I was thinking today about one of the reasons why the “all in your head” attitude to IBS gets people so annoyed. There are a number of good reasons for this, a major one being the fact that dismissing IBS as psychosomatic has long been a way to belittle the symptoms and enable other people to tell us to calm down rather than admitting that we might need something in the way of, I don’t know, treatment.
But perhaps the most infuriating thing about this attitude is the fact that it is one of the finest examples of “Doctor knows best”, completely-impossible-to-argue-with logic that I have ever come across.
You visit your doctor. You explain that you have been suffering from bad stomach pain and diarrhea. Your doctor says “Ah yes, that’s probably a result of emotional tension and psychological problems. You need to see a psychiatrist.”
You stare at your doctor blankly. You don’t feel mentally ill – if you were depressed you’d feel miserable, but you’re not miserable. If you were schizophrenic you might be paranoid, but you’re not paranoid; if you were obsessive-compulsive you might be washing your hands 20 times a day, but you’re not.
You live a normal, healthy life, and hold down a job, and see your friends, and feed your goldfish. You’ve never thought to yourself “Maybe I’m mentally ill. Must get that checked out.” And your friends have never said “Sophie seems a bit weird – maybe she’s mentally ill. Must get her checked out.”
In fact, you’ve never shown any signs of mental illness before, except, apparently, for the stomach pain and diarrhea. And despite the fact that your head feels fine, and you’ve never felt mentally ill, and you’ve never shown any signs of mental illness whatsoever, your doctor now decides you’re mentally ill. And why? Because your bowels aren’t working properly.
You’ve got to admire the logic in that – bowels aren’t working properly, diagnosis: mental problems. Lungs aren’t working properly, diagnosis: over-attentive mother and a tendency to watch too much television. No, wait a minute, my mistake – if your lungs aren’t working properly then it means that you’ve got something wrong with your lungs. Only bowels can be used for psychological diagnoses.
And so we end up with a situation where our doctors decide that we as IBS sufferers have less knowledge of our own mental health than they do – we as IBS sufferers have failed to spot our own mental illness, have failed to identify even the slightest hint of psychological disturbance, but they as doctors have reached deep into our psyches and have spectacularly diagnosed the problem that we didn’t even know was there, hasn’t shown up as any kind of mental problem, and only produces symptoms in our guts. Doctor knows best.
No wonder we get a bit miffed from time to time.
(Just in case there is anyone reading this who is now thinking to themselves “Oh no, maybe I’m secretly mentally ill”, the idea of IBS as a psychological disorder has been widely and soundly discredited, despite some doctors failing to keep up to date with this fact.)
I can understand how some doctors think that it’s all in your head because the majority of IBS starts from being overly stressed. Having the misfortune of being overly stressed for whatever reason(financial, abuse, drugs, depression, etc…)and developing IBS might be true but once your bowels are messed up it becomes a physical problem #1 and a psychological problem #2 in that order.
Anyone who thinks otherwise has never experienced IBS. Hypnosis might be able to help with symptoms or even a psychologist but I’ve never heard of anyone being cured of their IBS soley through psychological help. If a cure is ever found for IBS, it won’t be found through the psychological, it will be found from a physical point of view.
I want so badly to tell my doctor, “I wasn’t depressed until I started seeing a doctor for help who didn’t believe me and/or wants to treat my problem with anti-depressants.” Like so many others, I’ve developed depression & anxiety since being diagnosed with IBS… but it didn’t start until after the diagnosis, and it happens as a result of the symptoms. I know, in this case, that the egg came before the chicken (or vice versa, whichever you prefer).
It seems strange to think that this should, and would be, one of the most happiest times of my life. I constantly have to tell my boyfriend that I am not in a mood, I am fighting the feeling to give up. IBS is NOT in your head, it CAUSES depression. My doctor asks: What are you stressed about? My Answer: IBS!!! I love my life right now, but also want to end it because all I ever think of is, Can I eat this? Where is the loo? I haven’t been for a while, god I don’t want to be there when I do (during EVERYTHING!). I have a brilliant chinese doctor who has wiped the pain problem, I recommend TCM (traditional chinese medicine), not only did it remove one of the hellish symptoms, they actually LISTEN to you….I am going to see a hypnotherapist next week to help deal with my anxiety. Diet and medicine can not help alone, the stress caused by IBS needs looking at. In my life, more so, than any stress which might make it worse.
