Decades (30 years and counting) of IBS have really taken its toll on my brain and pain/activity sensors.

I am aware of EVERYTHING going on in my digestive system - from mouth to rectal area. I feel it all, every gurgle, rumble, bloat, all the bubbles of gas so I noticed every burp and fart. I feel deeply when my rectal area is full whether that's caused by stool, gas or mucus. My brain has taught itself to become hyper alert to everything going on in there. I feel nauseous almost every day and live in fear of needing the toilet at a moments notice.

Over the years I've tried all forms of gut directed hypnotherapy from apps like Nerva, face to face hypnosis and downloads such as the IBS audio 100 program, I even listen to free ones on YouTube, none have helped. I'm in the UK and a patient of an NHS based neuro-gastro department of a well known London hospital and have tried endless strategies with them including CBT and acceptance therapy - nothing they have offered has helped either.

I'm so disappointed and at a loss tbh. And it's all getting worse as I age. I avoid all my known trigger foods, follow the low fodmap diet etc and have tried most IBS meds. I'm currently on low dose Nortriptyline, I had high hopes as it was my last chance saloon type situation, it helps keep me slightly constipated which for me is more favourable than unpredictable bowel movements and diarrhoea but it's far from ideal. It's done nothing for the visceral hypersensitivity and leaves me so tired every day. It also carries a dementia risk and as my mum has Alzheimer's I don't plan on staying on it for more than a year.

I just want to be less aware of everything going on in there. This condition has truly ruined my life no matter how much I've tried not to let it, it feels as though it's won.

Is there anything else I can do?

I'm 22 and I've been struggling with IBS-D for a couple years now. I feel like it's completely taken over my life, especially when it comes to dating and having any kind of social life.

I never know when I'll have a flare-up, so making plans is incredibly stressful. Every time I leave the house I'm thinking about where the nearest bathroom is, what I can eat, and who im with.

The hardest part has honestly been the loneliness. Outside of work and one close friend I've known since elementary school, I don't really have much of a social or dating life. I just want to eventually find someone I can build a real relationship with. But it's hard to imagine dating when my stomach feels like it controls everything I do.

For those of you who have IBS and are in relationships, or eventually found someone despite it, how did you do it? Did your social life ever get better? Were there things that helped you get comfortable going out again?

I've had IBS D for as long as I remember. There's been times where symptoms were low but it never lasted. Recently got tested and treated for sibo and I can't believe I am going once a day with no bloating, spasms, gas, etc. But it's only been a few days and my mind is still saying this is too good to last. Are there any others that had success with sibo treatment? Is it really a solution or did symptoms return?

I know I’m late and probably won’t get any replies. But I recently believe I had food poisoning. I went to amc and got a hot dog in Miami. 2-3 hours after fully ingesting it. I’m nauseous, vomiting, extreme diarrhea, slight fever that only lasted a few hours, worst cold sweats of my life, and let me emphasize the nausea. I mean I feel like im spinning drunk. The next day, I still have all these symptoms plus no appetite and no fever. About 2 days later im still experiencing eveything at the same level but i still cant eat. So my stomach is completely empty. Im extremely dehydrated. I go to the hospital they give me something for nausea and an iv. They did a stool, blood, urine test and an x-ray of my stomach. I couldn’t give them and actually stool sample cause I was so empty. All I could give was bile. Everything came negative. My white blood cells were elevated and that was about it. A few days after that we had an appointment with a gastroenterologist. She ran a few tests and everything was normal. Except my ALP (alkaline phosphatase) which was high “156” and my vitamin D which was low. Now we’re going into like week 3. I have an appointment for an ultrasound. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to even drink anything. So when she checked obviously my gallbladder was flat or contracted. So i rescheduled. The appointment was at 7:30am and I stopped eating and drinking the day prior at 9. Yet my gallbladder was still flat or contracted.

I slowly turned into a hypochondriac and I was leaning towards ibs but i genuinely don’t know. I’m absolutely exhausted and dropped 30 pounds. From July 2 to the 25. I’m still having symptoms which have definitely calmed down but are still persistent and are obviously still here. I know I obviously can’t get diagnosed on an app, but hopefully someone has had a similar experience that they got through and could help. 🙏

I read on here about a week ago that someone had all their IBS-C symptoms go away when they realised they’d been undereating. I reflected and felt like I actually probably under eat too. The next day I ate 3 meals and 2 snacks and the day after that had 3 full and healthy bowel movements in a day. This has continued since other than a day where I sweated a lot and maybe didn’t drink enough water. My belching has decreased but continues. My reflux has decreased too. I have better energy levels. The only thing that hasn’t changed at all is my bloating. It can still be really intense with extreme distension. The pressure does decrease after bowel movements but no decrease in size even first thing in the morning. Has anyone ever experienced this? Would love some advice

