Using your mind to help manage and relieve your IBS symptoms
Are you suffering with chronic abdominal pains, cramps, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, change in bowel behaviour?
Do you feel you are at the mercy of your bowels, never sure what they are going to be doing one day to the next or even one hour to the next?
If you said, ‘yes’ to one of the above statements, you could be experiencing a gastrointestinal disorder called ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome’ (IBS).
IBS is a common, chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder.
With a prevalence of approximately 10–15%, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders in the industrialized world. It’s estimated that in NZ, at least 7% of the population is currently experiencing IBS.
However, the real number is probably much higher. Many people never discuss their bowel problems with their doctor because they do not know that what they are experiencing is abnormal. They may have had mild symptoms for most of their life and so developed coping strategies and/or got used to living with the discomfort and disruption the symptoms cause.
IBS is called a ‘functional’ disorder because there are no structural or biochemical abnormalities present to account for the symptoms. So, a person experiencing IBS can complete a battery of exploratory tests, all of which return negative results.
IBS is a syndrome, not a disease. A syndrome is a group of symptoms which consistently occur together, or a condition characterized by a set of associated symptoms.
The only way to know for sure if you’re experiencing IBS (or something more sinister like irritable Bowel Disease) is to get a diagnosis from a medical professional. In most cases, the diagnosis, will be based on what’s called the Rome IV criteria.
These criteria state a person needs to have abdominal pain at least one day per week for three months. And that pain needs to be associated with their bowel movements.
In applying the criteria, your GP or specialist will explore whether there is an anatomical reason for your bowel problems, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac, infections, and cancer.
There’s a definite spectrum with IBS, and symptoms can range from mild to severe and debilitating.
I’ve had people join my Hypnosis4IBS Program who spent up to a third of their day sitting on the toilet.
The impact is threefold:
Physical
Emotional
Cognitive
Physical
constipation
diarrhoea
constant abdominal pain
cramping
bloating and distention
hypersensitivity in the digestive tract
exhaustion
Emotional
Fear
Anxiety
Hopelessness
Embarrassment
Shame
Guilt
Cognitive
worry
catastrophising
brain fog
believing your body is out of control
mental exhaustion
These symptoms can be persistent or intermittent.
As yet, there is no medical cure for IBS. There are, however, several treatment options available that aim to reduce symptom severity and improve quality of life. These fall into three categories:
Medication
Dietary changes
Psychological interventions
Usually, all three are combined into one treatment strategy for best effect.
As a clinical hypnotherapist, the gut directed hypnotherapy services I provide fall under the ‘psychological interventions’ category. I love the fact that a large body of research has found that gut directed hypnotherapy is highly effective in helping people experiencing IBS manage both the physical symptoms and the psychological symptoms of IBS.
If you would like to know more about gut directed hypnotherapy and my HYPNOSIS4IBS Program do get in touch.
Thanks for reading - Tony
Nausea affects roughly one-third of people with IBS. Nausea and vomiting are controlled by a combination of the vomiting centre in your brain, and areas within your gut. Hypnotic suggestions can be targeted at changing how the brain interprets and responds to vomit signals from the gut, such that nausea is significantly reduced.