To IBS Sufferer – I wouldn’t agree that “the majority of IBS starts from being overly stressed”. It’s true that many people develop IBS during a stressful event such as a divorce or moving house etc, but many others develop IBS following a bout of gastroenteritis (post-infectious IBS), and others still develop IBS for absolutely no apparent reason.
There’s no doubt that stress play a part in IBS, and stress-relieving should play a part in treatment – but for a lot of sufferer stress plays very little part in their development of IBS. Speaking from a personal point of view, I got IBS when I was 12. One day I was fine, next day I had gastroenteritis, and from then on I had IBS. It baffles me when people attempt to put this fact down to psychological issues.
Sophie, I have to disagree. I recently took a poll at another IBS website and atleast 80% of those who got IBS said that it started from a stressful event or a very stressful time in their life. I think this is why so many doctors believe that it’s all in your head.
I think that you’re the exception to the rule. Yipee for you, huh? I’m just saying that stress may cause it for many people but no matter how you got it, it’s now a physical problem. The psychological(stress) still needs to be dealt with but it’s secondary in my opinion.
I’m sure there are different types of IBS but doctors can’t even tell us what IBS is, so there is no way they can classify IBS into different sub groups. I think that’s each individuals responsibility to deal with his/her own IBS instead of just brushing it with a broad IBS stroke.
I thought this fitted the debate here- I just went to Tesco’s, and you know when employee’s stand there behind a little table and offer you food samples? Well I got caught by this lady as I stared longingly at the fresh baked chunky cookies on offer, and she said to try a sample. I waved her off, she persisted, so I said “No, sorry, can’t eat that”. She asked why, so I told her I was intolerant to wheat and dairy (I refrained from telling her that my stomach would explode). She said sympathetically (albeit condescendingly)
“Maybe you will grow out of it”.
I just smiled, gritted my teeth, and headed for the Free From section…
Hi Sophie,
I just wanted to tell you thank you for this site. My boyfriend has been suffering (comparatively small amount of time to you) with what we now realize is IBS. Every meal he would have an attack. He became so depressed from it – not before it. He has had every standard test with the doctor saying each time – nothing found, you should be happy because it’s nothing serious. And I would walk away crying because this idiot didn’t realize what serious was. This wonderful, happy, energetic, and optimistic man was becoming so distraught that he was to the point of not being able to face the world. We knew that we had to take an active stance and find out for ourselves what was going on. He has a culinary background (now in the military – not easy with IBS) and decided to try doing food separation on his own to discover what types of foods might be bringing on the attacks. He is slowly finding out what those are and has started to find some relief. But it took hitting rock bottom to realize that it meant a complete and utter life change in diet and style. Every meal must be planned. Every trip or event takes on new meaning. He was so worried about what it would do to our relationship and how I would react when all I could think about was how can I help him. Your site has been so helpful to me though. Not only do I get an even better sense of what is happening to him during these attacks, but we don’t feel alone in our struggles with his doctor. I don’t understand how there can be so many people in this world that have IBS but none of the doctors treating IBS sufferers have it themselves. It should be a pre-requisite I think. Thank you again and keep up the good work. We really appreciate it.
IBS sufferer – this is an interesting issue, I’ll try to find some numbers on this. Post-infectious IBS is actually quite common and a recognised “sub-group” of IBS. There are also lots of people who develop IBS after surgery of some kind. The IBS Research Update site says that up to 30% of people who suffer from bad gastrointestinal infections go on to develop IBS.
Sophie,
I’m in your camp on this one. 26 years of happy care free living then wham bam, gastro flu followed by the joys of IBS ever since. Psychological causes, hum, I think not! Still searching for the light at the end of the tunnel…good luck to everyone else in our boat too!!
