# 18 year old studying stressful degree at uni



## a1995 (Apr 20, 2014)

in December 2013 i was diagnosed with Gastritis due to excessive alcohol consumption and a stressful life style, i suffered from this for about 3 weeks but thought i still had it up until March this year as i was still experiencing symptoms.
I lost 10kg, had constant nausea and pain and had a very loose stool which was becoming more frequent as time went on.
In january i went on my planned trip to europe for 5 weeks where i was on 2x 20mg Losec each day and multiple tablets of Mylanta which i think caused excessive diarrhoea.
I was going to the toilet about 3-8 times every day and on the plane home i spent what felt like the whole flight sitting on the toilet with an endless supply of poo and gas even though i only ate light the couple days before my flight home.

My trip was stressful as i ran out of money so i was consistently nauseous, in pain, gassy and had so much diarrhea.

When I returned home the diarrhea became less frequent and stopped after a few days. I now only have diarrhea if i eat something very oily, most vegetables, all fruits except bananas and heavy to digest meals such as steak and fries or if i'm extremely stressed out.

My doctor recommened i started taking probiotics and since my stools have just been loose and fluffy where a lot of the foods i eat i can still see in my stool and i only need to go to the toilet twice or three times a day at the max.

Probiotics have done wonders for my abdo/bowels but are useless if i'm not eating properly.

For the past few months i've lived off toast, yoghurt, bananas, crackers, potato, ham, turkey, wholemeal bread and muesli bars all of which leave me with the most minimum of systems (uncomfortable stomach, incomplete evacuation of bowels loose stools but no diarrhea and no stomach pain/nausea unless im stressed).
When i do cave for a day and have chocolate or ice cream i get awful stomach pains/gas/indigestion where i need to lay down immediately. I'm a going to see a dietician next month but am very scared to broaden my diet as i am currently studying fulltime and have loads of assignments and work to do and when i have a bad flare up due to food/stress i can't even think about doing anything else but sleeping or sitting on the toilet.

Two weeks ago i decided to go out and drink for the first time this year and after only having 2 drinks within a couple hours i needed to go home immediately as i was in so much pain and feeling so nauseous and my gastritis came back which left me feeling like crap for 5 days. Having gastritis and IBS was one of the worst experiences of my life and i 10/10 do not recommend to anyone. However the alcohol i feel didnt cause any IBS symptoms (i think it was just the gastritis) because i read it causes diarrhea and me being ibs-d it didnt cause any at all, just the same very loose stool that morning.

I'm currently studying nursing and trying to get into medicine which is a career that requires complete dedication and loads of work and stress, i am finding it difficult to balance my work load and stress with my symptoms, i've tried many stress reducing techniques but nothing seems to work for me.

Is anyone else in a similar situation where they are ibs-d but only in stressful/unfamiliar situations like travelling/studying but still has pain or discomfort on a daily basis no matter what they eat?


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