At my annual wellness exam, my provider suggested that I might consider trying low dose anti-depressants to treat my irritable bowel syndrome issues. She said that using about a quarter or less of what was considered a therapeutic dose for depression had been shown to help with IBS. I said I would do some research and get back to her.
I’m not entirely convinced that the issues I have are caused by IBS and not, say, chronic appendicitis or something else that is difficult to diagnose. Partly because no matter what I try, nothing seems to help.
I’ve done elimination diets to try to find triggers. Nothing. Sometimes, my stomach will just protest when I eat something for seemingly no reason. It could be a food that I’ve eaten before, the day before even, without issues, but suddenly it hurts me.
I workout a good amount. I try to keep my stress levels in check – and the exercise definitely helps there. I get 8 hours of sleep or more per night – except when my stomach pain keeps me up, or makes my sleep more restless than restful.
I’m going to try this solution. Supposedly there are similar neuro-transmitters in the gut as there are in the brain, so it makes sense to me that this might work. I haven’t been able to find many studies backing this up, but I don’t really trust that the studies would be good proof – of safety, sure, but not efficacy for my particular issues. So I’ll try this out, and if it works, great. If it doesn’t, then maybe my practitioner will be willing to consider that maybe what’s been diagnosed as IBS isn’t.