Funny you should mention this. The other night, after eating a BOLCO wrap, I became bloated. What always happens during this time is my stomach will ballon, and my arms shrink.
I always am self conscious of this, and being someone whose body to me is what a classic corvette is to an antique fad, it demoralizes my soul.
I have been told it is all in my head. Then my gym partner comes up to me, and repeatedly was telling me my arms look much scrawner. He kept repeating this over and over, in a joking way, but you could tell he really saw a difference.
This made me want to cry and drap myself in a long sleeve sweater. So yes, when IBS causes a physical appearance change, it hurts my friendships. It makes me want to lie down and scream "I surrender."
It would be the equivilant of an antique fad seeing his prized Model T Ford getting pegged by children throwing rocks.
I wish for two things, one for this to stop happening to me, two if this does happen to me, that I might aquire some set of skills so this will not cripple me.