Jessie Jane said on 20 December 2011
i have ibs and remember having the symptoms of pains, anxiety, and cramps, diarrhea etc since i was 5, and when I was 16 it got so bad that I was in constant agony with my stomach and i had major panic attacks every day because the pain was so bad. I couldnt see friends at all and felt like an old person because my body felt horrible. I eliminated most foods and unfortunately just got really thin and scared of eating - so eventually i forced myself to start eating again. After gradually introducing a healthy balanced diet and making various changes, I have stopped being ill at all - i feel really healthy all the time and although i might have violent diarrhea once every few weeks, the rest of the time I feel fine and am able to do all the social things that I want to that I never could before.
The things that have really helped me are: having 8 drinks of water a day, having plenty of calcium, but mainly having lactose free milk which I feel i can digest without getting any pains etc, i take amitriptiline (antidepressents) - a small dose every night and it means I'm not getting the nervous stomach, so i'm not getting pains or diarrhea or the panic attacks that came from this (as the medication relaxes the muscles in your bowel), I take codeine phosphate for the diarrhea which slows everything down, and i take loperamide with every meal also for the diarrhea. I exercise every day, i never drink fizzy drinks and i avoid foods high in fat and curries etc, probiotic yoghurts or yakult drinking yoghurt can be really helpful in stopping ibs symptoms. Making sure you eat enough and often is also good, as if you let yourself go hungry, it can really hurt and then when you do eat, your bowel can react quite badly - so eat regularly! I hope these things I have tried out are helpful to someone! :)
