hello (male 25 years old), i wont get to much detail about the background but i am diagnosed with ibs. I already knew that stress had something to do with my problem but i wanted to make sure so i went to a doctor. Everything else turned out fine, also i wasnt able to identify any foods that trigger ibs except apples and diary, which means its mostly stress

So.... all of my daily stress is 90% about my ibs, because i stress about triggering ibs, which triggers ibs, and then i stress about it... it goes on and on..... its a never ending cycle. All i think about every single day is about pooping which causes all of the above. My way of dealing with this until now was to not eat to much food so that i wont have much stuff to get out of my system. That caused me to lose a bit of weight and i dont think its good in the long run, cause i should not lose more for sure.

My doctor suggested i should start taking amitriptyline with breaks in between ( for example, take for 1 month, stop 1 month, take again 1 month, stop 1 month etc ). Also told me that amitriptyline is a form of anti-depressant which mainly works on your bowel system and not your brain, which means that its not addictive. This term anti-depressant scares me to be honest, and i wouldn't like to start taking these kind of pills from 25 years for the rest of my life.

Does anyone have any experience with amitriptyline ???

I feel that the first step is to try and reduce my stress about ibs and reconciliate with it . But.... at this point im at right now, I really dont know how i can help it, i cant stop thinking about it. I only "forget" about my problem when im sure i wont have to get out of the house the next day.

For all of you that feel the same.... how do you manage stress? how do you get your mind of this ?? What actions can i take to help myself about this. I feel desperate right now..... and its really hard for anyone that hasn't experienced this to understand our struggle. Any advice is appreciated and needed,

Thanks in advance

My IBS flares up in the mornings because when I wake up, my anxiety is really bad, so I can’t eat much if at all. So I’ll have apple sauce or a banana, and throughout the day I am starving, but I don’t want to eat anything because I’m not hungry and nothing tastes good. Right now I would classify this is high functioning depression under the umbrella of grief.

Nothing sounds good to me and every time I eat something, I’m forcing myself to eat food. I hate how this feels. I put off eating until I’m so hungry. I’m crying because I don’t want to eat.

I miss them so much.

I hate that I have zero appetite but I’m starving. It’s so confusing.

I have read older posts from years ago with very similar situations as mine however, I never seem to get to the bottom of it or find a cure. It’s been really affecting certain aspects in my life, like social and intimacy. Every morning I wake up and my tailbone area/butt crack area is soaked and it’s irritating. It seems to go away after I have my morning bowel movements. Which can be like up to 4 times till I’m cleared out and the sweat goes away there. I find myself changing underwear multiple times because the wetness drives me insane and feels gross. There’s no smell to it etc. just wet.

I started noticing it like 5 years ago. My ex fiancé went to cuddle me one morning and she felt the area on accident and she was like oh wow you’re so sweaty there! And I was like yeah and got super self conscious. Fast forward to later days, I am constantly thinking and worried about having a girl over for the night and when I have, I try and wake up before them and run to the bathroom so I have some privacy while they’re sleeping. Wipe all the sweat off, change underwear/boxers. I’ll wear both in hopes the sweat doesn’t sink through both layers, but it always does.

When I’m out in public, I’m scared to sit in a chair and leave wetness because I have seen it happen once or twice. I told my doc about this last year and she seems baffled and checked for a cyst in the area but nothing.

After reading online on and off today, I ran into people mentioning SIBO as a possibility. I had never heard of it so I did a little research. I’ll definitely have to go to a GI doc as I was recommended last year and haven’t gotten around to it in fear of having a colonoscopy lol. But I probably really need one. I’ve suffered from IBS since maybe middle school. I’m 34 now and it’s been hell. lol. Nothing seems to help. I pop Imodium before social situations or meeting a girl. It rarely has helped.

I just want this damn sweaty tailbone issue to GO AWAY. Please. Any information or advice would be great. Please don’t suggest diet change or wearing different material underwear. Doesn’t and has not helped. As well as antiperspirants.

guys i have chronic severe constipation my doctors suspect IBS cuz they couldn’t find anything else and my GOD I JUST TOOK A SHIT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WEEK AND I FEEL AMAZING. i know you guys understand and i know this is weird but my fellow IBS-C fellas will get if i feel like a whole new man. God bless america and i hope you all experience this relief too

I'm IBS-D and it's my first time since i have IBS, last time was in 2019 and didn't have symptoms (only started in 2021). I don't want to pay a resort for using a bathroom for a week and not having fun with my GF all week. We had a rough year (lost twins and one baby) so we need time for us to change our mind. We are trying in IVF.

