IBS and peppermint tea

PS For early morning I still have English Breakfast Tea. I can not start the day on flavoured tea.

I actually have a hernia so have lots of acid reflux but the peppermint tea has never aggravated it, I take a single tablet for my indigestion and that keeps it under control, similarly I never found buscopan made any difference and my nephew who suffers with IBS says the same thing.

I just goes to show why doctors and patients find IBS so difficult to treat.  What works for some, doesn't work for others.  My brother tried Aloe Vera juice which made him worse but Buscopan helped.  Buscopan is very mild which is why it soothes my stomach with no side effects.  I am very sensitive to a variety of medications particularly prescription only ones.  I suspect having Aspergers increases my intolerances.

I get that entirely, I tried aloe Vera, it gave me diarrhoea, and coconut oil gave me chronic constipation!! I can't win!! Ha ha!!

"I suspect having Aspergers increases my intolerances."

Is there a specific reason for your thinking behind this statement.

Aspergers causes sensory problems such as to light, noise, touch, taste and textures.  It can also cause a low pain threshold.  I was diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of forty. I have sensitivities to noise, I have anxiety and a tendency to panic over nothing and a very low pain threshold. 

I too have sensitivities to noise and I suffer with anxiety and panic is my de facto position in life and I too have been diagnosed hence my interest. It is not the first time I have heard ASD sufferers tend to suffer more with IBS but when I asked why most were unsure. The doc said anxiety.

I have a reasonably high pain threshold but I think that is just for a man as an average the women I know have higher pain thresholds then men.

Is that due to medication or is there another link?

It's a tricky one to answer that, my consultant put me on an anti psychotic called sodium Baptiste for five years, I certainly paid the price for this as high up in the side effect leaflet, I think the first thing mentioned was "can cause diarrhoea" well due to that and having a sickness and diarrhoea bug on a psychiatric ward, I started to open my bowels up to 20 times a day consistently, never made the connection with the medication as used to at that point to being totally compliant, 18 months later was diagnosed with a prolapsed bow and subsequently had major keyhole surgery, which failed to put it right, the fall out from these lethal tablets had been horrendous, in factoid believe they were largely responsible for my going on to develop the prolapse, I met some cynicism when requesting I come off them, had to present the leaflet to the Consultant who showed disbelief about my frequency, eventually he agreed and just used the other meds I was on to compensate, but of course, the damage has now been done.

What's Elsi distressing is when Consultants latch onto the fact your a schizophrenic and tell you your symptoms are "behavioral" it's so unfair as you are STILL experiencing them just the same therefore they need treating, don't they?

Sorry to go on but you did ask, Fiona

Scuse predictive text, that was sodium valproate.

When prescribed medicines disagree with me, I don't ask the doctor to come off them, I just throw them out.  I only tell the doctor afterwards and he listens and notes down my bad reactions and will offer something else which is unusual these days. A lot of prescribed medications upset my stomach; probably the sensitivity is to do with Aspergers.  I tend to trust my own body's response first because doctors are linked to the pharmaceutical companies who they will listen to first before the patient.

 

I'm on a monthly depot injection, if I didn't turn up for it they would simply section me besides as I said I didn't make the connection between the sodium valproate and the symptoms I was getting for a long time.

This seems unduly harsh; you have a lot to put up with.

I spose I do in a way although if you were to ask most people who had been under the mental health I'm sure they would tell you that non compliant with taking medication is usually countered with section papers being signed.

Thanks goodness I only have IBS!  In the past, I have had bouts of depression caused by anxiety over unemployment, not passing interviews, repeated toxic acquaintances and medication.  Fortunately, I was able to ride it out without medical help.  I suppose I managed this because I have developed the practiced art of avoidance which stems from a variety of phobias linked to Aspergers.  One is an intense fear of medics because I fear harm may come to me which has in fact happened quite a few times.  

So rather unwisely, if I trip and hurt myself badly, I do nothing about it and then damp weather gets into it and it never heals.  This does sound so silly!

No I understand completely. It's harder to get out from under a psychiatrist than it is to get out of the prison system, or so they say.

I suppose the mental health care system can seem like a prison with the illness itself and then treatment.

It can be very imposing x

There's no winning!