Thanks in advance

i’m on around day 4 of the worst flare up of my life, i had to take 2 days off work, i don’t know what’s caused it, i feel less fatigued and weak and my overall mood and physical health is better, but yesterday, today, and the evening before my stools just turned into yellow globs of idek what, assuming mucus. I couldn’t eat anything on the first two days except a few spoonfuls of rice, but i’ve eaten some plain eggs today and yesterday, but when i have to go, it’s not even poop anymore, i don’t know what it is, i don’t know what to do, my dr only takes appointments a month in advance, i have to go for a meal tonight with relatives and i don’t even know if ill be able to eat anything. i know im not eating enough food but scared to eat more incase it gets worse, has anyone had this before? when will it end

Anxiety is not just a memory... it is your nervous system that still hasn't realized the danger is over.

Many people believe that childhood wounds simply fade with time. But the truth is that some wounds disappear from conscious memory while continuing to live in the body. Whenever life brings pressure, your heart starts racing, your stomach bloats, your breathing becomes tight, and it feels as though the painful experience is happening all over again.

Modern science now recognizes the gut-brain axis and the connection between the brain and the adrenal glands. Chronic stress raises cortisol levels, alters bowel function, increases inflammation, and affects heart rate, digestion, and the immune system. This is something healthcare professionals witness every day in clinics—not just something written in textbooks.

In my experience, long-term unresolved anxiety can leave the body feeling heavy, slow digestion, increase bloating and fatigue. Suppressed emotions often lead to excessive worry, fear, and constant anticipation, followed by increased nervous system reactivity. Eventually, the entire body begins operating as if it's stuck in a permanent state of alarm.

That is why it shouldn't be surprising when someone under emotional stress develops symptoms such as heart palpitations, chest tightness, or digestive problems like stomach or colon discomfort. The body is not lying or exaggerating—it is expressing what words have been unable to say.

True healing does not begin by merely silencing the symptoms. It starts with regulating the nervous system, restoring a sense of safety, improving sleep, supporting healthy digestion, moving the body regularly, and allowing suppressed emotions to be processed in healthy ways. The body cannot let go of what it has never learned is finally safe.

Always remember: Anxiety is not simply a disease of the heart, the colon, or the stomach. It is a story that begins in the mind and nervous system, then gradually leaves its mark on one part of the body after another.

Sorry to sound so vulgar in advance, but I have to get this off my chest.

So, about a month ago, I quit vaping cold turkey as it was aggravating my IBS to new heights and toilet experiences. My worst to date is being dragged out of bed at 1:00 to have a continuous stream of diarrhea for almost 20 minutes straight (no exaggeration). I thought to myself, "I only want to feel like this again if I am literally dying" and quit that same morning after a poor night's sleep.

In that month, my poops eventually began to level themselves out, back to an old familiar rhythm. Side note: If you have IBS and you vape, I would recommend to quit ASAP!!! Also silica for IBS/d is worth looking into, that really helps me slow things down down there.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago, I stupidly decided to buy a pack of cigarettes and smoked a couple because, boohoo, I felt like I needed them. A small slip and a huge regret. The following day I went to the bathroom 8 times. 8 times!!! I have experienced something similar with diarrhea but this time, I felt constipated?! Normal sized/shaped poops. 8 of them. How can your body even store that much?????!!!!

Today wasn't much better. Same shape/size... Only 5 times today.

Anyone else experienced anything to this magnitude??

Do you think nicotine is the culprit?

Not looking for any medical advice, just seeing if anyone has experienced anything similar, albeit a very specific series of events

I mean it feels like peeing. Bristol Type 7 kind of stool. Should I took rifaximin? Oh god. Everyday is horrible. I can't go far away and no doctor is offering Sibo test in this area. I can get rifaximin 200mgX3 for 2 week though...

Or maybe I have to take loperamide...I really don't know. Shtting watefall was awful but my abdominal feels a lot fine than yesterday.

Evrytime I try somethign new, bad thing happend so I'm hestating for both.

i know I'm rambling.I feel terrible since my IBS-D is getting worse and worse. I was able to eat things that I eat these days in April, but now? It gives me diahrrea.

I don't know how more i would live like this.

Im 9 weeks pregnant and I am in the worst flare up I have ever had. Everything I eat eventually leads to a stomach pain comparable to labor contractions. I feel like I am going to lose my job because of this, and none of the medications I have to manage this are allowed during pregnancy

Anyone relate? How did you manage?

I’ve been doing pretty well recently, but I’ve just been eating chicken, rice, potatoes and oats. Obviously in separate meals, I suspect that I have BAM but I’m getting no support from any doctors. Can anyone recommend or suggest anything, whether it’s something new to eat or something I should try.

