# Overnight Shift work, IBS?, and Anxiety



## mooseman84 (Apr 30, 2011)

After reading through the site during a bout of diarrhea, I found myself at home. A place to finally get some answers. My situation is different like everyone else. I am in the law enforcement field, and work the overnight shift. I have been battling bouts of what I think is IBS, and anxiety for 3 years. It is weird, sometimes I will go weeks without the feeling of uncontrollable diarrhea which is stopped via blackberry brandy, or Imodium. 3 years ago I was fired from a job for political reasons, and there after started this problem. Bouts of uncontrollable diarrhea for a day or two then nothing. I have tried cutting out coffee for weeks at a time, but then going back to it since it's essential sometimes. I have tried cutting out milk and dairy which I like a lot, (sometimes that works, but after going back to it for a couple weeks I have no problems.) This is puzzling, and it had an effect on my life especially when working and having to be away from the road for 20 to 30 mins.It is effecting my work performance, and my superiors know about what's going on but it is embarrassing. I have tried cutting back on overtime to avoid issues, but some days its so bad that I have to call out of work, or take Imodium just to get to work. This is a real pain in the butt, and I hope someone(s) can shed some light on this for me.


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## TVgirl (Sep 16, 2009)

mooseman84 said:


> After reading through the site during a bout of diarrhea, I found myself at home. A place to finally get some answers. My situation is different like everyone else. I am in the law enforcement field, and work the overnight shift. I have been battling bouts of what I think is IBS, and anxiety for 3 years. It is weird, sometimes I will go weeks without the feeling of uncontrollable diarrhea which is stopped via blackberry brandy, or Imodium. 3 years ago I was fired from a job for political reasons, and there after started this problem. Bouts of uncontrollable diarrhea for a day or two then nothing. I have tried cutting out coffee for weeks at a time, but then going back to it since it's essential sometimes. I have tried cutting out milk and dairy which I like a lot, (sometimes that works, but after going back to it for a couple weeks I have no problems.) This is puzzling, and it had an effect on my life especially when working and having to be away from the road for 20 to 30 mins.It is effecting my work performance, and my superiors know about what's going on but it is embarrassing. I have tried cutting back on overtime to avoid issues, but some days its so bad that I have to call out of work, or take Imodium just to get to work. This is a real pain in the butt, and I hope someone(s) can shed some light on this for me.


WOW 50 some odd views to this post and no replies !!!anyways I am a nurse and am very well familiar with the overnight shifts and just plain shift work. Overnight shifts are VERY hard on your body and they cause alot of stress. Not just physical stress but emotional stress. As a nurse doing the overnight shift, all my patients are pretty much sleeping but it is just me and 2 care assistants to 76 residents, so there is always somebody up in the night, somebody sick, somebody fell etc... the overnights just killed me...I got so stressed out, wasn't sleeping properly, wasn't eating properly, and sick alot. I took immodium too sometimes but then it messed up my bowels by making me bloated and constipated. I would find myself, like you with uncontrollable bouts of diarrhea. I remember working with this man who had parkinson's and I was helping him to the bathroom, all of a sudden I had to go really really badly but this man's movement's were so slow because of his illness (not his fault), but I rushed him, when normally I wouldn't. So it was affecting my job too.Some people can develop IBS just from that stress of not eating / sleeping right. Some people already have it and it just makes it worse. the only thing I can suggest is see your doctor to rule out other things first. Make sure you get good quality sleep and eat properly and drink plenty of water. Try some activities when you are awake and not at work to de-stress, whatever it is you like to do....swimming, walking etc...I would practically starve myself throughout the night because I never felt like eating much in the night. Small frequent snacks that are easy on the stomach did help me. I found these to be things like crackers or half sandwiches, I often bought whole packs of rice crackers to munch on throughout the night. I couldn't eat like what my co-workers ate, they brought in like full dinners, pasta and mexican food etc...I could not eat that stuff in the night, that would just make things worse. Stay away from coffee if you can and when you go home in the morning, wear sunglasses even if it isn't sunny out until you get to your dark room to sleep in. Don't eat a really big meal in the morning like a breakfast because it is your bedtime.It is really hard I know !!! For me it was too much, I had to switch to day shifts but still rotating days and evening shifts, not getting home till like midnight then have to get up early to get the kids to school. A healthy consistent routine is always best and I know how hard that is doing shift work and overnights.


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