Im gonna bring: Imodium Pepto bismol Tums Sourdough bread Gatorade powder Peanut butter Protein powder Rice cakes Rice thins

Got anything else? Gonna talk to my gastro next week too for a little insight

Hiiiii! So I’m doing the low FODMAP diet.. I’ve been doing pretty great the last couple of weeks but last night, my husband and our friends wanted to go out and eat.. well, I thought I was going to be ok and had a small fry and gravy and 2 chicken strips. The gas started immediately lol, and that was last night.. I’m still bloated and I just ate low FOD, my stomach keeps growling and I have the need to go to the bathroom. It’s just like water. Any advice on how to get this to subside?

I avoid the obvious trigger foods (gluten, soy, dairy, high FODMAP), but when I'm having a particularly severe flare up, even many low FODMAP foods are off the table (green beans, leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, tomatoes). Sometimes my symptoms get so bad I can hardly eat, however, not eating causes issues too (fatigue, anxiousness, poor sleep, irritability, etc.). What are some of your go-to meals that are easy on the GI tract and are also filling and satisfying? Straight gluten-free pasta, rice, and nutritional shakes get boring after a while. Thank you!

Has anyone experienced gut pain after orgasm? It feels like your insides are on fire for minutes? Can’t do anything but wait it out? It’s happened twice now and it’s brutal. I’m feeling like this is somehow IBS related.

What could cause trapped gas all of sudden? First incident happened few months ago. it lasted about a week. Each incident painfully last 3-4 hours. Scan GI doc ordered ultrasound/scan but it came back clean. The issue went away on its own without medications or diet restriction but only to return 6 months later. this is very confusing Since I have never visited doctor for GI issues Before.

1. Is it better to go to urgent care or ED for trapped gas? How do they relieve the pressure?
2. What medication or procedure to ask for from the primary or Gi doc?

If you used Metamucil for IBS-D, which Metamucil or psyllium husk dosage worked for you? I use two teaspoons once a day with OK results but am wanting to improve.

Hello, everyone. I believe my mother has IBS due to her symptoms and googling the symptoms of IBS. The doctor put her on cholestyrine or however it's spelled. That does okay, but it's not enough. No blockages were found after scans. I would classify her condition as IBS-M/IBS-A. Are there any truly effective OTC supplements or keep after her PCP to request a script for treatment? Thanks for any and all help.

To my ladies in the sub who are taking contraceptives! I (22F) had been taking the pill for about 8 years. I had been taking BC to manage my painful periods.

For the past 3 years I had been experiencing IBS and other god awful symptoms such as bed drenching hot flashes, bloating that made me go up 2 pant sizes, GERD, coochie dryer than a popeyes biscuit, etc.

If any of you take BC, especially for pain management I highly recommend seeing how you feel not taking it for a month. My IBS is GONE. Completely gone.

I did some digging and my gyno gave me smooth muscle relaxers combined with ibuprofen for pain management and i've been doing well with little to no pain during my periods.

None of my doctors gave me alternatives other than basically eating NSAIDs.

They don't tell you how BC practically eats your body away and destroys your gut bacteria. I've been off the pill for a little over a month. I would rather deal with 1-2 days of discomfort than being in pain all the time due to IBS.

I encourage you guys to look for alternatives, whether you're taking BC for pregnancy prevention, PCOS, etc.

It could potentially "cure" your IBS, especially if you've been on BC for years like me.

I know getting off BC isn't a feasible option for some of you, regardless look for other options DEMAND a variety. Find a better doctor who will listen.

edit: just so we're clear since i keep getting comments that i'm "fear mongering" and for whatever reason they keep getting deleted ORAL BIRTH CONTROL PILLS CAN MESS WITH YOUT GUT FLORA a quick google search can tell you that my doctor told me that quit crying in my comments birth control was the cause of MY ibs it DID ruin MY body it made my hair fall out, it gave me IBS, my finger nails were breaking, and i'm currently working on trying to replenish my body of vitamins and minerals because it messed with nutrient absorption birth control isn't one size fits all it can seriously damage some people let's not act like that's impossible

how many bowel movements are normal in 24hours?

i got sometimes 5 times a day and bulky stool ?

For a few years now I'm suffering with gigantic abdominal distension starting right after breakfast and lasting till I wake up the next morning. Pain is unbelievable and lasts all day. My quality of life is really low... The worst thing is that the problem is progressing, slowly but steadily since 2019. My weight is 104 lbs (female) and my stomach looks at least 4 months pregnant all the time.

I was tested for everything. I don't have SIBO, I don't have Candida. I had two exploratory surgeries in the last two years, had some adhesions (after appendectomy in early childhood) but nothing else.

There is no difference, no matter what I eat. I've tried different diet protocols, tried Low Fodmap, low sulfates, keto, low fiber, high fiber. And there is virtually no difference in terms of degree of bloating and pain.

Doctors have put me on 7 (sic!) courses of antibiotics last year. Just to check if it would work. But it only made things worse. Tried also antifungal treatments, one with nystatin, other with fluconazole.

