I just found this great old thread. It has been very helpful to me at the moment.

The past few weeks I have been really struggling with what I think is my IBS flaring up again. I usually can cope pretty much ok with my mental anxiety symptoms these days, but I find that what scares me far more lately is the physical stuff, especially the gastric/bowel stuff I have going on lately.

My IBS used to be very simple to identify. Always the same thing - lower, far left side, nagging abdo pain. I could feel my colon spasming like mad. It would pass in days with a bit of buscopan, and I would go months or years without another flare up. The past few years though, my IBS has changed and worsened greatly. I have a mix of GERD symptoms as well now, and the pain is anywhere from around my tummy buttton right up to underneath my ribs......but always on the left side, never on the right at all. The pain can be stabbing, burning or just aching. I have been swinging between soft, frequent stools and constipation. Buscopan hardly helps at all now, and I get just marginal relief from Mebeverine and peppermint tea. The only thing that has helped me more than that is Fybogel with every meal.

I have been feeling pretty deflated and down lately with this physical stuff. I feel let down by my body, just when my mental state is pretty stable. The trouble is that the worry I have when I have this physical stuff then stirs up my anxiety again. I have been battling to keep a lid on my panic symptoms since I have been feeling unwell.

This excellent thread though has helped settle my brain a bit. I try to be rational when it comes to physical stuff, but this time I am struggling, so thank you for this.x