Living with IBS

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Living with IBS. How a few simple changes can make a big difference.

Life goes on

Living with IBS can be awkward and stressful, if we let it be that way.

Abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea and constipation all make us feel ill and, like any person with an illness we want only to stay at home until we feel better. We do not want to socialize and may find it at best a trial and at worse impossible.

However, our simple message is that you can live with Irritable Bowel Syndrome if you just take a few steps to minimise its impact on your life. You may find that as you are forced to limit your social activities, you experience more isolation and loneliness , and there will be many people who read this who feel that life is passing them by.

Firstly let us just offer a few words of reassurance.
IBS does NOT cause, or lead-on to other more serious conditions. Having said that, we can not stress enough the importance of seeing a doctor if you have not yet done so.
IBS should never be self-diagnosed.

You may have found that the pain, embarrassment and lifestyle limitations have brought on depression, or feel that anxiety or depression has triggered your IBS. This is not uncommon and you may feel that you wish to pursue treatment by dealing with the depression as well as the IBS symptoms.

Lifestyle
There are a number of simple changes in lifestyle you can adopt to help to control the symptoms. Monitoring your diet is one of the most effective controls. Taking charge of your stress levels will help to reduce anxiety symptoms, and taking certain medications will also help you enormously when living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

You are not alone
Rest assured, you are definitely not alone.Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a long term problem that affects millions of people from all over the world, all ethnic groups, male and female.

No matter who you are or what you do for a living, we guarantee there will be people in similar circumstances to you whose lives are affected by IBS.

Resources for Everyday Living with IBS...

We've compiled together a comprehensive list of resources below to help and show how ordinary people like us live with Irritable Bowel Syndrome every day.

The following sections will show you how fellow IBS sufferers deal with the problems on a day to day basis and explain some of the techniques that they've used to overcome the challenge of living with IBS.

Employment and working with IBS
If you work with IBS, you may find yourself getting on the wrong side of your bosses. You are certainly not alone.

Many people find IBS difficult to cope with in the workplace environment. Some sufferers can be discriminated against, or even loose thier jobs as a result of the disruption it causes.

Women and IBS
Women may find that their IBS worsens at the time of menstruation, and
intense period pain can be very similar to the lower abdominal pains of IBS.

There are certain conditions and infections which can also be confused with the symptoms of IBS, and unfortunately some women may suffer both IBS and conditions such as endometrosis.

IBS also seems to increase the likelihood of getting urinary tract infections in women.

Clothes and IBS
For some people wearing certain clothes when suffering the pain and bloating of IBS can be extremely unpleasant.

Tight fitting clothing can be really uncomfortable and looser clothes are generally better.

IBS Videos
Youtube and similar communities are great places for people to share their personal experiences of the condition and show you how they cope with IBS.

We've added some of the best clips that we've stumbled across to our videos page as well as including a few of our own clips.

Be sure to check out the IBS Humour video by Tim Phelan!

Rick's Van

Rick has been living with IBS since he was a teenager and has found an excellent way to get over one of the biggest hurdles that IBS sufferers encounter; the sudden and urgent need for a restroom. He takes one with him…

IBS Tips and Ideas for Everyday Living
This is a growing list of IBS tips and ideas that will help IBS sufferers cope and deal with normal everyday issues that can sometimes seem debilitating.

We encourage our fellow IBS sufferers to send in their ideas so we can add them to the list and share them with the world.

The IBS-Life.com Blog
Stay up-to-date with the website blog.

Here we include any updates on the site plus we add our own personal blog entries and talk about how IBS is affecting us in our every day lives.

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed to stay up to date. (RSS feed info here)

IBS stories
Articles and personal stories from our friends and readersHere are some great articles and written accounts of how people cope with Irritable Bowel Syndrome every day. Some offer excellent practical advice, suggestions and tips that everyone can make use of, while living with IBS.

IBS discussion Podcasts
You can hear the IBS-Life.com team Rick, Sian and Kev, plus other guests discussing everything about Living with IBS and other IBS-related issues in our audio podcast series (free downloadable audio recordings).

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