Hi everyone.
I'm 21 years old and a little over a month ago, I was going through a bit of stress. I'm a junior in college and was prepping for my finals. I was really pushing myself to make dean's list again and was really cramming a lot of studying and work in.
Normally, I would go to the bathroom around 4-6 times a day. That was normal for me. I would wake up and go to the bathroom, then have some breakfast and go to the bathroom at least one or two more times all within 2-3 hours of being up. It was never diarrhea, just a normal stool. As the day would go on, I would eat something and then go to the bathroom again within an hour of eating. This was usually when the meal contained dairy. Again, no diarrhea. Just a normal stool. This would happen again a couple more times throughout the day. Then sometimes at night, I would get stomach cramps occasionally but never had to go to the bathroom. I would usually sleep it off and then go to the bathroom when I woke up. I can't really recall if this happened because I had dairy or not, I was eating anything and everything so I really don't remember. This has been going on for about
3-4 years now but it was manageable so I never really thought anything of it.
When my stress from the exams started, I started getting sort of constipated. I was only having a bowel movement once a day which was strange for me. A couple days into this stress, my boyfriend and I got into a huge fight that stressed me out even more and I feel like I just cracked that day.
I've always had anxiety, ever since I was little. I have a huge fear of throwing up and whenever my stomach hurts a little, I have a panic attack and fear that I'm going to be sick. When I was in elementary school I went to a therapist for this. It had gotten better and I stopped going. I still have anxiety attacks every now and then. The day after the fight with my boyfriend, I was out shopping with my sister and had to go number 2 really badly. Whenever I feel like this when I'm out in public, I get extremely lightheaded and feel like I need a bathroom NOW. I went to the bathroom which was just an extremely loose stool and came out and still felt a little weird which sent me into panic mode. All I ate that morning was pancakes (which contain dairy! and tea) I had to ask my sister to bring me home because I was having an anxiety attack. Every day since then, I wake up feeling nervous and the feeling lasts all day.
I went to my doctor and he put me on .5 mg of xanax. I take .25-.5 of it almost every day just to get through the day. Since that first anxiety attack, I haven't had much of an appetite at all. It's like I'm afraid to put anything into my body because I don't want to experience what I did that day again. Especially when I'm out in public and not in the comfort of my own home.
I was eating very little for about
a week and I started getting extremely painful gas pains and bloating every night and waking up with it every morning. Could this be from not eating much?
Btw, I've always been underweight my whole life. I have a very fast metabolism. Before all this anxiety started, I was 101 pounds and now I'm down to 93 pounds.
I went to the doctors about
a week after he prescribed me xanax and told him that I've been having stomach problems for years but right now they're really bad. I told him I thought I might be lactose intolerant and he told me to go lactose and gluten free for a week and let him know how I felt. I was feeling a little better but I was still having gas pains. I called him and let him know how I was feeling and I asked him if I could have any tests done to see if I actually do have an allergy to lactose or gluten. He was pretty much trying to tell me that it's all in my head and if I'm feeling better then I should just continue to stay away from those foods. I wasn't eating much to begin with and now I'm barely eating anything because I don't know what to eat!
I finally convinced him to just let me get a blood test done because it would ease my mind. So he had me get bloodwork done for celiac disease and a gluten sensitivity only because he said a test for lactose intolerance didn't exist which I knew was a bunch of b/s.
I had the bloodwork done on Tuesday and I'm still waiting for my results. While I was having the bloodwork done, the girl doing the test had a question about
the paperwork that my doctor filled out. The Quest Diagnostics is actually in the basement of my doctors office so he came downstairs to talk to her. When he walked in he said "Here we are for our anxiety testing!", basically making fun of me.. She asked him which test he wanted to do and he replied "I don't ****ing know, just do them all!" And then looked at me and waved his hand in disgust. That was my last straw with this doctor. I even asked the girl if blood tests for lactose intolerance exist and she said yes.
I'm going to a different doctor next Thursday but in the mean time I came here to sort of ease my mind. The past couple of days I've been going to bed with gas pains and waking up with them, then I would go to the bathroom and feel a little better stomach-wise but I feel so incredibly lightheaded and weak. Could this be from the lack of food and nutrients in my body?
I haven't really had a normal solid stool since all this stress and anxiety has been going on. Some days they're solid and other days they're loose, but still no diarrhea.
I'm actually kind of hoping that this is just lactose intolerance so that I can know that if I stay away from dairy then I won't experience stomach pains again like I have in the past. My fear right now is that it's something like IBS, which is why I came to this section of the forum. Do any of my symptoms sound like IBS?
Sorry for the long novel, but any input would be appreciated! Thank you!!
Post Edited (srg08) : 6/12/2014 9:04:59 AM (GMT-6)