IBS/TMS

Hi, I have been getting IBS symptoms and I am pretty sure it is TMS. However aside from the TMS approach I always hear people say and read articles about gluten and dairy causing bloating even in people who do not have IBS. Should I consider cutting them out. There is just so much online about foods that are bad for you or how gluten and dairy are proven to increase bloating so I do not know what to do.

 

I guess it depends on how you define "having" IBS. It's obvious that "IBS" is the diagnosis they give when they can't find anything actually wrong. Which is the definition of TMS. Around here, some of us joke that any diagnosis ending in the word "syndrome" is TMS. It's a joke that is based in a lot of truth.

So "not" having IBS just means that someone has not bothered getting a diagnosis, or they had a doctor like mine who was quite sure there was nothing wrong with me other than stress and anxiety. I believed her (and of course she turned out to be right) but I didn't know what to do about it, and among multiple other symptoms, in the summer of 2011 I was losing weight rapidly, not in a good way, and I was eliminating things from my diet right and left, trying to calm down my digestive system.

By the time I read The Divided Mind, I was pretty desperate. But after reading the book and starting the work here, I simply told my brain I wasn't having any of that anymore. And I didn't, and I still don't. Mind you, I found it easy to banish digestive issues and go back to eating everything I wanted, perhaps because I was highly motivated. But the brain fog was not so easy, and it's the one symptom that comes back easily under stress. It seems pretty common to have at least one symptom that keeps coming back.

I have known several people who went gluten- and diary-free. It sort of worked, for a while. But eventually it didn't. We can thank the placebo effect for the temporary effect. Ask yourself: how many food fads and special diets have stood the test of time? Never mind the false research behind the fake fats that were foisted on us for half a century, and which convinced the entire medical industry that eggs were bad for us. Now there's a whole facet of the food industry devoted to creating fake substitutes for foods that were meant to be made with wheat flour and dairy products. They are often high-calorie, usually highly-processed, and they are bad for the wallet as well as dubious for health.

Over and over and over, we find that the best diets are the ones that are balanced and reasonable, that use barely-processed and whole foods as much as possible, and that incorporate plenty of plain old practically free tap water as the primary source of hydration. There are a few adjustments that we need to make to account for a much more sedentary lifestyle, over a whole lot more decades, than our ancient ancestors, but I believe that you can remain perfectly healthy and feel good about yourself if you follow the Michael Pollan principle (paraphrased): Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Here's another thing to consider: food faddists are like addicts - they spend a lot of energy trying to get others to join them, craving confirmation that they are on the right track.

Above all: for your TMS, don't think physically - think psychologically, and always go back to the emotional work!