How did you manage your agoraphobia? Any advise would be great


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## Alejandrox26 (Aug 30, 2016)

Hello, thanks for sharing your stories. Though it's been a while since someone wrote for last time, i wanted to share a few things that have helped me. Psyllum is good for both constipation and watery stools, they say. For me it worked, i have sticky and fragmented stools, and after a few days taking Psyllum, the stools became harder and not sticky. They just passed with no problems. Another thing is that IBS symptons occur more when you are anxious, i have had a really stressful year and i have suffered all the year with the symptons: sticky stools, feeling of incomplete evacuation, pain, gases. I have discovered thar certain food worsen the symptoms, but i think that depends on each person. For me it's coffee, tea, alcohol, high fats food. Well, i guess im taking again Psyllum until the stools become normal. Hope my experience be useful for the readers. Im not native english speaker.

Greetings


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