Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Can anyone relate to keepin up a normal facade?

I have had severe and in many ways debilitating IBS for over a decade. It has robbed what would have been my years of building a career, dating, having kids. Yet, I go out there and put on a brave face everyday, and other than lots of "there must be something wrong with you or you wouldnt'.(fill in the blank- be single, work here, etc..) I put on to people that I am totally normal because I am too embarrassed to admit I have IBS, am too private to have the I don't care what others think attitude. But the flipside of that is that when you try to explain to someone how devastating and horrifying the symptoms and life impact are, they think it mustn't be that bad becasue I am so "normal".
Does anyone get what I am saying. I am exhausted by the energy it takes to go out into life and pretend for whatever the number of hours is- that I am normal. And then I come home and collapse by myself, having kept it together all day. Anyone get it? And please, no offense, but I'm not looking for the cheerleaders to tell me I shouldn't care what anyone thinks. I do, period.

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