Hello Fiona

My doc wanted to put me on sertraline, for other reasons more head than stomach, but looked at the side effects and avoided.

I do not know sodium baptiste but those side effects sound bloody awful. 

Bugs on wards are a nightmare. I regularly used to visit someone who lost a limb due to a super bug on the ward. Frightening.

20 times how awful. I thought 7 or 8 was bad. 

It certainly sounds like a plausible link and I suffer with anxiety though former partner would say paranoia and she may have a point because whenever tablets are offered I go crazy on research and one thing I have learned is a lot of tablets have diarrhoea as a side effect especially those linked with depression. I try to avoid all if I can and I know I sound big pharma conspiracy theorist and I accept that.

They definitely need treating and I hope you did not let them fob you off.

Indeed I did ask and very sorry to hear of what you have gone through. I am not an emotional person but your post made me feel some emotion.

That must have been horrible and hope you are better now 

 

Thanks for your input, I go for a proctogram, Xray on Monday and at some point I have a consultation to follow up. I have some very pertinent questions for the Dr so I hope they can give me some answers cheers xx

This post is frighteningly close to my experiences. In fact I could have written  this except for the final line but only due to experience I spike went through my foot and shrugged it off. Much pain later and green sh*t coming out I went to the doc who informed me about the importance of getting checked as this could have been very serious but luckily not too late and a tetanus worked fine but that did scare the hell out of me. 

The only things that conquered my avoidance was my stomach and chest wall pain.  I panicked that I had something very nasty in both cases and it was this that dragged me to the doctor for diagnosis.  Luckily, as you know both turned out to be non threatening illnesses.

I remember, while in Italy, I knocked over a glass which flew into the air and grazed my eyeball.  After this shock, dishwasher detergent sparked the other eye!  I also scalded myself on the chest with boiling coffee when I was plunging the cafetière. They have a tendency to spurt and I hadn't known to turn the spout away from myself as it was my first time using one.  My brother who is a surgeon was astonished I did nothing about it.

When I was a child, my dyspraxia and Aspergers were much harder to control because I didn't have coping mechanisms.  I filled the Accident book at school every day not counting falls outside of class.  So over the years falls and bumps ceased to worry me too much and I became more concerned at what I had done to my clothes after a fall!  I even had my computer fixed before getting my tooth repaired which had cracked twice.  My medical phobia also spurred me on to keep calm and carry on regardless  no matter what accidents I had.

I had pain next to may heart the other day which I thought was a little scary but was 8th Feb and I was ill on 4th/5th Feb so just put it down to stress on my body from illness. I am fine but it was a little concerning.

That sounds scary. Sight loss is a fear of mine ever since Wait Til Dark.  I always knew coffee was dangerous but I am not sure this is what the Doc

means. 

As a child I was a nightmare. They put it down to hyperactivity as I rode into a closed gate at speed. The gate was around the corner. Racing down a huge hill watching the speedometer and not noticed temporary lights had been erected and squeezed the brakes and went right over the top and many, many more. I was an idiot child. This is just weird I was in a fight and walked around for years with a cracked tooth. In the end that caused me more problems than it was worth. I am ok seeing the doc but paranoid any prescription may make me Ill. I have this they will make you ill mentality and when people say drugs are meant to make you better and I reply that is what they want you to think. I did not deny I am paranoid. Also since been discussed recently that I may not have suffered from hyperactivity but undiagnosed ASD, diagnosed as an adult.

 

Oh yes I have heard of that in passing and serious stuff. I understand your symptoms much more now. I suffer with very bad migraines and that is where I gave heard of it but definitely a premier league medication so not one I would take. 

Glad I am not the only one who is suspicious of medication. 

That is serious stuff. A friend of mine was sectioned after his marriage broke down but he needed it and admitted this himself whereas this seems a little unfair on you who does not pose the same risks. Glad the link has been made now and hope you are doing a little better.

Makes me glad my issues are mild. I am on the fringes of mental health as I have accepted help from MIND recently but I have found talking therapy very helpful.

Makes me glad my issues are mild. I am on the fringes of mental health as I have accepted help from MIND recently.

I used to think I was the only one too.

What was it they used to say on the X Files We are not alobe

PS Obviously that should have said alone