unusual IBS symptoms

[dexter92]

I’ve always had a sensitive stomach. I hated school and as I walked to school stomach pains would develop. I had the lot constipation, diarrhoea. More of you would recognise the story.

even went into hospital last year for two days they did every test imaginable , heart tests, even brain scans, endoscopy.

physically there was nothing wrong with me.

The nutritionist actually told me I was eating too healthily, too much fibre, not enough calories.

so I’ve gone back to a “ normal “ diet. Some fibre, some more calories.

Changed certain patterns of behaviour.

It’s much better except for one thing. I sleep well now but I am woken at near on 6.00 am with this horrible tingling in my stomach which seems to spread through my body. I get up and have a normal poop ( which is an improvement) go back to bed sleep and am woken again an hour later almost to the minute by this tingling.

compared to what I’ve suffered in the past it seems trivial but it is remarkably unpleasant.

It’s clearly telling me when to poop but why obviously it’s very tiring. Once I’m out of bed it stops I just get the occasional bloating .

Anyone had this I’ve never seen this mentioned before ?

[angelwings52]

It could be the vagus nerve being overstimulated (usually caused by stress) - I had something similar along with dizziness and flushed skin usually just before needing the toilet. I found that hypnotherapy really helped me. You could also try cutting down on caffeine.

[dexter92 in reply to angelwings52]

yeah definitely flushed skin I feel like I have a temperature as well. It’s only when I’ve just woken up though. Only happens when I am lying down so I’m guessing connected to digestion.

Definitely stress as well.

[Luisa22 in reply to dexter92]

I sometimes get this thing where I wake up way too early in the dark or something and feel creepy and a bit scary and too hot, slightly nauseous (but not really a tummy nauseous, maybe a kind of anxiety) Anyway when I get up and check if I have a fever it's 36.1C !! Very low, and a body still in sleep mode. I have to assume it's anxiety. I am sure my gut is bad so I get up, and have a peppermint tea or something, yet so tired. But my gut is okay. I don't get it.

[dexter92 in reply to angelwings52]

I’ve been researching the Vagus Nerve. It could account for quite a few annoying symptoms I have. Again in the morning I have nasal congestion, sore throat, sneezing quite fascinating. I’m aware that I might be looking for quick fix but it does seem to fit.

I’ve never been one for alternative medicines but I had a stroke a few years ago and was able to afford a specialist Stroke Physio. He used to work for the SBS before moving on to rehab. His stroke therapy is unorthodox. With repetitive and painful movements it stimulates the nueron pathways in the brain. You can actually build new pathways to bypass the damaged area. He calls the stomach the second brain.

I digress but the vagus nerve fits in with his physio.

[Andann]

Gosh, its so puzzling isnt it?I get extreme urges to pass a bowel movt. when I walk for 2 mins to the local supermkt but not to other nearby shops (luckily they have a public toilet), and occasionally get a similar urge when waking between 4 and 7 am.

My solution to the first is not to leave home without walking around/climbing stairs until I have a bm. The 2nd one I just put down to not having regular bms during the day.

[dexter92 in reply to Andann]

the early morning thing is weird. But one my physio has told is I am prone to constipation and that’s because I was used to walking a lot. Obviously now not so much.

It’s would older generations did always went out for a walk after a big meal it definitely helps with the digestion.

[Andann in reply to dexter92]

Yes, lack of regular exercise cld explain it for me. I walk but only when friends are available and getting harder now with arthritis (dont like disguising it with painkillers but should.)

[Luisa22 in reply to Andann]

Maybe you have a time in your memory Andann, when you needed a bm when you went to that supermarket, and there was no toilet? Whereas the little shops are safe. I do think we get a bit of PTSD from IBS experiences.

Between 4 and 7am is a natural time for the gut to prepare for a bowel movement. The switchover from parasympathetic nervous system to sympathetic when you wake up then? So that, though it is disconcerting, is natural I think. Just a bit early to have to think about that, at 4am, isn't it !!

[dexter92 in reply to Luisa22]

interesting but you hear a lot of people wake up 3am and can’t get back to sleep.

Apparently your body has different functions during the day. 3am the digestive system starts operating ( can’t remember exactly) which wakes some up from my experience it seems to effect ‘ troubled people ‘ more than others.

Another interesting fact is your stomach has more nerve endings than other parts of the body. My physio is ex military and the most feared wound is a gut wound. Bizzarely it’s covered in detail in the George Clooney Iraq War film Three Kings.

[Luisa22 in reply to dexter92]

I remember that. My grandad said that about a gut wound. Luckily he didn't get one but got shrapnel in his back. He said the highest chance of dying horribly from infection was with a gut wound. That was first world war though. But I can see why.

[Hetchins1946]

It sounds stress related, although you may be so habituated to it you no longer recognise it as 'stress' or 'anxiety'.

Have you tried any of the CBT related treatments (or even the apps) designed for IBS? I'd suggest this route first, although in similar circumstances I found that antidepressants were the magic bullet to this type of scenario because CBT does not get through my thick skull!

[dexter92 in reply to Hetchins1946]

Ironically I’ve got my first CBT online session tomorrow. I’ve had CBT before very effective. I had a problem with it at first. I was trying to make it work🙄 but in my experience the way to do it is talk don’t even overthink what you are you are going to say just go with it and in the end it’s just starts working.

[Mijmijkey74 in reply to Hetchins1946]

I had a few sessions of cbt, the person giving it was more in need of it themselves than me. They had no patience, sat there tapping their fingernails impatiently through each session and consistently very deliberately and aggressively checking their watch and not paying attention. They were very rudely abrupt and clearly not suited to their profession. I had enough of their behaviour and told them how rude, ignorant and unprofessional they were and suggested they changed profession and sought out some cbt themselves for their very abrupt manor and anger issues and I walked out telling them I didn't need their kind of unprofessional service. They were left speechless and actually showing shame, no argument back from them at all, just slapped face look at the gravity of all I said that included a bit more. They had not expected to be unpicked with such accuracy about themselves they just couldn't deny. I mentioned to someone a while later about that individual and was told they had left. Not saying it was my dressing down of them, but them leaving was not that long a while afterwards. Perhaps they were already considering leaving, but from what I was told, thelr departure did seem as if it were unexpected and rather sudden. No loss in my eyes, that individual was a massive mess up who wasted my time and left le feeling highly annoyed and mistrusting of cbt and its absolute uselessness for me. I wouldn't blame it on your own thick skull, but rather their inability to find the right method/approach to get it into your skull and absorbed into youur brain.

[Andann]

Yes, just believe what the psychologist says and it mostly works.