I am a regular on the Irritable Bowel Syndrome board, but I have possibly made a realization that only you members, on this anxiety board, may be able to help me with and give me some peace of mind. A little about me...I'm a 26 year old female and I am a teacher at an elementary school.
Here's my story:
First of all, in 2000, my parents who were married for 21 years, divorced while I was a junior in college. It was a very ugly situation which left my parents hating each other, and in the end, my Dad had nothing to do with my brother and I. I had always been close with him and then he married a woman that didn't want anything to do with us - so he had nothing to do with us anymore...the rejection was hard to deal with and still is. A lot of pain and hurt has been felt by this.
I was married this past December and moved to a new town. Planning for the wedding was stressful because of my family "situation". I had a bad case of the "what-ifs"...what if this happens, what if that happens. End result, all went smooth.
Mid-March, I had, what I believed, was a bout of diarrhea from some corned beef and cabbage that I had fixed for St. Patricks day. I was wrong. I have had diarrhea EVERY DAY since mid-March. I have always had a phobia of being sick and a HORRIBLE phobia of doctors. My blood pressure always goes high while I'm at the Dr. office. (Does this ever happen to anybody?) SO..when I realized that this diarrhea wasn't from something that I had eaten, I called my DR. and she ordered a stool culture. The culture showed nothing...not a bacteria or parasite. So, she referred me to a Gastrointerologist specialist. He performed a colonoscopy (nothing found), EGD (He found that I had GERD, or acid reflux...still doesn't cause diarrhea), CT scan, small bowel series, Upper GI x-rays, ultrasounds of abdomen, pelvis, gallbladder, and a hida scan test to test gall bladder function...NOTHING FOUND. SO, he said I had IBS with diarrhea. I have no pain with this like most people do with IBS. I just get the normal "poo pain" like I need to go...and I go. In the beginning, I was going 5-10 tims a day. Now, I'm going 1-2 times a day, sometimes 3. I weigh 112 lbs now. (Normally weigh around 120 lbs.) My hair is falling out too.
My husband is frustrated with me too and I think he is fed up with me.
This has consumed my life...I worry about having cancer (which the Dr.'s tell me I don't), or some undiagnosed disease that the Dr.'s are missing.
I have such bad anxiety about it and I feel like I am helpless.
Can anybody help me and let meknow if this diarrhea everyday can be due to chronic stress/anxiety??
I had a blood test for Chrone's and the GI specialist also took a biopsy of the duodenum and nothing was found.
I'm just so WORRIED about this problem and it has taken over my life.
again sometimes you have to have these tests done more than once .......I honestly do wish you all the best in finding out what is going on this does not sound good I went for quite some time before being dx with Crohns
Sorry you are going through this, anxiety is a rotten thing! When I was younger if I was nervous about anything - that could be excitement for a happy event or negative nervousness for a visit to the dentist that I might have been worried about - end result diarrhea!!! For many years I did not have the pain which is typical of IBS but eventually I was diagnosed with IBS many years later.
It sounds like the docs have been quite thorough in checking you out, which is very good, but in my experience anxiety can make you run to the loo!! I think you have worked it out for yourself with regard to when you wake up in the morning! Do you have an alarm that wakes you? Maybe you could try distraction like when you wake up like putting the radio on as soon as you wake, and maybe put it a little on the loud side so as it will take your attention and try and busy yourself quite quickly with the morning's routine. You could try a news channel as there is a lot of talking to try and concentrate on to distract your thoughts from heading off to your tummy!
I usually get this sort of anxiety a few months after a traumatic event - unfortunately I have had a number of those!! Most of all try not to worry, I know it is easy for me to say, but I do know how it feels and as you begin to relax about it the diarrhea will gradually slow down! Hang in there, and let us know how you get on.
take care
Ann
I try to relax in the mornings...I just always feel like I have to go and that is an awful feeling. I have felt like this for 5 months straight now. Have lost almost 10 lbs. and I weigh 112 lbs. now. My hair is falling out. My stomach always feels full and I burp a lot. (I have GERD which they say is aggravated by stress...have any of you heard of this??)
