The start of IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome often starts with a misinterpretation of an incident. Think about having to do a presentation for which you are very nervous about. 5 minutes before you think – I have to go to the toilet. You wish you could just stay on the toilet but eventually get off and get that presentation done. Next time you need to do a presentation and anxiety of what happened last time is triggered. It may be even worse this time.

This will develop into a deeper anxiety that not only relates to giving presentations but also being trapped. I mean trapped by being embarrassed to excuse yourself in the cinema, theatre, in a car with others, in a meeting, on a train/tram and the list gets bigger and bigger. This can then develop into not wanting to go anywhere unless you know where the toilet is prior.

Repeated episodes of diarrhoea will damage the walls of the bowel which do need repair and reinocculation of gut flora. So a physical condition develops as does the fear. Both need to be treated and it is not an overnight fix because it has usually taken years to get to this point. But there is light at the end of the tunnel using both conventional and alternative approach.

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