Have given up

[Lancs65]

Hello all - well am on holiday at present and as soon as got on board ship my symptoms subsided felt nearly human!! Then for no reason it all set off again and I felt so bad and tired!! It made me so naffed off spoiling my holiday I thought well I'll be hung for a sheep as well as a lamb and proceeded to just eat and drink what I wanted if had really got me so down and depressed and guess what - I haven't felt so good in ages!! Totally bizarre it just proves to me there is no rhyme not reason to this ibs thing and I don't suggest anyone else cast caution to the wind but for me it's very probably anxiety linked.

[Hidden]

Hi - that shows you really needed that holiday. The anxiety levels can affect you so badly

you become so tired and exhausted. Some people have been helped by psychology which

retrains you not to be frightened of what you are eating, so you reject food. Other folk

find they have food triggers - glad you are feeling great.

[Squidge44]

I too was on a ship and had diarrhoea for 12 of the 14 days on board. Felt so miserable and watched everyone eating lobster, New York strip etc whilst I ate jacket potato, and although I paid £600 for drinks package, didn’t use it after two days, so was really fed up. My holiday was ruined, but I wish now I had done what you did, eat, drink and be damned. I’m still suffering, but doctor has assured me I’ve nothing seriously wrong, except IBS and diverticulitis which are awful things but just have to learn to cope. He believes that once you come to terms with this awful problem, it’s better for you. Easier said than done!!

I’ve tried so many things, even went gluten free for 6 months last year, but it didn’t help one iota, just very expensive and not worth it in my case. I now drink Actimel every day, which seems to help a little, but every few days get a flare up, and then it subsides.

Hope you’re feeling better soon and find something that helps

[Kilgh in reply to Squidge44]

Love to see the doctor get this and tell you that....

[hampson]

Hi there, i to always feel much better when abroad. I think it's partly due to feeling more relaxe and not having the dailypressures of home life. I'm seriously thinking of moving to Spain, also due to feeling sad here in Britain! I feel the sun and more light is a factor on feel8ng better within myself. I was a strict gf but do eat certain things with wheat in now because i lost too much weight, i was literally starving. No 2 days are the same with ibs, i never know how my belly will be in a morning. I take laxido every day has this helps with going to the loo.

[Eastbourne11]

Hi Lancs65 have you IBS D? I have it and now follow low FODMAP way of eating , and am normal again. It only works for diarrhea and one must read the book. This IBS is not in our heads, it is our colon! Good luck.

[Chrissyi]

I have suffered for 30 years wth IBS and Diverticulitis, I am always fine on holidays and we go to Asia alot, so I am always careful there, but I feel so much of it is stress related but I have done all sorts of stress management courses and I still can't manage it.

[Kilgh]

I too have a stress related component to my IBS. It's all on the same Vagal Nerve circuit so they feed off each other. When I am not symptomatic nothing I really ear affects me badly. When I am, everything does. I gave up trying all the anti-stress things this time as they were not working. Got my specialist to try a drug that acts directly on the Vagal Nerve. On Day 9 of treatment. Takes a few weeks to load up, so we will see I guess.

[Eternity78 in reply to Kilgh]

Hi ! if you don't mind ..may i know the name of this drug please ??

[Kilgh in reply to Eternity78]

Sure. Pregabalin.

[Eternity78 in reply to Kilgh]

Thank you so much 🌹 ..i'll ask my doctor about it ..hope he cooperates and be more open to trying new drugs other than Antispasmodics , imodium or Antidepressants ..which are all a failure in my case 😩

[Kilgh in reply to Eternity78]

Yeah. I really try not to take any drugs for this. But this one seems to be made for IBS in a way. Dampening down the signals from the Vagal Nerve. It actually dampens signals from all the nerves which is why it is actually made for pain and epilepsy. I also get Migraines about every 4-6 weeks. This drug killed the Migraine that tried to get started a few days ago! Usually I have 3 days of left-sided head pain. I had two hours of pain on day 1 that two analgesics got rid of (that never works usually!) and it tried to come back the next day but again one dose of simple pain meds worked! So it definitely works as a nerve pain killer!

[Eternity78 in reply to Kilgh]

just checked out this medicine ..too bad our country had banned using it since it was highly abused by teenagers to get "high 😴😩😰" and been sold in the black market for this purpose !!

[Eternity78 in reply to Kilgh]

it's called ( Lyrica ) locally

[Kilgh in reply to Eternity78]

Surely not? Not even through a doctor?

[Kilgh]

There is Peter Whorwell's theory that IBS works on a 100 point system. You don't get symptoms until you reach 100 points. A genetic disposition say has you already at 50 points. Stress 30 points say. Then you eat a gut irritant food that you usually have no probs with but it pushes you over the 100 point limit.