Ibs and stress

[17leftfeet]

I'm stressed -lots of things going on in my life that I have no control of, I just need to make it through the other side

I always have an ibs flare up when I'm stressed but this is the most extreme -I felt like I had a baby rolling around in my stomach earlier and I keep running to the loo

Is there anything I can take to calm my stomach

Pick up some Buscopan from the chemist. Its an over the counter anti-spasmodic, and is really good.
Strip your diet back to absolute basics .....minimise fibre intake (refined white bread not brown, toast for breakfast not fibre filled cereals) eliminate all the "fibre full" veg you would normally eat ......peas, broccoli and carrots are all I can handle in a flare-up). Plain boiled potatoes.
Don't eat the skin of any fruit ....avoid bananas.
Choose only plain chicken or plain fish (poached or grilled in both cases.....not fried or coated in anything)
Use only pure butter ....no margarines with additives.
Avoid anything with sunflower oil in it, like the plague.
Avoid anything with dried fruits.
Buy de-caf coffee and tea, and avoid any drink with caffeine.

It sounds very restrictive, but you should only need to do it for a week, to rest the gut enough to recover. Then you can slowly reintroduce items. Most people are just shocked that this works, as its the antithesis of modern dietary advice ....but it works, when you have "run to the loo" IBS, rather than constipated kind.
If the stress is pretty constant, then you may want to look at your diet longer term, to try and keep your gut on an even keel. Hard when stress is unavoidable.

Its just rubbish, and you have all my sympathy.

A book called "Healthy Cooking for IBS" is brilliant, and actually advises how to identify which foods are most likely to set off your particular expression of IBS, and which should help.

Thank you festive

I was going to try upping my fibre to bulk things out so very glad I've seen your post

What about things like eggs? I'm not veggie but don't eat a lot of meat so tend to eat a lot of pulses and eggs and I'm guessing the pulses are out for a few days

Eggs have always been fine for me.
Yes.... I would avoid the pulses!!
It makes for a very boring week of eating, but at least you have a chance to stabilise before Christmas