The doctors just dismiss my problem as nothing "major" and my GI specialist doesn't want to see me again for a whole year (even though I still have diarrhea every day and he knows this.)....it IS "major" to me! I feel so bad every day and I'm a teacher and I believe it effects my teaching.
I just need this to stop.
I have tried Buspar and Xanax (a low dose). It doesn't work. And, my regular Dr. tried Wellbutrin with me...it made me soooo paranoid! I couldn't sleep either. It made the "D" worse. I am beside myself what to do.
Anxiety is a brutal... brutal disease. Its basically a battle with yourself and other who don't understand it because its a battle that feels like it never goes away.
I've been having issues with my stomach for the past couple of days because of a dang interview I have scheduled today. I ask myself, how oh HOW am I going to be a strong business woman when an easy interview has me all in a fluster. I got a haircut yesterday and my stylist said that my hair was falling out in clumps. I told him it was stress. The OTHER thing that anxiety has caused is for my gallbladder to stop working. It part of the adrenal system and its just... not working. So I have *surgery* coming up.
I haven't been following my own advice lately but all I can tell you is to possibly learn some breathing techniques, try out some yoga, and try some meds. I'm on them right now, but very small dosage which I'm wishing I had access to some benzos right now. Or tequila.
You are a strong person - don't let yourself beat yourself up. Identify it as ANXIETY. Nothing else. The mind is a powerful thing and we are all shackled by its power of thinking the worse. You are a strong, beautiful, dynamic, bada## woman who has strength within herself to do wonders in this world that NO ONE else can.
With your husbands situation, sit down talk to him, tell him you are trying your best to wrk this out but you NEED his support. You two are in a partnership together, sometimes one of you two will need more of the others help and companionship, and sometimes the roles will reverse. Tell him you understand his frustration and confusion for that's where you are at too. But above all, pray for you health and well being.
You can get through this, we are all in this battle. I wish the best for you.
For a background when I was a kid I had two bugs escherichia coli and another one that I don´t remember and I had a looong recovery, after that I was fine, but like you I always had been nervous, I suffer anxiety, if my birthday was coming, my stomach was a mess, and things like that, but I ate of everything and I was fine, until I was in high school, my problems came back, but I was fine until last year.
So the problem became bad, when like you I ate teriyaki chicken, and after one hour, my diarrhea came back, but I thought that the dish was to greasy, but after that, every day, or almost, I got diarrhea after breakfast, I went like 3 times, and some days I had constipation, but what really worried me was the diarrhea, so first of all I went again with my Homeopath Doctor, she is really good, but the problem was that she didn´t ask me for any tests, so finally in my desperation, I went to a gastro, and like you he ask me for a colonoscopy and many tests, (for my simptoms and my background, I thought I had a bug again), but I thought that a colonoscopy was very aggressive for a bug, so finally I went to another gastro, I only made the blood tests and stool tests, and everything was fine, except that I had some anemia, (since the last year from now I lost like 5kg, I've been always skiny so imagine!, I look like an anorexic model, lol) well, this doctor, or my heroe, asked me for all my background, and he checked all my tests, and he checked my tummy, and he told me that my colon was inflamated (that was about 3 months ago), and he put me into a diet to control this, and some medication, and you know what??, from the first day I felt great!!!, He's checking me every 15 days, and I feel better and better, the diet is very restrictive, but works just fine along with the medicines.
I still have phobia for the diarrhea or to catch a bug, I clean all the food, but I feel just fine.
I totally understand you, and let me give you the name of the medicine.
I don´t know if you can get it with the brand name but also I will give you the sustance.
Espacil TABLETS
Bromuro de butilhioscina
Espavén Alcalino TABLETS
Hidróxido de Magnesio
Dimeticona
The medicines has no secondary reactions, there are "light" and you will see the improvment from the first day.
