General and health anxiety does it make my ibs worse

I am also a born worrier. I had a bad cataract surgery a few werks ago and rhe stress I was experiencing was making me sick. Threw me into an ibs flare up and Now I cant seem to get my stomach or bowels to calm down.

Definately stress upsets your bowels - its a vicious cycle you try to relax then you get the ibs and it makes you anxious.  

The fact you have good days is a good sign. 

Take care.

Pauline, there is now lots of research showing how anxiety and mood disorders affect bowel function. I believe it's a huge connection. When I am feeling good, I take care of myself. I eat right, exercise, get work done, etc. my GI works well. When I get depressed my whole routine gets messed up and the first is my bowel. It shuts down and I get constipated and I have pain. I remember when they called it spastic colon, and I had alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea. Take care of yourself, manage your anxiety and stress and your symptoms should improve.

Health anxiety is very common with IBS and stress will trigger symptoms.  I had this for three and a half months before my IBS diagnosis because no one could tell me what was wrong.  Diagnosis cured my health anxiety immediately.  The best way to counter your fear that you have something else is to tell yourself every day that you were diagnosed by a doctor,  you trust your doctor and you had negative tests that ruled everything else out.   I have Asperger syndrome and this makes me very prone to worry.

Your therapy classes will also give you techniques to control your anxiety and your medication should help. Perhaps ask for gut targeted hypnosis which is known to help the physical symptoms of IBS and your anxiety. Anxiety is a key symptom of IBS.  A prolonged bout of stress striggered my IBS in 2015.  However, my symptoms are no longer constant but tend now to come and go.   I think the improvement in my IBS has come about through accepting it . 

Ask your doctor for an antispasmodic like Buscopan; it can also be bought over the counter.  You may have to try several medications to find one that suits you. Keep Imodium handy for bouts of diarrhoea.

It may also be worthwhile to try a food diary to see if you have any food triggers.  However, everyone is different and food is not always a problem and response to treatment varies.  I have no food triggers.

 

Yes what you say is very familar to me had 12 months of the symptoms you describe....very horrible sorry to hear

 

In a word yes it definitely does and it is one of the factors that my doc thinks started the whole process.  I am a permanently stressed sort of person and the more stressed I am the worse my condition becomes.  In fact I would say for me it is the number 1 trigger, more so than any food although eating better has helped.