Hi,
I’ve had IBS now for 20 years.It started when I had food poisoning.
I get periods were I feel fine and other times I just want to curl into a ball and die..
Over the past 6 months I’ve experienced the worse IBS pain ever…
a few months back I was given an ultra scan because they thought it was my gallbladder..I didn’t hear anything so thought the results must have been negative…
then this week my pain as got so bad…I’m experience pain in my right groin that i’ve never had before and the stomach pains are awful..The only way I can discribe it is that I feel like i’m being poisoned…Even though I don’t know what that feels like..
I went to the docs yesterday because the pain was so bad…I mentioned to the doc about my scan and she looked for the results…she couldn’t find them on the computer.She excused herself and went to look up my written medical notes…
Anyone with IBS knows that we often think we have something serious wrong with us like cancer..Well, while she was gone out of her office I could see the computer screen and on my medical computer notes I saw..COLONIC CANCER….you can imagine what that did to me…i sat there for what seemed like ages, my pain got worse and I wanted to just run out of her office…She came back and also noticed Colonic Cancer and asked if I knew anything about it…I informed her i didn’t…she checked through my medicle paper notes and then said..” I hate it when this happens..mixed up notes..She tore it out then deleted the entry on the computer and said..These are not your results Jane”
She then examined me and said I could have a cyst or fibroids…gave me painkillers and said I need an ultra scan….duhhhh i already had one and you have lost my results….
I left her office feeling worse than when i went in……
Does anyone else have this poisoning feeling and right side groin pain?
Sophie, I’ve just discovered your blog. Fellow IBS sufferer. Thanks for putting your life out there. It’s very brave. I want to say three things:
1) One of the main problems you are talking about is the whole distinction between body and mind that we and our doctors are working with. The idea that things that happen “in your mind” do not have health effects is outdated and, for instance, is not even a part of Chinese or other non-Western medicines, which don’t make the mind-body distinction as much as we do: they think in terms of a body-mind.
If a someone or a doctor says that it is “just in your mind” DISMISSIVELY, it is THEIR PROBLEM. If you get IBS from stress that is just as serious a disorder as if you got it after surgery. Both your thinking (chemical events in your brain) and your gut’s activity (chemical events in your gut) are equally real.
2) People who suffer from IBS probably have multiple predispositions to react to both physical and emotional traumas with increased and disordered gasto-intestinal activity (I would say digestive too because I also seem to swallow air which comes from a little higher up). Cures could come from chemical changes through medicines or they could come from some way of re-educating the bowel or both. Stress reduction doesn’t hurt but is not always possible. Sometimes there seems to be no reason that the bowel acts up which is also a real mystery.
3) I have found that I have gotten some help from some “woo-woo” alternative medicine stuff but it takes a while and costs money which I currently don’t have.
Hi Jane
Just thought I’d pop in to say, yes I’ve had right side groin pain. Long story, short – I started getting IBS symptoms three months ago – got some anti-spasmodics etc, was going to leave it at that. Anyhow, started getting sharp pain/dull ache in lower right groin and a bit of sciatica. Nothing like as bad as the IBS pains, but still odd. Anyway, had a transvaginal ultrasound done (they thought it might be a cyst) – it appears I have a badly imflammed fallopian tube on right. Having it drained/snipped in a few weeks. I asked the Gyny whether the IBS symptoms could be because of it, he said yes they could. I’m really hoping they’ll go away after the op. My impression is a lot of female problems can present as IBS symptoms way before the real causes become symptomatic. Good luck with finding your results! Lou.
I have had IBS for several years, though it got much worse a year ago, so much so that I had to stay in bed/at home for 3 months. Since then it has slowly gotten somewhat better, though now I am unable to control it through when I eat. It used to be that if I didn’t eat until the afternoon I wouldn’t have as many symptoms but now I have cramps and the urge to go even if I haven’t eaten anything. Has anyone else experienced this?