Any other treatments successful?

Hi theguynextdoor, An actual food intolerance or fool allergy is an somewhat different ballpark and may need to be approached differently. In that situation, the symptoms or reaction that you get to eating certain foods is caused by an immune response in your body which makes you feel terrible -- think of a food allergy in the same light that you would a more common allergy - like one to dust or pollen; exposure to these things causes coughing and runny nose - things your body does to try and get the irritating object out of it! So with an actual food intolerance, eating a trigger food does the same thing to your GI tract. That said - personally i have had problems eating foods outside of my "safe food zone", not because i am intolerant to any of these foods in a scientific sense but because i mentally associate some foods to getting an IBS attack. For instance, I have no allergy to orange juice, but mentally i associate it with something my stomach may react to. Mike's tapes have helped me deal with this sort of thing recently. Quick story to illustrate: my doctor recently put me on potassium supplements (not ibs related) and i was terrified to take them because "what if they cause an IBS attack?" - so i took one and was trying to be calm but my stomach started gurgling and churning so i ran upstairs and got my favorite session of Mike's tapes and listened to it and it completely calmed me down - didn't have a single IBS problem that night or any other night with them. In fact, after i listened to the session my boyfriend and i went for a walk around the neighborhood. And, using the tapes in a similar way, i have gotten myself to drink a glass of OJ every night too -- small step but at least its a step in the right direction for a change!I hope all that made sense and i hope you are feeling well today!-kac

Thanks everyone! While Bonniei's discussion does look interesting i have found that i have a more "do it yourself" mentality about these sorts of issues - which is why i enjoyed mike's tapes so much - did those at home without having to deal with "real time" therapist -- thank you for the book ideas - time to jump on over to amazon

CBT is a very active process. It takes a lot of work and practice to have it truly be effective. It is a good technique for stress and anxiety reduction. Hypnotherapy is better for IBS. It is easier and more effective as it works on the subconscious mind which controls the autonomic nervous system. A lot of people here have used Mike's tapes and been helped with symptoms. I do things now that I avoided for over 25 years. It has helped my panic and anxiety as well, just as Eric said, as a pleasant side effect. I would encourage you to read about hypnotherapy and ask questions. We'll be glad to help.AZ

just in response to you matt. the session i done was with a therapist here in ireland. she was'nt an ibs specialist and when i went to see her i was seeking help more in relation to my nerves and anxiety in social enviroments and nerves situations which all inturn would greatly increase my ibs symptoms. i was'nt and still aint comfortable talking to people about my ibs. thank god for this board. i kinda mentioned some of my ibs symptoms as an after-thought to her.so basically she hypnotised me there and then and recorded the session for me to listen to every night before bed. being truely honest the feelings of confidence and happiness i felt after that session was probably the best i've felt in years. i still remember and its been about 2yrs since the session.i stuck to the tapes for a good 2 or 3 weeks and i remember going into work feeling like a new person. it felt good inside that finally i was been myself without fears, anxiety or nerves. even my co-workers were shocked at how i was no longer the quiet shy person they knew.but i got complacient and stopped listening to the tape found it hard to find the time and would find myself getting easily distracted. sure enough my nerves and anxiety came back full whack and ibs along with it.as i said i was'nt using this tape to cure my ibs at the time, but the slight mention she did give in her tape in relation to the information i mentioned about my ibs to her did help somewhat. i was definetly 85% ibs free that evening after my first session.at the moment i'm kinda leaving it as my last resort, i think mainly because i'm afraid to try it again and this time it wont work. if it works for my ibs as well as it worked for my anxiety then i'm looking forward to leading a normal life again.i am apparently lactose, dairy and yeast intollerant so i'm trying to limit these trigger foods as much as possible.also on the topic of foods i had baked tinned beans tonight and they seemed to have a very bad effect on me alot of gas wise and in my BM. anyone else have problems with beans?i really wanna believe that mikes tapes will do it for me but before i go for them i may exhaust al other optionsi'm seriously thinking about ibascol, seems to work for alot of people. been trying calcium, multi-vitamins, digestive enzymes, green tea,, chinese meds NONE seem to wrk for me. not even calcium. they only thing which has seemed to help my symptoms the most is imodium. this i'm gonna go back on as soon as possible. i also take inderal for high anxiety situations but i really dont like taking this drug it seems to have a bad after effect on me like i feel depressed or something. any recommendations instead of inderal? and does anyone know how inderal works scientifically in stopping the nervous spasams? i feel my ibs-d is really 65% anxiety and my nervous system malfunctioning related and 35% food intollerant related, in this case is mikes hypno tapes simply the best way about going in curing my ibs anyone?also do any of his tapes help with social anxiety, confidence and nervousness?