Some physical problems will decrease with time. Others need intervention.

I have had IBS for a long, long time. It responds to watching what I eat. I have made a list of food irritants. I guess that some food irritants are the same for a lot of people, like caffein (coffee, etc.) When the colon becomes inflamed, it needs some kind of intervention to cool it down. I have been taking Advil PM (ibuprofen plus benadryl - antihistamine) which has been cooling mine down. I take 1 caplet at bedtime with my zolpidem capsule (the doc said it was ok). I don't plan to do this forever. Probably just 30 days or so. Ibuprofen is a powerful anti-inflammatory compound. I also take 1 aspirin (adult size, 325 mg) every morning - I will keep on doing this.

My list of food irritants is: pork, eggs, peanut butter (and peanut oil).

I have asked a doc about whether my list of food irritants is a matter of allergies. He said that some elaborate and unpleasant tests could be run to find out. I don't think I want to go that route.

Information about Advil PM. Some people can't take it, so read the information.

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/advil-pm.html

I strongly suspect that some food substances are strongly psychosomatic. That means they are connected at a deeply subconscious level in my mind with an unpleasant experience. I don't have a definitive answer to all of this.

I know that Butterfinger candy bars cause me to have an immediate bowel elimination (within minutes). I trace this to the fact that I had one when I was 12 at the start of my horrific abusive situation. Other food irritants may be connected with that experience. The perp starved me for most of that captive experience. At the start he brought me a peanut butter sandwich and a coke. That was the last food for over a week. Now connect this with the fact that I'm allergic to peanut butter. But apparently the allergy did not develop until I remembered the abuse!

My IBS recently got worse as I started eating a chocolate bar each day. That went on about 2 months before I caught on that it was adversely affecting the IBS.

Puffer

Puffer you can get a blood test for allergens now. Back in the day I had to have the mini-needles all over my body and found out what I'm allergic to, but my brother was able to get a blood test last year to test him for allergies.

Celiac disease is another possible cause for problems and it's very under diagnosed in the US.

My hubby has been vegetarian for four years and vegan for a year. That helped him with some of his problems (getting rid of eggs and cheese), but his anxiety meds make him sick from time to time.

GoodHope: [responding to original post directly]

IBS-like issues became dominant due to physical/mechanical issues. I find the use of "IBS" labeling to be variable and not rely used when I was a kis. I had severe colon (as in large-intestine) pain that was suspected as appendicitis when I was 11 yo. Upon the small-town surgeon's investigation, he and the accompanying nurse began to discover 'outer' issues. They went silent and abandoned a rectal exam while I was hospitalized. An eventual TWO barium enima x-rays revealed "colon damage" and no apendicitis. They kept me in the hospital for another 5-days with the hospital psych, clip-board-carrying WOMAN visiting me twice a day trying to get me to "rap" about "stuff" (1972).

As a kid I also had "encopresis-like" symptoms. No doctors ever discussed it and seemed like they did not want to deal.

Fast Forward to 2003. The IBS-like stuff still intense but live-with. Cocaine and alcohol in my 20s greatly blamed. Got deathly sick with appendicitis that ruptured. Nearly died of sepsis. Surgeon was masterful and blunt. "we saw a LOT of scaring in there from old "issues."

These days, stress from PTSD and flashbacks et. al. cause double-over pain either all day or numerous times a day, every bleeping day. But I've carried this pain/condition with me actively since I was 8, so it just seems like normal "life."

No doctor has been able to effectively address it at all. When the MDs are clearly taking shots in the dark, I walk (run) away from any further attempts. But I will say, I've been without alcohol for quite some time and IBS-like stuff is fully alive and painful in concert with stress.

PTSD-related sleep disturbance has caused only about 30 years of sleep-bites. As in, I sleep in 3-hour bites, have "night issues" and then try to get the next 3-hours if possible.

The worst sleep "problem" manifestation is bed-wetting during a nightmare-flashback.

Wow...what a total babe magnet huh?

My husband has most of what you are saying down to the bed wetting. His mother has recently requested his childhood medicals records (against my husbands will, she must have forged his signature) He was in the hospital for several issues involved with his rectum, bed wetting and testicle damage. I guess they thought he was a rough and tumble kid (really?) The funny thing is the hospital sent her, his dad's records. So her sneakiness didn't pay off.

Again in the 1970's I don't think anyone suspected. His mom is just legitimately asking the question, "how did I miss this?"

NO NO NO....People suspected and saw what they saw very very clearly.

The topic was the unspeakable problem. The doctors did not bring it up with the parents for fear of offending/accusing the parents. They also did not want to "out" a sexually active child. CSA was an "unspeakable" back then. No one wanted to open-up a pandor's box back then.