Do these symptoms sound like IBS?

Digestive health
1

I have been having issues on and off for as long as I can remember, any change in my life and my digestion gets a bit out of sync, but more so in the last 3 or 4 years.

I have been to the Dr and they have ruled out several conditions and have now said that they think I have IBS.

My symptoms are nausea ranging from quite mild to sevear and the feeling you have just before you are going to be sick, the nausea used to be the odd day here and there and the sick feeling once a m month or less but recently it is pretty constant. I very rarely get pains in my tummy and don't really s suffer from constipation or diarrhoea although by bowels never seem to be very settled, I do get the need to go fairly urgently in the morning and don't always feel like I am empty if that makes sense, I also feel sick when really I need the toilet and if I go that feeling goes away.

I am just not sure the sickness is IBS and the doctor wants to treat me with anti depressants which make me feel very sick so worse than I do already and I have a fear/ phobia of sick so it is really really upsetting me and don't want to start the anti depressants if I don't really need them.

2

I had anti depressants for low mood but I found that it helped my stomach loads - apparently the anti depressants relax the muscles and stop them from spasming as much. Not i have come off them i have found that my stomach is a lot worse and i have had to completely change my diet to grease free, no gluten, and minimal dairy as well as no mushrooms, sweetcorn or peas.

I found that the best way for me was to stop going to the doctor and to do a food and bowel movement diary - and run 'tests' with food. and highlight which foods are making your IBS worse and which are okay. Its hard work but i've found it works a lot better than any kind of medication.

I also drink peppermint tea (tastes vile but does seem to work) and also take mebeverine if i know i'm eating out or am going to be eating the wrong food. I have been given colpermin before too which i believe is peppermint but i started drinking the tea instead of taking the tablets because of prescription costs.

3

also there are a very large range of anti depressants - if one doesn't work for you there may be others that do.

4

Thanks Maddy, I am reluctant to start the citalopram tbh and just see if I can make a difference with some life style changes. I am not wholly convinced its IBS as I don' regularly get many of the most common symptoms

5

I 'supposedly' had IBS for 7 years, but only ever had the pain twice in all that time. Symptoms were the same as yours. I had blood tests, a camera down my throat, stool tests, anti-depressants (although I didn't feel depressed), and God knows what else. All the tests came back clear.

I was at my wits end. I tried excluding sugar, wheat etc to see if it was something in my diet that was upsetting my stomach. I even kept a food diary religiously for a year, but no definite pattern was established. I was made redundant 2 years ago. Within a week the symptoms disappeared and have not returned. (I have to say I didn't have any money worries when I was made redundant - the reason I say this will become clear when you read on.)

Since then I have met many people who found that exactly the same thing happened to them. Same symptoms, tests coming back clear etc etc. They all said that when they left a stressful situation (usually the job they were doing) the symptoms went away.

I did see Dr Hilary Jones on TV once say that stress makes your stomach very acidic, and you must have heard of the phrase 'worried sick'.

Looking back I can see now that the symptoms flared up at times of stress, and then disappeared again when things calmed down. I told my GP and he said that stress does funny things to people, and you don't even necessarily need to feel that you are stressed. I was obviously very good at kidding myself I was coping. You can feel that you're coping fine, but it will come out somehow. The GP said that with some people it's a bad back, with others it's a migraine, with others it's nausea and anxiety.

Would you say you are a bit of a worrier? Are you conscientious or a perfectionist? Do you feel that you're having to cope under a lot of pressure? When did these symptoms start, what was going on in your life at that time?

See if you can see a pattern. If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have moved to a less stressful job and saved myself a lot of upset. Also I now realise I was in a job which isolated me. I like to be around people, so that in itself was stressful without all the targets, lack of support etc that I got at work.

Good luck!