Dating and IBS
Written by: Nikki
 

The dating game can be a nightmare for most people, healthy or not, so imagine how difficult it must be to attempt to make yourself available to the dog-eat-dog world of dating while suffering from a medical condition such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

 

My Long Journey of IBS Treatments with Different Physicians
Written by: cookies4marilyn

 

 

If you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), you have most likely gone through the gauntlet of physicians, gastroenterologists, or perhaps internists in search of elusive treatment. So did I. My journey was a marathon over the course of nearly twenty years. It wasn’t that my many medical professionals were not doing their job; each and every one would listen to my list of symptoms and, with a knowing concern, proceed down their tried-and-trusty list of IBS medications.

 

IBS and the Mind/Body Connection
Written by: BBolen Ph.D

 

 Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients were done a disservice when, contrary to long-held Eastern traditions, Western medicine started treating the mind and body as two separate entities. Because IBS does not show up on diagnostic testing, patients were led to believe that the problem was purely psychological, thus compounding their stress level and leading to further despair. Only recently did IBS researchers begin to focus on the many interconnections between brain and body in their efforts to understand what causes IBS. As a result, it can now be said definitively that your IBS is not all in your head.

 

 

How Clinical Hypnotherapy Helped My IBS
Written by: cookies4marilyn

 

 

After years of my suffering from chronic, severe refractory Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), rife with pain, urgency, and embarrassment, my gastroenterologist told me he had nothing more to offer. He suggested I search the Internet for any treatments out there that we had not tried.

 

Treating IBS: Deciphering Good Information from Bad
Written by: cookies4marilyn

 

 

If you do a Google search for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), you’ll come up with an overload of relevant listings. But how can you decipher the good information from the bad, even if the listing is on the first page—or listed at all?

 

How to Retain Your Identity When You’re Disabled
Written by: M&M
 

 

The Ins and Outs of Traveling with IBS
Written by: IBD/IBS Author

 

 

If you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), then you know how daunting the thought of traveling by car, airplane, or train can be. I’ve traveled regularly most of my life, starting with my first airplane trip in a six-seater, one-propeller airplane flown by my father. When I lived for four months in Italy during college I never thought twice about jumping on a train for a one- or even twelve-hour journey. Nor did I think much of making a cross-country road trip. That is, until chronic diarrhea entered my life in 1997 on a trip to the Caribbean. After many months of illness and even more months worth of doctor visits and tests, I was diagnosed not only with IBS but also with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

 

Communicating Effectively with Doctors
Written by: Cherrie
 

 

The first time I went to a doctor to talk about my "belly issue" a couple years ago, I was so embarrassed and unprepared that I didn't know what to say, except that it and my daily diarrhea hurt. My doctor tried his best to take the lead in our conversations and fill in the awkward pauses caused by my embarrassment by filling in all the silent moments, but it was more like a question-answer routine in a classroom than a conversation with the doctor. At the end of my first appointment, my doctor said that he was pretty sure it was Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)—but I felt like he was looking only for what he wanted to look for, because I didn't get a chance to tell him the whole story.

 

Coping with non–IBS sufferers: Why people are so insensitive, and how you can help them understand
Written by: SophieUK

 

• “That’s caused by stress, so what are you stressed about?”
• “Just stop thinking about it and it will go away.”
• “Why don’t you go to the doctor?”
• “It’s all in your head.”

Coming to Terms with an Invisible Disability
Written by: M&M

 

In this age of self-awareness and pop psychology, a lot of terms get thrown around. One such phrase is “coming to terms” with something—perhaps a loss, a disappointment, a disease. We say that a lot, but do we really stop and think about what it means? Why should we “come to terms” with our disease? How do we go about it? What does that even mean?