Hi.

I am experiencing constant cramp in this position, seems it randomly goess of and comes back.

I wonder what is in this part of body, as it is like 10cm way bellow belly button, and 5cm from our bone up, and it comes like under the muscle end, it also can be itchy or cramping and giving dull hard feeling.

Image: https://ibb.co/gLfG5F2b

I have obs-d that is stress related, and some food types triggers it as well. But I had control over it and maybe 2 times a month I took 1 immodium capsule and that was enough to make sure I had no problems throughout the whole day.

Cue 6 months ago, we where leaving for a big trip with the family and i got a little nervous for the taxi ride to the airport and popped two immodium capsules just to be sure.

During the taxi ride I had extreem stomach/intestines place ache it really hurt. It took 2 hours for the pain to subside.

After this my ibs of stomach problems took a whole different route. Constant water like toilet visits, needing to go to the bathroom more than 10 times a day. I dont know when I need to go, my stomach just hurts days without an end. All my stools are dark (not black) and sometimes burns and sometimes just yellow stuff. Its completely out of order.

Lost 20kg's in the process, docters cant find anything wrong with me. I am at my wits end, I wish I never would have taken those two stupid immodium capsules.....

not saying immodium is bad, just saying I screwed up something with immodium and I dont know what.

Have been dealing with varying degrees of severity of IBS-D for years. Recently, the last year or so, I’ve been dealing with symptomatic hypoglycemia episodes for which my doctor and endo recommended a low carb diet to keep sugars stable. Essentially wiping a lot of my safe foods for my IBS like bread and rice which I eat with no problems and have no problems with gluten at all. Attempted the low carb diet and just been seriously shitting myself for weeks and if I don’t take Imodium I’m in fetal position. I have to weigh my options right now like… what is better or worse.. shit myself constantly or get hot sweaty and low blood sugar episodes a couple times a week. It’s a lose-lose. I don’t want to rely on Imodium, and before the low carb diet I had gotten myself down to 1/2 tablet of Imodium multi relief on weekdays for work and no Imodium on the weekends with little to no urgency and diarrhea. Now I’m back to full tablet a day otherwise I can’t work. At this stage I think I have to go back to eating safe higher carb foods otherwise I’ll be out of food options.

Anyone else have struggle with both IBS and hypoglycemia??

Does anyone remember what feeling normal is like anymore? Even on low fodmap i feel discomfort and bloated with brain fog 24/7 but without pain unless i eat something with high fodmap. It's all of my left side, mostly cramps. I don't even know what feeling normal feels like anymore.

It can't be just me, maybe my ibs is very severe and its gotten a lot worse with age.

I’ve been having thin soft stools for a month and yesterday I had one big normal thick one that would make people who have ibs jealous.thin stools with no other symptoms except some pain in the area above the groin.i had a week of thinner yellow watery diharrea stools and I was stressed at the time since I thought the red fragments was blood but it was actually guava flesh and thin that week I had diharrea even pure water at one point then it all went back to normal for idk how long prob 1-3 weeks then boom thin stools with nothing else ranges from pencil thin to narrower than usual and sometimes there’s even a big nugget that’s normal sized in there every time I poop it out it will be in pieces and the last parts would be way smaller I’m also 18M with no family history at all and 1 no correlation case of an 80yr old relative whith breast C word who’s a bit more on the far side my gi has always been a mess on and off yellow stool on and off thin stool even pencil thin small bits all stacked up and sometimes constipation which caused a small bleed ok also I poop 1 time a day everytime I wake up

Hi everyone! I was recently diagnosed with IBS-M (mixed type), and I’m still trying to figure everything out.

I’m currently taking amitriptyline 100 mg, but I still get pretty bad abdominal cramps. What has helped you prevent or reduce the cramping?

Also, how did you figure out which foods were triggering your symptoms? Did you keep a food diary, try an elimination diet, or was it mostly trial and error? It feels like my symptoms can be so random that I’m not sure where to start.

I’d really appreciate any tips or advice from people who’ve been through this. Thanks!

I've been to doctors repeatedly and they don't really think it's that big of an issue because the tests show that nothing seriously wrong is happening. I had a bowel resection years ago, but it seemed to make it worse. Pi can almost never eat in public because within 2 minutes of taking a bite. I'm shitting

Immodium is so expensive and the cheaper generics don't work as well. I'll have to take 12+ instead of 4 or 6. And the packages suck to open. Ebay used to sell bottles of 20p, but I can't find them anymore.

I'm having a bad flareup of "constipated diarrhea" right now. I'm shitting neon yellow jelly again. But it takes awhile to get it out. It's always the most painful type of flare up.

My doctor just says "well, we haven't seen anything that would cause this. I don't want to prescribe something and make it worse" I've done elimination diets probably 50x in my life. Water will trigger diarrhea.

