i have a lot of the same issues with anxiety and ibs. anxiousness has always upset my stomach, and that definitely hasn't stopped with ibs. when my stomach starts to hurt, my heart starts pounding, and no matter how much i try to take deep breaths and think myself calm, the anxiety worsens the attack, which intensifies the anxiety, and so on.
it is possible to interrupt that cycle of anxiety. lots of people on the board have used the self-hypnosis for ibs program, and speak very highly of it. i can't afford the tapes, but i've found that listening to calming music helps a lot, especially music connected to a sense of safeness. for me it's dar williams, but i bet you could find something in your collection that taps into those associations.
also, if i know i'm going to have an anxious day (and i'm predisposed to anxiousness and nervousness in general) i make sure to be extra safe with what i'm eating, and just take good care of myself in general. you can also use thermacare heating pads as a bit of an extra measure. they're the self-heating ones that stick to your skin or the inside of your underwear. i'd used them before for period cramps, but they're great for soothing a tense belly. you can't use them for more than 8 hours in a 24 hour period, and you shouldn't use them too often, but once in a while they're a great extra measure of soothing. if you're in hardcore air conditioning, it might also help to wear a sweater, so the cold doesn't tense you up.
hope that helped. as a sidebar, when i was growing up, i would *always* get gas or a stomach ache as soon as i stepped into a library. even bookstores, sometimes. i've always *loved* books - maybe it was the stress of being quiet? or maybe it was love-jitters. who knows. it was always just very strange.
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jaime
ibs-a (mostly d) // vegetarian
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Re: IBS and feeling anxious!
