[Fiona 123]

HiLast night I went to bed with stomach cramps... and had a terrible night sleep..and woke with them..not as bad, but still there.I have all the test - ct scan Endoscope, colonoscope, small bowel meal..etc, and my consultant has put me on Nortripyline 20mg and spasmonol and buspar..When I have nights like this I wonder if something else is wrong, and they have got it wrong.. its not IBS-C or GI dysfunction as my con called it. Why can I not except what they tell me?Fiona

 

[Kathleen M.]

Probably the anxiety you mentioned on another thread.Anxiety will refuse to accept that symptoms are from something relatively benign and will always decide the doctors must all be wrong and something sinister no one can find on any test must be the real reason.Have you discussed in inability to accept the diagnosis with the CBT person? That and that other thought "I'll never be normal/get better...." is another one to discuss.The anxiety doesn't want to calm down and accept and believe. In order to keep the anxiety going it needs you to think that things really are worse than anyone believes and nothing will ever be right. It is hard to get people to worry about they are getting better and things will be fine

 

[Fiona 123]

Hi Kathleen"Anxiety will refuse to accept that symptoms are from something relatively benign and will always decide the doctors must all be wrong and something sinister no one can find on any test must be the real reason." you have it in a nut shell Kathleen how I am feeling.I sound mad dont I?.. Had all the tests and all clear.I have started to talk to my CBT therapist about this, but only mentioned it. She will probably thing I am stupid to think this. I do feel stupid, and as you say I am feeding the anxiety with this thought.Fiona

 

[Kathleen M.]

It isn't that you are stupid or crazy.The problem is the anxiety triggers certain kinds of thoughts that then feed the anxiety that then trigger more thoughts and if you happen to have a bit more of that part of the brain/nerves that do that and fewer of the ones that settle that down you are more likely to get stuck in the loop.Think back to when we spent all day outside."What was that noise"Look around and see a lion crouched in pounce mode"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" massive rush of adrenaline that gets you to safetyThat is a good thing.The problem is when you still go into "AAAAAAAAAAA" mode whether there is a lion or not, or you can't calm it down once you've escaped that can generate unwanted anxiety.You need a bit of that cycle to keep you safe, but some people get a bit too much or not enough calm it back down and it is just how your brain is wired. It isn't something you did, or something you should just know how to control.However it is sometimes something that does seem to want to keep they cycle going (almost like a craving) and so it can take some time, effort and often medication to break the vicious cycle so you can get back to the "no lion, nothing to fear here" state.Unfortunately with IBS they symptoms of the disease are ones that tend to make anyone a bit anxious. I mean you don't see many really calm people with food poisoning when they need the bathroom NOW! The problem is once the anxiety kicks in it ramps up the symptoms which then ramp up the anxiety. It took awhile for everything to get this ramped up, so it can take awhile to get everything ramped back down. Be gentle with and kind to yourself while you are healing this issue. Beating yourself up about it won't help.

 

[kc99]

Fiona_123, I have the all-night cramps problem sometimes. In my experience (bearing in mind that we're all different), I have found a few triggers: 1.) caffeine too late in the day (say, mid-afternoon)2.) meals too late in the day 3.) anxiety (as you've discussed), usually in the presence of some very specific stressor And I imagine there could be other factors which could cause this in other people which I don't even know about. At any rate, in addition to controlling whatever stress-related issues, it may perhaps be worthwhile to look into eating schedules and the like.