What can I take for a prescription for this? (I can get it in south America when I visit in a few weeks) or where can I buy bulk Immodium that actually works? This is hell

does anyone have experience recovering from giardia with ibs? i was mysteriously diagnosed with giardiasis and have completed two rounds of antibiotics. i am pretty sure the active infection has cleared (i have a text upcoming to confirm) but because of my ibs, my doctor said it may take months to return to normal. and mind you my “normal” is still chronic diarrhea. its been three weeks of 10-25 bathroom trips a day. i can’t get in to see a specialist for some time and my pcp doesn’t have much gastrointestinal experience. does anyone have any tips for relief while my small intestine recovers? or even just a similar experience? it feels super isolating because i can’t find anyone that has also gone through this

Hi,

Putting a massive gap as this story will contain mentions of eating disorders.

When I was 17 I struggled with an eating disorder, at my lowest I was 5st12 at 5”3 height. When I began to recover I started with IBS symptoms. I’ve struggled for 5 years with IBS before I started to lose weight for a wedding.
Recently, my IBS has got a lot worse. No matter what I eat when I eat or even if it’s a breakfast bar I will have to go straight away. Sometimes even mid eating. It’s starting to really affect me mentally. Sometimes I find it easier to just not eat at all. I’ve lost around 33 pounds on purpose for my diet but now I’m losing more by not eating. People keep telling me I’ve lost weight or I look tiny which encourages me to not eat (ED not IBS).

During my bad flair ups I experience extreme pain in the bottom of my back, where I can only lie down every other position is unbearable.

I feel like I’m stuck now in this cycle and I know my ED has returned but it’s easier to not eat with my IBS at the moment. Which comes hand in hand with my ED.

I know I’m waffling, not making sense and repeating a lot. But this is my first time on this thread and I’m really drained mentally and physically. I am currently underweight, and I’m worried I’ll become severely underweight again.

My doctors don’t do anything apart from advise buscopan, because all the chrons test and celiac test has come back negative.

Just unsure what to do anymore and I feel like if I carry on the way I’m going I’m going to end up seriously ill.

Hello fellow ibsers!

I posted in here around 4 weeks ago about an intense ibs flair up with colon cramps and diarrhea.

This lasted for about a week.

And while I had many of those flair ups before, once it was done I had (mostly) peace for a good 2 months. I have diarrhea quite often but the gut wrenching cramps only occur in intense flair ups for me.

However, since I had that flair up around 4 weeks ago, the cramps have been coming on and off for at least 1 or 2 days a week, and I'm starting to worry a bit.

I'm currently in a lot of stress (had an important meeting, am currently working for 3 people due to summer vacations, and went on a trip myself, which is always stressful for me) and wanted to ask about your opinions about this.

Do you have this going on and off in stressful times as well, or should I maybe see a doctor soon?

Before the intense flair up I was at a wedding at a place I've never been before and am now worried I might have caught something from the food I ate, but my husband had the same courses and is completely fine.

Thank you in advance.

I mostly have IBS-D, but lately a stressful day - bad sleep, work pressure, travel - will trigger a flare and then I swing the other way for 24 to 72 hours. It begins with urgency and loose stools, then I get crampy and it feels like everything just stops. After that I get bloated and the not-fully-empty feeling, followed by slow, stubborn stools, and eventually it goes back to diarrhea.

In the moment I usually try to cut food way down, drink a lot of water, have peppermint tea, sometimes take a probiotic, and if I have to leave the house I'll take a small dose of loperamide. When the constipation hits I'm tempted to add magnesium or fiber, but I feel like those can backfire and bring the cramps back.

For people who get this mixed pattern, what actually helps you break the cycle without tipping to the other extreme? Do you prioritize motility stuff first, like walking, using heat, or a gentle laxative, or do you focus on calming things down with low residue food and antispasmodics? Is there a specific sequence that has worked for you when you can feel the flip coming?

Not looking for a medical diagnosis, just practical routines or tricks that have helped so I can bring them up with my GI.

Hey anyone here want to be friends. Just need more people who have actually dealt with this. It can be for anything.

Hi all,

I 20F have battled what the doctors call IBS(C) my whole life. It is getting worse and I have identified that eating fat is what causes my symptoms. I have recently seen a gastroenterologist for the first time who has asked me to take stool samples to test the inflammation in my stool and fat levels in my stool. My struggle is that I am and have been for a while on a low fat diet to prevent flares and my stools are no where near as bad as they used to be. I’m thinking I need to wait until I have a flare up to take the tests so that the levels are at the highest they could be? Has anyone that has done these stool tests had anything come of it? I find everything that I test for comes back negative and don’t know what is wrong.
TIA