Thank you Amanda. Do you still take Immodium daily even with the Effexor? If so how much? I have a follow up appt. with my dr. in a week and I will talk to him about this. The diet helps a LOT, but being a full time student in grad school working on a ph.d. and having two young children I can't keep stress completely out of my life, its just not possible. Hopefully this will be the next best thing! Oh, don't know if you've tried this or not but I've also found a lessening of my symptoms as I've gone through the IBS hypnotherapy CDs by Mike Mahoney. I'm on about day 39 and I credit their use with getting me through my daughter's first day of school yesterday with no attacks, which is amazing given my track record of stress induced attacks. Thank you for taking time to answer my post!