Well, this is an interesting thread. I don't know if I can offer much insight, but this is my BRIEF story:
I think my IBS came on me slowly. First it was pork that started disagreeing with me (1967), so I cut it out of my diet. Then it was red meat (circa 1977). I didn't know I had IBS until around 1980 when I freaked out every day after work before getting on the commuter bus, knowing I was stuck and couldn't get off the bus until the first stop, 2 hours away! Actually, it was that experience that I've blamed for my IBS -- that and the added stress of the high-power job -- but when I finally had to quit working (supposedly because of the stress), I realized that the stress I had at that time had nothing to do with the job or the "bus-prison," but the fear of having an attack.
Frankly, I thought I had a mental problem; I knew nothing about IBS. It was just 4 years ago that a fellow employee said to me, "I think you have IBS." I looked it up in the medical dictionary because I'd never heard of it except for brief notations in medical summaries that I used to transcribe and wondered about. I saw the doctor and asked for a referral to a GI. The GI was a jerk, very condescending, stuck on himself -- I hated him and refused to return. I decided I wasn't going to have IBS -- whatever it was -- and ignored it. When we sold our home in California and moved up here 3 years ago, I could no longer ignore it. I found a new doctor up here who said he thought I did indeed have IBS. His question to me was: "You're a perfectionist, aren't you?" Interesting -- because that's what my doctor in California asked me before he too told me he thought I had IBS. The answer to both was an undeniable YES. He sent me to a GI who finally gave me a colonoscopy and confirmed his diagnosis. He too was a jerk because I refused an operation that I did not need -- he told me to get my meds from my primary doctor and showed me the door.
While I've had two surgeries in my life, I can't attribute the IBS to either (although the first one -- in 1982) is suspect. Neither can I attribute my IBS to family stressors (although one particular serious incident in 1997 is suspect).
Your theory that "constant exposure over a long period of time to the hormones related to stress cause permanent damage to the GI tract, and the body can no longer handle exposure to those hormones anymore....which is why stress is a main trigger for attacks" is absolutely fascinating. I need to run this around in my mind awhile.
If anything else comes to mind, I'll re-post. Thanks, Bobette.
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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy
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