Anyone on the same boat? :(

Anyone else experience this? Every so often, when I have a flair, my burps taste like Satan emptied his trash in my mouth.

What the hell? Am I rotting from the inside out?

since my right hemilectomy i have chronic visceral pain in the abdominal and pelvis. chronic diarrhea and frequent bowel movements ( 3-5 times a day ) farting.

I tried TCA, cymbalta , pregrabaline , gabapentine , trazadone , psychotherapy and pelvic floor therapy and other stuff and nothing helps with abdominal pain/ pelvic pain. I'm so sick of this sutation

can nerve blocks , pulsed radiofrequency and other interventional therapy helps to relief mij pain so i can enjoy life again??

Hello all! I hope you are all doing okay and surviving another day with this awful ailment.

I'm wondering if anyone else experiences what I do when drinking oat milk...

Only a few sips and I instantly become as bloated as can be. Super nauseous, chills and bad stomach pains.

Yet, oat meal and oats in other forms do not cause this kind of reaction! I have no clue what causes.

Thank you in advance and I'm sorry it happens for you too!

Hello,

Haven’t ever been officially diagnosed but I’ve had symptoms since about high school and it’s pretty much always aligned with IBS. Used to be more constipation and eventually became more semi solid diarrhea. I’d get worsened symptoms with anxiety etc.

At the beginning of April, I went through a pretty stressful situation with a lot of anxiety. At the same time, I’ve been trying to eat healthier and ate like 5 packs of dried seaweed in a day (bad bad idea) anyways the anxiety and the seaweed really messed my stomach up. Was having really gross grey/green loose stool for a week, I ended up taking anti diarrhea medicine and it helped solidify it again. I had noticed some small spots of red in the stool but the rest wasn’t red/black and it seems like blood usually wouldn’t be a spec in a piece. So I assumed it was maybe tomatoes or red peppers that weren’t being digested.

After taking the medicine, I’ve gotten the stool back to more of what I’m used to, and a bit more firm and defined than before. However I’ve been left with this poking feeling on one side of my stomach and cramps that feel like hunger pain, along with weird stomach noises and general discomfort.

Part of me is worried it’s something more than IBS, but I’m trying to keep my anxiety in check, just am not used to this type of discomfort with my IBS.

Hi all

I'm on the second course of antibiotics, as I messed up with the first one (I ate oatmeal and raisins cookies three dyas after taking Fosfomycin) and the UTI came back. Yeah, I want to kick myself for how stupid I was. (you know those shitty days when you say: "fuck all", I deserve some happiness)

So, now I'm taking Cefuroxime (I don't know the commercial name in English, but it's probaby very similar) and I have stomach and intestine cramps and steatorrhea everyday. I used to be quite Ok before this, I just had to avoid certain foods and I'd be Ok, so now I' don't know if it's just temporary side effects from the antibiotic or my gut is now worse from all the abxs.

I am taking probiotics and drinking water based kefir, though. I hope it serves to protect my gut a bit.

What's your experience with antibiotics? Have the symptoms disappeared once you've finised your course?

Currently going tru my first, so far it’s been a week and I don’t see the light at the end of tunnel and feeling discouraged even though I take oct, probiotics and changed my diet to a fodmap. Any words of encouragement as welcome, let’s have a discussion to help each other.

I was having occasional fecal incontinence and bleeding so I have been seeing a gastroenterologist who says I have IBS C with overflow diarrhea and has prescribed me a variety of laxatives for the last seven months (I keep failing them).

I’ve been dealing with this for so many months I no longer remember what a normal bowel movement should be like and what I should consider an effective treatment.

With or without meds I have no control over when my BMs happen. They are fragmented throughout the morning. The only way I can avoid soiling myself on the way to work is by trying to wait until the last minute so my intestines are as empty as possible. I am now on isbrella which has turned my BMs to mostly water the past few weeks. I do have faster BMs this way but its really hard to say whether this is an improvement as I feel in constant danger of soiling myself every morning. I am in high anxiety much of the time because of this. But with anything less extreme I don’t get regular emptying and stuff builds up and then reaches overflow/crisis point which causes intense pain and sometimes blood.

Do I have to settle for something like this? What kind of result should I consider a success?

my doctor says i have anxiety-induced ibs, but we only discovered this recently, and a decade-long of PPI prescriptions (previous GP kept shushing me and sending me away with PPIs + antacids) and extreme stress seem to have affected my actual digestive track.

my doctors have been suggesting to eat healthier.

(i’ve only been eating plain rice with 1 kind of bland protein for meals)

but every time i eat any sort of vegetables/greens, i have the worst diarrhea, even if it’s just a little side with my rice and protein. the greens show up in my stool, undigested, and the pain feels like i’m trying to digest a small rock?

so i’m kind of confused how i’m supposed to eat healthier? am i doing something wrong?

i do like vegetables but they’ve always aggravated my stomach so i’ve been avoiding/limiting them for almost a year.

