IBS is bunkum for the most part. Few people actually have it. It is a diagnosis of exclusion. You need to rule out every other possibility first. Big Pharma promotes it as some wide spread problem, just like they do with "restless leg syndrome". Motherload is right about stress and food intake being probable factors in causing your gastro intestinal distress, but don't go buying any product being sold for IBS sufferers. It's just a big rip off.
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Sir SamDamnit!
The Emir of Crapistan

I've heard of this sort of thing before but never had it myself. The (few) people who had this were more stressed and ate a lot of things I woudln't have picked first. I'd try to rule out things and all the stuff above.

SamDamnit!, I think RLS is nothing more than a way for the drug companies to sell more prescriptions. I have that condition lots of people have that I can't stand to be perfectly still. I always have to be moving, even if it's so much as fidgeting with my fingers or wiggling a toe. If I'm relaxing, yes, I move my legs a lot, but it's not a syndrome treatable by drugs. I just need to teach myself to sit still. I agree that it's a rip off--more so than you're saying it is.

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Damnit, someone stole my signature!

Good on you, Flushy. I twitch my legs too. I am also very suspicious of the whole ADD thing. We used to just call it "stupid".
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Sir SamDamnit!
The Emir of Crapistan

Well, thanks Motherload. IBS is better than being possessed by the Devil.

When Frederick the super guinea pig got sick last year (and I never wrote a front page story about it, I should), I was extremely worried about him. Here's a little animal that isn't like a dog or cat in that I have to travel quite a ways to get a good piggy doctor. Plus, his size made him getting sick dangerous - he got dehydrated easy. During that time of having to medicate him every three hours for an eye that eventually was enucleated, I spent weeks and weeks not sleeping. I was tired, worried, and stressed out. And boy did my bowels suffer for it. I was out of sorts something fierce. I was so stressed out I gave myself the serious runs and even crapped while vomiting, thus pulling double doodie over worry. I wasn't right again for about three weeks.

While it seems stupid to some of you reading this, the concept of a tiny little life suffering in my house was hard to deal with. I felt great amounts of sympathy and I reacted to it physically.

It was the first time I ever reacted like this to a stressful situation. I wonder, now, why is my reaction considered a farce? Would it have been a tiny attack of IBS or just nerves? I didn't imagine it.

Is this type of thing what doctors diagnose as IBS too much?
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.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

At first, I couldn't figure out why DungDaddy was asking about "period poops"! ??? Ohhhh! Periodic! :P

I went to the doc with pain in my left arm. I was paranoid it was heart-related. He didn't find anything wrong with my heart, but he said I had (*announcer voice*) "CARPAL TUNEL"! The test for that is really unpleasant, though, so I didn't go. The ache went away.

But I COULD go around saying, "I have Carpal Tunel! I do!"

I went again the next year with pain IN my chest, but everything checked out okay. The doc said I had (*announcer*) "GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX DISEASE"! He put me on a nasty medicine that made me feel like I was about to vomit 24 hours a day. I didn't refill the Rx. It probably WAS heartburn, but it went away.

But I COULD go around saying, "I have GERD! I do!"

I think some docs are Disease Du Jour flag-wavers.

My doc told me that I was too fat, had to give up fried foods, and stay away from sweets. I told him the easier thing would be to stay away from him. So I did. Haven't been back for tweleve years, and couldn't feel better. I'm beginnig to think that doctors are hazardous to your health. How about a Surgeon General's warning...?

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"Vini, Vidi, Vomiti" (we came, we saw, we got sick on the plane")

With PTSD people have flashbacks, your butt is obviously experiencing flush backs. Very dangerous. Seek a psychologist, proctologist, and/or veterinarian quicky.
Or not.
Maybe you just intermittently eat stuff that aggravates your bowels.

There are no psychologists, proctologists, or vets in my area. I'll just talk to my buddy, Lloyd, and see what he says.

oh man. My first post here is after i've trolled this site for info and found my problem. I have what dungdaddy has but every freaking day of the week. I have a solid eazy going BM as often as as most people have the shits. I feem like my BM cycle is in reverse. When I snap into a slimjim, the spices in that make it even worse. I'll be up all night feeling the "excitement" on the porcelin thought amplifier. It even gets to the point where its just flaming mucus coming out. I've had this problem for the better part of 13 years.

Welcome aboard zeiroe.

I also had IBS at one time. However in my case, it was constiaption predominant.

There is a great product on the market for IBS sufferers. The product is called Digestrol. I took this for six months. I also did a Dr. Natura colon cleanse, and stopped my 16 year battle with IBS cold.
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"-55F, a new record low? Nope, thermometer went bad. Looks like -50F still stands"

I have bouts of IBS. Usually stress-induced. Motherload has helped me get thru some of the bad times with her wit(stories) and sympathy.(response posts to fellow suffers.)Just wanted to thank her.
Producing waste since 1967