I started Effexor XR a month ago and feel better than I have felt in many many years. I've had IBS pretty much all my life. Not diagnosed until 1999 as IBS. I've had two colonoscopies, an abdominal CT scan, been to gastro people, chiropractors, gynos blah blah for the last 40 years. Nothing nothing nothing has done what Effexor XR has been able to do.
Obviously all the stress in my life lives in my guts. I even ate spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic toast last night with NO REACTION. Besides the benefit to my digestive system I am sleeping like I used to. That's good and bad because I want to sleep now for FUN. I can actually wake up and go back to sleep without my guts going crazy. Prior to this whenever I woke up my stomach would immediately cramp. I've spent many wee hours of the morning sitting up in the dark not able to lay down to sleep.
I wish I had gone this direction a long time ago. I just never knew that an antidepressant would do so much for a digestive system. I read somewhere that sometimes an anti depressant will help heal the irritated nerves in the gut. Whatever, I am HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY.