Hello, everyone! Thank you for clicking on my post, your support is greatly appreciated. At this time, I am very confused and unsure of what to do. Any advice would be amazing.
I am 19 years old and I currently live in Arizona. I should start off by mentioning that I have not been diagnosed with anything, as I have yet to see a doctor. My father, on the other hand, has had Crohn's since he was an early teen and has tried just about everything to get a handle on it. When I was 11, I realized that I might have similar symptoms, but I always tried my best to move past it; as time goes on, my anxiety and my stomach have gradually become worse. By 'my symptoms have become worse', I basically mean- I get anxious and then I have severe pain on my side. At that point, it's just a matter of time before I need to use the bathroom. That's my biggest problem. I also have reactions to certain foods. That being said, I could eat ice cream at home on Sunday and be completely fine. Then, I could eat the same ice cream at a restaurant three Sundays later and be anything but fine for days. So, in that respect I am fairly certain that 60% of the problem is my anxiety. All of this would be almost tolerable if the pain was not so terrible.
I'm incredibly confused as to how to approach this because up until this point I have just forced myself to deal with it. I have tried taking probiotics, but these made my stomach aches all the more unpredictable. I would feel incredible all day and suddenly need to stop in the middle of everything to run to the bathroom, without any warning. After about a month and a half of that, I stopped. My father recently began seeing an acupuncturist and assures me that it has helped with anxiety, thus helping his stomach problems as well. I do not think that this would help me, and I am currently trying to find a gastroenterologist in my area that could possibly get me moving in the right direction. Or, I would even be open to just looking at this as an anxiety problem (and cross my fingers that my stomach issues would go away with it). I hope everything that I'm typing doesn't seem irrelevant and scrambled, because that's how it's sounding to me! My current remedy for dealing with my stomach cannot be healthy, but it has been working and that's all I can ask for at this point. If I have plans to go out, I'll usually take... who am I kidding, I always take an Imodium. Then, in the middle of the day, if I've made the fatal mistake of thinking about my stomach (so the chain reaction begins), I'll take one more. If I plan to stay in, then I do not touch the Imodium. I often chose a day or two a week where I allow myself to eat trigger foods. It might sound crazy, but I feel like if I purposely make myself sick, I'm less likely to get sick at a later, more inconvenient time. I have also just recently began taking ginseng as well. So, we'll see how that goes.
It's my understanding that the process of even being diagnosed with Crohn's can be incredibly uncomfortable and embarrassing. This is a huge fear of mine. I am not sure if the process would be beneficial for me especially considering there is little information about and where it comes from, let alone how to remedy it. I've heard a little about some of the medication given to Crohn's patients and the side effects hardly seem worth it in my case. I rather deal with the problem I have than blindly trade it in for another.
Anyway, before I rant any further, I would love to hear what you have to say. What was it like getting diagnosed? Did you have a fairly good idea of your condition before or was it unexpected? At what point did you decide that you were done just dealing with it and seek help? Are there any alternatives that you would recommend? If you're in Arizona, are there any doctors that you would recommend?
Thank you all!
I am 19 years old and I currently live in Arizona. I should start off by mentioning that I have not been diagnosed with anything, as I have yet to see a doctor. My father, on the other hand, has had Crohn's since he was an early teen and has tried just about everything to get a handle on it. When I was 11, I realized that I might have similar symptoms, but I always tried my best to move past it; as time goes on, my anxiety and my stomach have gradually become worse. By 'my symptoms have become worse', I basically mean- I get anxious and then I have severe pain on my side. At that point, it's just a matter of time before I need to use the bathroom. That's my biggest problem. I also have reactions to certain foods. That being said, I could eat ice cream at home on Sunday and be completely fine. Then, I could eat the same ice cream at a restaurant three Sundays later and be anything but fine for days. So, in that respect I am fairly certain that 60% of the problem is my anxiety. All of this would be almost tolerable if the pain was not so terrible.
I'm incredibly confused as to how to approach this because up until this point I have just forced myself to deal with it. I have tried taking probiotics, but these made my stomach aches all the more unpredictable. I would feel incredible all day and suddenly need to stop in the middle of everything to run to the bathroom, without any warning. After about a month and a half of that, I stopped. My father recently began seeing an acupuncturist and assures me that it has helped with anxiety, thus helping his stomach problems as well. I do not think that this would help me, and I am currently trying to find a gastroenterologist in my area that could possibly get me moving in the right direction. Or, I would even be open to just looking at this as an anxiety problem (and cross my fingers that my stomach issues would go away with it). I hope everything that I'm typing doesn't seem irrelevant and scrambled, because that's how it's sounding to me! My current remedy for dealing with my stomach cannot be healthy, but it has been working and that's all I can ask for at this point. If I have plans to go out, I'll usually take... who am I kidding, I always take an Imodium. Then, in the middle of the day, if I've made the fatal mistake of thinking about my stomach (so the chain reaction begins), I'll take one more. If I plan to stay in, then I do not touch the Imodium. I often chose a day or two a week where I allow myself to eat trigger foods. It might sound crazy, but I feel like if I purposely make myself sick, I'm less likely to get sick at a later, more inconvenient time. I have also just recently began taking ginseng as well. So, we'll see how that goes.
It's my understanding that the process of even being diagnosed with Crohn's can be incredibly uncomfortable and embarrassing. This is a huge fear of mine. I am not sure if the process would be beneficial for me especially considering there is little information about and where it comes from, let alone how to remedy it. I've heard a little about some of the medication given to Crohn's patients and the side effects hardly seem worth it in my case. I rather deal with the problem I have than blindly trade it in for another.
Anyway, before I rant any further, I would love to hear what you have to say. What was it like getting diagnosed? Did you have a fairly good idea of your condition before or was it unexpected? At what point did you decide that you were done just dealing with it and seek help? Are there any alternatives that you would recommend? If you're in Arizona, are there any doctors that you would recommend?
Thank you all!
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