IBS induced eating disorders
#183714 - 06/05/05 02:48 PM
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Tinkerbelle
Reged: 04/17/05
Posts: 231
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
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I know there is a connection between having had an eating disorder in the past and IBS, but how many of you have become anorexic because of IBS? I know I've posted a lot about this before, but I find that because of IBS I have really started to dislike food, and fear it. I've cut out more and more foods that when I add them back in I have trouble disgesting them when I don't think I did before! I think that the eating disorder is what's caused me to lose so much weight, not the IBS. Anyone else experienced this?
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Yes, I have. There were periods of times in high school and college that every time I ate for weeks I would feel intensely nauseous. So I would just stop eating. Sophomore year of high school and, well, sophomore year of college were both like that. I just stopped eating both years. It wasn't really the same as anorexia because after I got on serious medicine and got better (or more) control over my diet I started eating again just fine. The first time I didn't know what to eat, and the second time I was living in the dorms and couldn't control what I ate. Changing the environment around me and the medication I was on were the important factors in my starting eating again.
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Sorry you are going through so much. I think that things can only get better. About four years ago when I first started college was my worse time ever with IBS. I was also very nauseous and had D and C. I lost alot of weight and then eventually I just started getting better after about a year. I took Nexium for the indigestion, Levbid and things like that. I dont know really what is was that changed but now I dont have much nausea and D now I am just C. I am back to my usual weight if not larger because of my C. I do see where someone could potentially have an eating disorder. Maybe if you think you do have an eating disorder you need to get some professional help for that.
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What kind of medicine did you get? I would love to take it if it really helped!
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Well, like I said before I did take Nexium for a while and of course pepcid, tums and stuff like that because the doctor kept telling me that I probably had reflux. I am not sure if that "cured" it or I just simply got passed that stage and just went into the C stage of IBS which could be possible. Sorry I dont have any better suggestions but if you do think you have reflux Nexium seems to be a good one.
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I mostly just have loose stool, some cramping, nasuea and very infrequent D. And I'm never ever hungry!
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When I was very sick I took propulsid the first time, but it apparently kills people so it's no longer on the market. After that I took a low dose of amitryptilene (Elavil). It is an anti-depressant that has been shown to help with IBS symptoms. It also makes you hungry and gain weight. I also take Nexium because I do have GERD.
I don't want you to get the idea that there is one medicine that will make things all better. Like I said, it was a combination of seeing the doctor and finding medicine that works for me, and changing my diet and environment. IBS is different for everybody, the important thing was talking to my doctor and experimenting, and improving my food situation in general.
Good luck!
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Apparantly I've had it for about 2 years but my doctor only diagnosed it about 2 months ago. I never had a problem with body image in the past or cared what foods I ate but these days it's a whole different story.For me it's a form of bulemia (without purging as my IBS D does the job for me) and I starve myself unintentionally all day long, which stems from food having made me so sick for so long that I get too scared to eat it. I'm battling it out and trying to eat properly now, even if I have to force myself to eat something but it's not easy. I think about food sometimes and get a belly cramp just from the thought. ((((((hugs))))) see your doctor about it. Mine's been pretty helpful.
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Amy
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Thanks Amy! We are so similiar! I'm sorry you had to go through that for 2 years, but I'm really glad you're trying to get ahold of it now. I wonder how many people with eating disorders really have IBS? I suspect it's only a small population, as there seem to be so many young women who want to be really thin on purpose. I get so pissed off hearing about young women really wanting to be skinny and eating hardly anything because of it... And they're proud of it! I feel just the opposite but do the same thing. It's terrible! How are you feeling lately, my friend?
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just because you fear food and dont want to eat from having IBS--which is probably because you fear the pain. . .dosent make you anorexic. anorexia deals with the fear of food in relationship to the fear of being fat. so if you dont have that fear, you dont have an eating disorder. i truly dont think people have a real concept of what an eating disorder TRULY is until they live the hell of it. but i do believe that IBS can be brought on from the physical complications of an eating disorder.
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my IBS/C sprouted from indirect disordered eating, which happened when i went thru severe depression and a cutting problem. to avoid having C [after all the DRs tested me and gave me no help] i got into laxative abuse in a way to purge my body. at first it was to purge the C. but later on it became more about purging food so i could be thin. since i had IBS @ 16-17, i was always bloated and hid away in baggy clothes b/c i thought i was fat. but when i was laxative-thin, i got to wear all the cute fun clothes that i never wouldve dreamed of wearing when i was bloated and C. the laxatives caused my IBS to get worse, but then it got better, and then it got worse again. i notice that the waves i go thru in my ibs, are the same kind of waves i go thru with food--partially b/c of my ibs, but partially b/c i still want to have my thin-highschool body i never really got to have. ill say though, that when i was in europe last summer [croatia] i had no IBS problems at all! in fact, i lost 10 pounds. it put me dangerously low and since returning, ive been coping with the regain of it and the worse turn my ibs took. when i dont have ibs problems, i dont really have eating issues either. i only get self-conscious when i get bloated b/c i think im fat, and thats when i get obsessive about food. it sounds sick when i say it straight-forward but its true. i think IBS can be caused by eating problems. but i also think IBS can indirectly cause eating problems too. when i post my daily foods and eat sparingly to avoid attacks, i even start to feel a little anorexic. i even think i come off that way to people aside from my close circle--i know im not though but its terribly hard explaining it to non-sufferers. does that help some with your Q? hope so *HUGS*
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VEGAN ASHLEY~IBS/C
www.myspace.com/dutchflowers
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There is definately a link between the two, I dont think that you can have IBS without having a somewhat strained or strange relationship with food. My boyfriend lovely as he is has never really understood why I wont eat certain things or why I wont even try new things incase they're not safe and set off an attack, but a couple of weeks ago I think he finally understood! He had a bad stomach bug and I said to him imagine that after you've got this bug out your system that the D doesn't stop, that it happens everyday with no rhyme or reason, you cant stop it, you worry about going anywhere and you go to the Doctor who tells you there's nothing wrong with you , therefore nothing they can do about it! I said to him imagine all this and then tell me that you wouldn't have a weird relationship with food. You'll be pleased to know he agreed!!
I totally understand what you said little bear about the bloating making you feel fat and wanna lose weight, I get that feeling on bad days too but have to remind myself that if anything I'm slightly underweight and even if I lost 14lbs it wouldnt take away my bloated belly I'd just look ill and like I'd swallowed a beach ball!!!
I know my eating problems ( not gonna give myself a label) stem from my IBS, my doctor sent me to an eating disorders clinic who told me what I already knew, that I dont infact have a eating disorder such as anorexia etc.. its a fear resulting from my IBS. They wrote back to my doctor and he actually apologised to me last year after 10yrs of trying to get help from him, saying that all this time he thought I was anorexic. I was so angry I could have punched him, if he had actually bothered to listen to me I feel my eating problems/IBS wouldn't be so bad now.
I'm now on a low dose anti-depressant trying to work it out myself with a lot of help and advice from all of you
x x x x x
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