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IBS really ruined my whole life, and just like everyone here, I felt torn between being grateful I didn't have something "serious" and guilty for feeling like I was dying anyway. People treat you differently when they know that IBS is something that isn't "serious" as in life-threatening, but as my gastroenterologist told me that he could treat the pain of his colon cancer patients better than the IBS patients.

I was officially diagnosed in 1988, after about five years of not knowing why I was having increasing severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. With the birth of my daughter that same year, I thought I better get tested, that maybe I did have some digestive disease, but several colonoscopies later, it was confirmed as IBS.

Trips to the Mayo Clinic and two other gastroenterologists further confirmed that every single prescription and OTC medication had little or no effect, and only short-term, if any.

Over the next 12 years or so, I was prescribed various IBS medications by my gastroenterologists and internal medicine physicians - some examples: every antispasmodic including Hyoscyamine (Levbid/Levsin, and Levsin SL), Dicyclomine (Bentyl), as well as Donnatal, Tincture of Belladonna, etc., several diets and diet modifications/eliminations, fiber, the anti-depressant Amitriptyline (Elavil), various SSRIs (Prozac, Effexor and others), Codeine, Colpermin (enteric coated peppermint capsules), various other Antidiarrheal and/or Antiperistaltic prescriptions or OTC medications, as well as non-label use of prescriptions such as Seldane, which has a side-effect of constipation to combat my extreme diarrhea. There were other medications, and herbals as well.

My gastroenterologist finally told me that he had exhausted his treatment options, and to go look up other treatments on the internet. In my search, I found out about the use of clinical hypnotherapy for IBS through a fellow BB IBS sufferer who used it successfully, but I thought this method was pretty far-fetched and seemed to be absurd to me.

But I was desperate so I tried this method as a last resort in the summer of 2000. This was the IBS Audio Program 100, which is a set of CDs with a specific schedule of several sessions that you listen to. Due to the severity of my severe refractory IBS, as well as several non related surgeries, I listened to the program 3 times. Each time I saw better improvement – I was the worst case scenario. Mike told me that the hypnotherapy program worked first on those health issues and stressors in my life that were most pressing to my overall health – and that the IBS was dealt with last in my case – but I persevered, and my symptoms greatly reduced. That was over three years ago, and now I can actually leave the house, whereas before, I raised my children "through the bathroom door!" I had attacks of diarrhea and pain lasting for hours on end, sometimes six hours a day, almost every day, never knowing when...even if I ate small amounts, the attacks would come out of the blue.

I am now able to function – if I do get an attack, most of the time it will subside within minutes, if not seconds – IBS is no longer the severe issue that it was, and though not a cure, for me, it was the best thing I could have done to treat my IBS on a holistic level.

My IBS cost me a whole lost life...events and special celebrations for my kids, just taking them to routine doctor and dentist appointments was an ordeal, and my marriage suffered and collapsed in part because of it. I went from being able to travel and talk professionally in front of large groups of people, to being just about housebound.

This program saved my life. And I now help the author of the program, clinical hypnotherapist Michael Mahoney, as a result of my gratitude for getting my life back. As one of the slowest persons to respond, and with very severe symptoms, I feel that I do need to pass on what was given to me and encourage others to not lose hope. That's what worked for me and I hope this helps someone too. Thanks for letting me share!

~ Marilyn