So ive been having ibs now for a while and tried some things to get rid of the symptoms. The only thing that seemed to work for like a month were ginger root pills, my symptoms decreased a ton on them. Only now it seems my body is getting used to them and the symptoms came back as bad as they were before. Does anyone know how i can get the ginger to work again or has experience with this?

I have had gas/colic pains for most of my life that have gotten worse over time with endometriosis, adhesions and a bowel resection (upper rectum and sigmoid). A few years back I was also diagnosed with a loopy bowel. I have also been told I have a slow/lazy bowel.

Last week I had another colonoscopy because I experience excruciating colic type pain every time I have gas or have stool moving in my large bowel. The only thing my doctor could tell me is that the loopy bowel was inflammed (biopsy taken) and it was likely caused by my bowel resection. My follow up appointment isn't until May 30.

I have a pattern (that is without warning) that starts with painful gas/colic, feeling stool moving with pain, then when I am nearly about to go I have such painful colic type episodes it feels like I am going into labour so I have to lay down and breath through it. Over the course of a couple of hours I will then have normal stool to start with and then it ends with extremely loose, watery stool (think what happens when you have a colonoscopy prep). I will then not need to go for another week. 2 weeks ago I had such bad pain without gas passing I thought I had a bowel obstruction.

I am now at a point where this pain and pattern occurs every time I need to go. It is disrupting my life and it is exhausting. It also aggravates pain around the appendix region and pain under right ribs (had gallbladder removed in 2008).

Although I don't feel constipated my dr has asked me to take Coloxyl without senna (docusate sodium) and Movicol daily, and has advised against senna or any other that stimulates the bowel. Also for the last 2 months I have been upping my soluble fibre and I typically drink about 2 litres of water per day.

I am wondering if anyone has this pattern with a loopy bowel and what is their experience at reducing pain. Short of the stool softeners so far my gastro dr has offered little help.

TIA 😖😖😖

i have always suffered from constipation since i can remember even as a 5 year old. just recently i got diagnosed with POTS a form of dysautonomia, the best way i can describe it is you are basically allergic to gravity…as soon as you sit or stand from lying down position not enough blood reaches your heart and brain so my heart works extra hard causing tachycardia. Also since the last couple of months my bowel movements have changed form to loose diarrhea. i have tried everything from yogurt, ginger tea, cola and peptobismol but nothing seems to help. stool is pale and mashed and very smelly. my doctor has prescribed me amitriptyline to help with my chronic pains and IBS since all my test results including colonoscopy were completely normal. it has helped a bit but not much. does anyone else suffer from this? i always feel like i have food poisoning.

I recently got diagnosed with IBS-D. I get a lot of farts, bloating and diarrhea/soft stool, but almost never have stomach cramps(once a month maybe).
But the one thing that causes me the most grief are the horrendous farts. If I eat something or walk a little or lie down on my bed I start smelling horrible even though I am not consciously farting. My stool smells equally bad. All this has caused me to stop going out unless absolutely necessary. I get panic attacks when I do go out cause of people's reaction. At work I try to hold my stool as everyone can smell me in the toilet.
Life is a nightmare!! Does anyone else have similar issues? What can I do to stop this?

P.S: I have had symptoms for over 4 yrs, but never knew it was IBS. I also plan on getting tested for SIBO soon. I recently stopped cigarettes, coffee, alcohol, milk, all of which caused the worst flare ups.

Hello

I've recently been diagnosed with IBS D. I have been elimanting foods from my diet and have identified certain triggers, but I need to be able to eat square protein as I enjoy working out and I'm quite a muscular guy.

I don't really know what to do. I'm happy to eat the same bland food everyday if it means I don't need to deal with the IBS. I have immodium for IBS but I'll be honest, it's barely useful and doesn't stop flare ups which are always in the morning.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hello!

I'm a high school student from Australia and I'm currently doing a project on how design can improve the way people understand and communicate pain. If you experience any form of frequent pain, I would really appreciate if you could fill out this survey! All responses will remain anonymous. Questions are all optional, so please put in as little or as much time/effort to complete it as you please. :)

https://forms.gle/x7CPrKDmtCFrsDQe6

Thank you so much! If you have any feedback/comments/questions, please let me know.

I notice I always have big pockets of air stuck in my stomach. Even with an empty stomach. It feels like I’m really full or having indigestion, then the air moves and I feel better.

Do you know of any foods good for this?

Any idea what could it be? It's not a terrible pain but a mild pain that makes me sad/irritated and ruins my mood for a while? I can ignore it but the fact I have that pain is annoying. All tests fine, Calprotectin fine, sometimes taking simeticone helps but it helps when im gassy and bloated and not with this type of pain. Can it be psychological not psychical pain?