Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | "suck it up" vs. acceptance

I've found (and maybe this is just me!) that's there's a world of difference between "just suck it up" and "accept IBS as part of me". "Sucking it up" worked just fine until I would have an attack, and then not only was I sick from the IBS, but I was angry at myself for not just dealing with it. It's not a pretty combination when your IBS is anxiety and stress triggered!

After hanging out here and doing the diet and yoga and hypno and teas and all that jazz, I'm at a different point which looks a lot like what I was trying to do when I told myself to "suck it up". My attacks are fewer and milder, and I go back to my normal diet within hours instead of weeks. The difference is that I accept that I have IBS. Because I have IBS, I eat differently. Because I have IBS, I manage my stress instead of trying (and failing) to blow it off. And because I have IBS, I don't freak out when I have an attack - I just do all the things I know I need to do to get over it as smoothly and comfortably as possible. The result, amazingly enough, is that I look a lot like those "normal" people who poop every day and go back to eating their regular food right after a D attack. (In the past, I ate nothing but bread and flat Coke for a week after any sort of attack!)

It may seem like a subtle point, but it was an important one for me. Being a perfectionist with my belly only brought me a cranky and rebellious belly. Accepting my sensitive gut (along with my too-short legs, prematurely gray hair, and other bodily imperfections) brings a lot more peace, both in the bathroom and in the rest of my life.

--AC, philsophical this am

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