I wanted to tell my story after reading some very disheartening stories from very young plus older people.

I'm 62 yrs old and was diagnosed with IBS-D about two years ago. Although I know I have had this disease for the last 20 to 30 years of my life but didn't relate it to what is now happening.

In the last two years I have had 3 Colonoscopies and have had two infections one
on Christmas Eve 2008 and one in October 2009 (hospitalized for 5 days on that one)

I have gone through the cramping stomach, diarrhea 10-15 times a day, aniexty, stress, weight loss, not knowing what to eat, afraid to go out of my house and its not fun. Any meds for cramping had such bad side effects worse than the IBS.

I'm a small bone woman who usually weighs about 104 to 108 lbs, 5'2". I also have Diverticulosis and cannot have any sugar or fruit.

For about 15 years, I've had the pleasure of dealing with constantly needing to know where a bathroom is at all times. I actually remember the first time I got the big D for what seemed like no reason. I was 23, and I was eating a baked potato from Wendy's, with butter, sour cream and chives. Yum! And then-Uh oh. And so it began. Every day. Every time I ate. Every. Single. Time. Going Out to eat-No fun. Dates-No fun. Vacations-No fun. Nothing's fun when you're afraid to eat anything and you're basically mentally blue-printing every building or house you're in, scoping out where all the bathrooms are and how long it's gonna take to get to each one, like you're a spy in some kind of horrible James Bond movie gone completely awry. Well, never a dull moment. And it's almost become like a buddy to me. Boyfriends have come and gone, jobs have come and gone...But my IBS stands by me through it all, constantly there for me, urging me on, as it were. (No pun intended.) Constantly.

I had the same problem for over 10 years. I know the feeling all to well.
Been to the doctors and had 2 scopes done and they didn't find anything so they put me in the IBS.

I found something that helps a lot and almost makes it go away. No more cramps no more bathroom runs. I can leave the house and not look for bathrooms anymore. Found this out by mistake but may help you. My girlfriend has been here for me for 10 years seeing what i go through and she notice it got really bad when I left the house
Almost like nervous stomach. You know the rumble in the guts and acid turning up and cramping and then the big D. Well she got me some Bonnine for motion sickness and wow after first dose I was able to go out and didn't feel like crap anymore. I take one an hour before i leave the house and another 12 hours later and i feel great. :)

If you try it please let me know how it turns out for you.

By: Mandric38

I have had IBS since 1983, and went through a litany of treatments, medications and physicians. Starting with Herb Benson, specialist in the Boston's Deaconess pain clinic, and later famous for the "Relaxation Response," tried a variety of meds, none of which helped. I went on to some well recommended Internal Medicine doctors, who with medicine and adding grains (much like sandy cattle feed), again posted no real improvement. All tried their best, but found no real relief for me.

My first success was with acupuncture, which would last for about 4-6 weeks, but required constant management.

I'll keep this simple, I have been controlling my symptoms for about a year now with the following routine. It may help you, so I wanted to share it.

Every night, after dinner, I take the following:
- 1 1300mg fish oil gel cap
- 1 1300mg flaxseed oil gel cap
- 1 One a Day men's health multivitamin

Every morning, I do the following:
- Before I eat anything, take 1 20mg Omeprazole tablet with water (I also have acid reflux).
- Then I eat a yogurt (coffee flavored).
- Then I take the following:
- 1 1300 mg fish oil gel cap
- 1 1300 mg flaxseed oil gel cap
- 1 750mg calcium tablet
- 1 Super B Complex tablet (no indication of the size, but I'd guess it's about 50mg)
That's it. I've been able to reintroduce coffee and chocolate into my diet (in moderation, of course), and don't have the endless urgency I had before.

I have been suffering from IBS symptoms for about 2 years. Feel really frustrated and stressful all the time because I am not able to live the life like I used to be. Constantly suffered from symptoms like abdominal pain, bloated abdomen and abdomen gurgle and make funny noises have really affected my life quality.

Desperately hope to find help to treat my IBS symptoms I had been doing a lot of research and read through many articles and advices on the Internet. I had also read through articles about how probiotics would help IBS sufferers, and did try on it.

For me, It really does reduce my IBS symptoms but over the time the symptoms come back again. So, in the long run it does not work well for me. Besides, I also read about some medicatons for IBS, however since I am afraid of having side effects and other risks I do not take any of them.

I haven't been back to this site for years!

But a friend's wife is experiencing a nasty period of IBS symptoms right now and it reminded me how lucky I am to be in recovery.

I was in very bad shape about 5 years ago, after a life of on and off symptoms. I was experiencing food poisoning-like attacks weekly at it's worst. And then I read about SSRIs and the serotonin/gut connection. So I actually demanded my doctor put me on some. And I am sure he did because he thought I was losing it mentally rather than in any hope it would help the IBS. But it did. The symptoms resolved over three weeks, getting better and better. My doctor warned me of the side effects. Nausea and diarrhea being the worst. I laughed and said how would I know any different from what I'm living with NOW!

Oddly enough I COULD tell the difference between the nausea from the drug. It was far less "bilious", more sharp. But it didn't last past the first week or so and wasn't bad.

I know this won't work for everyone but, if it only helps one, it's worthwhile. I was diagnosed with IBS some years ago and suffered from diarrhoea, bloating, gas, occasional constipation. The doctor couldn't offer much advice as I wasn't overweight, did some exercise, didn't smoke, drank only a little, and didn't have much stress in my life (I sound like a paragon of virtue, which I'm obviously not!).

Finally a friend's daughter was diagnosed as being coeliac and had to give up everything with gluten in it, so I thought, why not try? A blood test for coeliac disease proved negative but I thought that, even if I wasn't allergic to gluten, I could still be intolerant to it. It took a couple of weeks for the symptoms to go away (after excluding wheat, rye, barley, oats and ALL the processed products that contain these) but I haven't looked back.

Hi folks. Greybeard here.

This relates mostly to irritable bowel syndrome in children as we have not had experience with it in adults. I will try to keep this brief. The following was our family's experience.

Nearly a half century ago, when our son was an infant, he was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. We were told he might grow out of it in a few years but there was no effective treatment for his condition. Any advice we were given proved to be useless. We were also told this frequently happened to fairly intelligent children. No consulation there.

To us at first, it appeared our baby was having some form of night terrors, writhing and screaming for hours. All we knew, it kept us and him awake a good portion of the night.

We thought that later on, he could not successfully go to school without a proper night’s sleep. In fact, his mental development was already being adversely affected.

Hi - I've been all over the place trying to tell about my discovery. Maybe you've read me before. Over thirty years diagnosed with IBS-D. I found my answer. Glycopyrrolate 2mg. 2xs a day.3 months now no diarrhea. I feel better ,than I have in 30 years. My youth is gone, but I'm still here. I've missed out on am awful lot in life because of this problem. I'm sure many of you have. Please talk to your Dr. about this pill, don't stay in hell. If you don't have too search out there, till you find your answer. Don't wait for the medical people, you'll have a long wait. Seek and ye shall find. It took 32 years, but I found it. I take the pill for hyperhydrosis (sweating) it helps that too. It helps the ibsd better than the sweats. I still sweat some, but absolutely no diarrhea.none.even my inner self feels better, I don't have all the negativities that go with the IBS-D. I don't care where the bathrooms are everywhere I go.now you know yourself, how huge that is.