Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Yes, but addicted/immune to Immodium if daily?

I know that feeling - believe me!!! For a long time last winter I felt like I couldn't do anything! It was a struggle for me to even just take the bus down town to see the psychologist I was seeing at the time to talk things through (this was before I even got the IBS diagnosis confirmed).

Yes, stress is a major factor for me. And even more so than food I think. Sleep is really important to me. If I'm nervous about something and can't sleep my IBS will 90% of the time be worse even with medicine but luckily with the usual dose of loperamide it doesn't get bad.

It does take a lot of time to get back mentally to feeling confident about doing stuff. I was completely stable from the beginning of March to some time in August and it was finally getting to the point where I didn't think much about my bowels at all. If it was ok before I went out somewhere I just felt confident it would stay that way. Then I had to lower the loperamide dose because my bowels were too slow and then I got a bit stressed out one night and couldn't sleep and my IBS got worse the morning after. But I increased the dose and it was fine. Although the last few days it's been a bit worse. Not at all bad but just close to. (I have to have slow bowels to feel confident since I have a damaged sphincter - I know - not fun!) And I notice that the last few days I have started thinking more about it again. It's like the old thought patterns from last winter are coming back a bit. (You know, you start thinking, ok it seems to be ok, but what if it suddenly isn't?) So it does take time. I hope it goes back to being the way I like it and that it will stay that way. Then I can slowly go back to having a close to normal life.

I'm actually thinking about going through cognitive behavior therapy to learn to deal with the worrying about what's going to happen in the future. Maybe that could be something for you too.

/Ulrika, IBS-D

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