I found something similar to the espavén in this link, it's the first drug MagalD.
For the Espacil I did't find anything, but I will keep looking, but check this with your doctor, works just fine.
And my doctor that he also is a nutriologyst strictly prohibited me this kind of food, I suggest to do this too while you find a doctor who really takes you seriously:
Soda drinks
Spicy food
heavy fat
Coffe
Dairy (you can only drink skim milk, skim cheesse like cottage)
And that's it, if you want to contact me, send me an email to
And don´t worry, you can beat this, you will be just fine!!!
HI there and Welcome thanks for your input I had to edit your post ....could you please insert your email in your profile at the side this way only members will have access to it and it is for your personal safety okay ...any questions you can email me about it .........Thanks for your understanding
Good luck, please post follow ups soon.
Hi
Just wondering if anyone has some advice for me. I have just recently gone overseas to live in the UK and I have been getting D most mornings for about three weeks now. It's normally only in the morning and occurs about 10 minutes after I wake up. Normally I have to go twice in the morning and then I'm ok the rest of the day. I know that this can be caused by anxiety but I don't feel overly anxious. Do you think maybe because I've recently moved, physically I could feel anxious and my body is responding to this while mentally I feel fine? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I would be grateful of all help. sooner rather than later just in case i drive my family mad in the next few weeks.
ps: my mother divorced my stepfather 2 years ago, he had been like a dad to me but then he just ignored me, could that be part of the cause of this, 2 years after the separation? also, my mum and boyfriend get on great but there are times when i dont know what to do, my mum wants me to do this and my boyfriend wants me to do the other, both not meaning any harm, but their ideas are contrary and if i do what one of them wants then i make the other mad, im driving myself crazy!!! how can i deal with this??
i know this is kind of a long post, so if you got to here, thank you for reading and if you have any helpful comments they would be much appreciated.
Hello and welcome to HealingWell and the A & P Forum. I am going to post a link for you to tell us a bit about yourself as much as you would like but do remember to review the rules on posting first.
I think you would benefit from sticking with a support group who know where your coming from and what your going through.
http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=9&m=1127161
Just click on link and you will find yourself in the forum to share a bit.
I am so sorry you life has been tough and I agree you may need to be on a medication.
Take care and stay with us.
Kitt
Hello Shelley
Of course stress can cause diarrhea. Its overdose of anxiety! In my 20's I had a close friend who suddenly had alternating diarrhea and constipation and within a month she died of bowel cancer. I was in post natal depression and it really scared me - I suddenly had the syptoms - felt sick, couldn't eat was so worried - I ended up with colitis. On the way to the hospital I suddenly needed the loo desperately and ended up knocking on someones door to use their loo. What embarrassment! And for years after I 'd get nervous going anywhere in case I needed the loo suddenly.
I am still the same. I try to relax and meditate and am fine at home. As soon as I need to go somewhere new (especially a city) I put myself in panic mode! I have learnt to manage it with immodium and valium. Also the only way to get rid of the anxiety and excess adrenaline is for me to get up the minute I wake (dont lay there worrying) and go for a run. I run about 1 mile and half every day when its bad and it works. It nearly killed me to start with, but I feel fitter and can manage.
I took up golf cos I thought it would be so thought absorbing it would take my mind off the stomach. It does to a great extent, but being on an open golf course does give me the collywobbles, and if my stomach starts gurgling I get in a bit of a sweat. The immodium is brilliant and slows down the gut, so it makes me feel safer.
St Johns Wort is good for anxiety/depression, and also Ginseng. A good diet goes a long way to. Yacult to replace lost good bacteria in the gut too.
I hope this helps you, its done me good to tell someone, having suffered for so many years. I dont have a normal life, am unable to go in anyones car, but my own under my control. Unable to go to shows in Lond0n and lots of other things, I miss going out with my Grankids and so many things. Anyone else have any ideas?
Ive tried TFT, hypnosis, and many other things......