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Hi everyone, I'm really grateful to have found this community, and hope I can be supportive to everyone else struggling in here. I've had a long road with IBS-C (as have many folks here it seems) and my boyfriend finally suggested I look for a support group, as so much of the suffering with this condition comes from feeling like you're the ONLY one who can't eat normal food, and live a normal life among your friends and family. I've moved back and forth between the U.S. and the Middle East since college, and with one bout of food poisoning and another, picked up an IBS-C problem that I just can't seem to heal. After two colonoscopies, upper endoscopies, and a pill camera, my gastroenterologist in the U.S. finally caught an image of several large worms living in my Ileum in 2018. Unfortunately they misdiagnosed the type of parasite, and it took another year or so to finally get treated for hookworm, which seemed to eliminate my really severe symptoms (constant exhaustion, exercise intolerance, severe stomach pain, etc). Now I'm just dealing with the post-infectious IBS and am happy to say that at least linzesse has helped (i way over-did it on the sennosides for years, so stimulant laxatives are an absolute non-starter at this point). The thing I think is hard, and I'd love to know if other people struggle with this, is that I also deal with depression/anxiety and the digestive problems have launched a really vicious cycle with those. In the years that I had to stop exercising because of the hookworm, I got really depressed (exercise had been a really important part of mental health maintenance). Now I'm doing better, but on days when I'm really bloated or constipated, it can be really hard to get the exercise in. And of course, you don't feel like going out and socializing when your stomach is acting up, and that can also be isolating. Would really like to hear how others have coped with the back and forth between mental health issues and their gut. I'm trying my best with the medications, yoga, meditation, running whenever I can, and diet, but sometimes it feels like nothing you do is ever enough to prevent a flare up. Just feeling pretty discouraged, but hopeful about joining this support group. Thank you for listening and take care!

Hello! I am a university student, just finished my final year of Journalism studies, which has been odd considering the current situation. I suffer from IBS-C, and have done so for a while now. I went gluten and wheat free over a year ago and now have cut out any flour products completely. Recently my IBS has gotten so bad, not so much constipation since that is just tempermental, but just severe persistent bloating that will not go away. I have been diagnosed with IBS at the docs, but has been difficult to get any form of treatment since coronavirus situation... I have done an intolerance and allergy test privately out of my own pocket, so I'm hopeful that the results will come back showing anything I can eliminate from my diet to hopefully reduce symptoms and get things under control. Currently, everyday is just suffering and mentally troubling. Just feel so self-concious about the way the bloating looks and how I feel inside. :-(

Hi All, I'm new to this group, having just left another one that scared the hell out of me. I do have mental health issues, which I'm sure contribute to my daily struggles with IBS-C, and I do have a story, but will let you know for now I suffer from debilitating anxiety, equally debilitating IBS-C, have very little medical support, am on Constella (or Linzess, as it's know in the US), don't use stimulate laxatives, and am wondering what your views of long-term use of Constella happen to be? It's not classified as a laxative, and has no stimulant properties, and I've been on it for two years as max dose. Can anyone provide their own experiences with Constella, along with their idea about its safety for long-term use, and perhaps offer any suggestions about how I may manage IBS-C, which I've had for years and has destroyed my life (along with many other things -- I'll provide a bio later, but since the other group was not very supportive and kept telling me Constella/Linzess is a laxative, will fail, and I'd better be prepared to suffer ever more unless I did this, this, and that, I'm tentative about share too much. I am a supportive person, very sensitive, and incredibly empathetic. Any replies that are kind and not combative or dismissive would be incredible. Thank you, Seroquelled