good morning,my name is lee, i am english and currently living in south of france.i just wanted some advise really.i have had ibs for about 9 years now,i am 25 years old and i am currently at the point where i cant take it anymore,i have tried everything to try and lead a remotely normal life but its just not happening.i am so sick to death of having to wake up and hour and half before i need to just to take a tablet and try and let my stomach settle before i go to work.i have been living in france for the last 2 years.and gradually my stomach has been getting better compared to what it was like when i was living in birmingham,england.however a couple of weeks ago i had a really bad stomach in the morning,i must of gone to the toilet 5 times before i left the apartment,so i thought 'i should be ok' and i was rushing around so i would make my bus to work in time,i stepped outside and walked about 200 metres and..my stomach just went,so i am standing in the middle of a city wondering what the hell to do,after walking back home feeling so digusted and upset with myself,i cleaned myself up and sat on my bed wishing i was dead.i have never had suicidal tendicies before,i have always tried to fight this disease, at work and in my social life i am happy,funny,carefree person but behind closed doors i feel so sad and miserable about having to put up with this.i am so sick and tired of spending 30 minutes on the toilet each day before i go anywhere,i am so sick and tired of having to tell my girlfriend 'sorry, i cant go for a walk today,my stomach is bad',i am so sick of constantly looking for where the toilets are in a pub,restaurant,shopping centre etc etc.i feel like im going to snap, i have been taking imodium constantly for about 6 months now, i know its a bad thing to do but i am so scared about having my stomach constantly 'going' when i am out.i have tried all diets i can think of,tried cutting different things out of my life but nothing is working.i know there are people out there who probably have it a hell of alot worse than me,i know i should say 'sod it,im not going to let it beat me' and be stronger but i am struggling so hard with this, i just wish there was something i could do...i just thank god that my girlfriend is so understanding and never gets mad or upset about missing out on things normal couples would do due to my illness.anyway sorry to go on with my life story,thank you for taking to time to read this(if you got this far without falling asleep)any advice,recommendations,criticsm would be greatly appreciated.have a good day and look after yourselvesregards lee.