Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | What about trying the IBS hypnosis program?

That is the single best thing I know of for dealing with (and often just flat-out eliminating) stress-related IBS problems. It's so often what people turn to as a last resort, when really it should be one of the very first things tried.

The underlying pathology of IBS is the same for everyone (dysfunctional enteric nervous system of the gut), so anything and everything that affects that nervous system is a potential trigger. This includes not just food but the very act of eating/drinking, stress, lack of sleep, exercise/lack of exercise, hot humid weather and weather changes, hormonal fluctuations, and more. Where you fall on the scale of what types of triggers affect you the most often, or the most severely, can really vary from one person to the next.

It's important to realize that there are lots of things that "stress" the body, and the GI tract, that don't necessarily make you feel like "geez, I'm stressed out." Even happy things (like excitement or anticipation about good news and events) are actually acting as "stressors" on your body in that they are taking it out of a normal, calm state. Same thing with weather or hormonal changes you may not even actively feel - they can still be affecting, and thus "stressing", your body. Plus there's just plain old stress of the know-it-when-you-feel-it variety - that certainly counts.

Gut-directed hypnotherapy actually changes the way your gut's nervous system deals with all of these stressors. It's something that might be well worth trying - it can't hurt, and I don't think I've yet come across anyone that it didn't help.

Read through the whole Hypnosis for IBS section of the website, and check the hypnosis message board for other people's experiences or if you have questions, and even listen to audio samples from the program at the bottom of this page. There are lots of clinical research studies (check the research library forum) on hypnosis for IBS and the results are waaaaaaay better than the results from any IBS drug - one recent study that's tracking long-term results has found that, so far, the resolution of IBS symptoms from hypnotherapy lasts at least five years.

Hope you're feeling better soon.

- Heather

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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

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