...because I'm too lazy to look for an email. LOL!
Two things got me stable:
1. Going on prescription medication for my anxiety problems. I've said it before on here, and I'll say it again: diet is extremely important, but food isn't the only issue for a lot of IBS'ers... if you have ongoing anxiety/stress/depression problems, and you don't treat that underlying issue, you're probably going to continue to be sick. Medication isn't always the answer, but for me, it was - in my case, I have problems that I've had since I was a child, and I will be on this medication for the rest of my life. Milder cases can be treated with a whole range of things, ranging from exercise and meditation to hypno and therapy.
2. I followed Heather's diet strictly, NO cheats... and when I say "strictly", I also mean that as soon as I started showing signs of improvement, I started adding insoluble foods back in. Weirdly enough, even though I'm mostly a D, I find that I'm most stable if I eat IF foods as the majority of my diet. Now, everyone's different, and that's something I worked up to very slowly, over the course of almost a year, but it's something to consider. You might not have found your "balance" of SF and IF yet. It does take time.
Other than that, I can't think of anything in particular that I've done. I did take a SF supplement (FiberChoice, 8g daily) for a long time, although I've since stopped because I can't afford it. I've never been on any prescriptions for my IBS symptoms. I occasionally took Imodium if the D was really bad, but that's about it. I *did* practically live on peppermint tea for a while, as it was the only thing I found that helped the spasms... I still keep it on hand for bad days.
Oh yeah, and although I consider myself stable, I DO still have bad days. In a lot of cases, they're period-related, and I consider those unavoidable. I used to be so sick that I couldn't even get out of bed, for weeks on end... I figure I can handle one bad day a month now.
I hope that helps a little... if you have any specific questions, ask. I'll be around on and off today.
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