Phobia of stomach discomfort...Does anyone else have this?

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Please is there anyone who can help? I'm autistic with severe sensory issues and anxiety so I guess that's why I have it. I don't know, I guess some of it is sensory. I was wondering if there is anyone else out there who has a phobia like this and how to stop it. I've had therapy for ocd, like the hierarchy chart, working through fears from 1-10, but it barely worked. My doctor said I do not respond well to therapy well so I doubt therapy will get me through this phobia. I'm on a low dose of citalopram but I'm thinking I need a stronger anxiety medication. I'm just scared because some of them I have read about, like Ativan, are habit forming and are for short term use. I don't know what to do. What are the best medications for anxiety that aren't habit forming?

Last edited by dreamcaster85 on 14 Jan 2011, 2:36 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I'd like to redirect you to the WP rules.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt12459.html

I'm sorry. I honestly didn't see that until you pointed it out so thank you. Just a sensory problem I've had for so long and just don't know where to turn or who to talk to. I'm sorry if I offended you.

I don't know what he is getting at. I don't see how your post or questions are breaking any rules. I don't have any insight for you though, but someone will probably be along soon who will. Best of luck to you

I got specific about it which area of the stomach my phobia involves (which I read in the rules after posting that it was against posting rules. I thought it was medical but still it was against the rules so I changed it). And I felt terrible because I had no idea, I just was hoping to get help from someone who possibly has the same issue. so I edited my question to more general. Detail-oriented is a huge aspect of being autistic after all lol Sometimes I don't realize it.

Ah. Details are fine so long as you are not using obscenity in describing them. If you stick to medical terms and proper names you will have no problems.

yeah, I never talk in obscene ways. I hate seeing anything like that! What I spoke about was medically-related basically to IBS, and I used medical terms. But I still wasn't sure if that was considered breaking the rules so I just wanted to be safe thanks

I can't imagine it would have been. Just because something offends someone doesn't mean it is against the rules. Go check out the dating and politics forums.

Talking about excretory function is breaking a rule. It does not matter if 'medical terms' are used. A rule is broken.

But he said he made a mistake, read the rule, changed it, and apologized for his ignorance. What's the problem?

Anyway, anxiety meds are good for panic disorder, talk to your doctor about it. My doc from a few years back said my Asperger's interfered with my treatment. Then again she flew the coop and fled the country....

Read the context of the remark before jumping in, please.
I was explaining to MidlifeAspie why what dreamcaster85 said was against the rules.

ah. Gotcha.

I can relate. I seem ultra conscious of any sensation throughout my system.

From an article in the July issue of the journal Gastroenterology:

IBS patients tend to suffer anxiety and depression, but they tire of being told their symptoms of diarrhea, constipation, and/or pain are all in their minds.

Now there's evidence that their underlying problem may be due to the structure of their brains, says Emeran Mayer, MD, professor of medicine, physiology, and psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Discovering structural changes in the brain ... demonstrates an 'organic' component to IBS and supports the concept of a brain-gut disorder," Mayer says in a news release. "The finding removes the idea once and for all that IBS symptoms are not real and are 'only psychological.' The findings will give us more insight into better understanding IBS."

...The finding: Thinning grey matter -- the part of the brain rich in neurons -- in specific areas of the brain. The affected areas involve:

* Dampening the brain's arousal system. IBS patients tend to be over-sensitive to (and hypervigilant for) bowel sensations.
* Controlling emotion. Symptom-related worries and ineffective coping strategies play an important role in chronic pain syndromes.
* Controlling pain. Brain thinning in this region was seen only in patients who listed pain as their most bothersome IBS symptom.

Importantly, brain areas linked to anxiety and depression were no different in IBS patients than in anxious or depressed people without IBS.

The findings, Seminowicz and colleagues suggest, point to a difference between IBS and chronic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia.

Regarding the site rules. As a moderator I apply them as I believe Alex the site owner would want them to be applied. However, sometimes things aren't always black and white regarding specific rules. In which case an element of judgement is necessary. The ban on discussing excretory function in my opinion is to prevent people making disgusting comments in a base way or in the context of some sexual fetish. I see no problem at all with someone discussing a serious medical condition such as IBS in which references to excretory function are made. Furthermore various bowel problems are often co-morbid with aspergers / autism anyway, so as far as I'm concerned the topic is fine with me in this medical context.

Interesting, because when I read your question, I wished you had been more specific! Then I would know better how to answer it. I also don´t understand how using a medical term would be considered offensive....even if it referred to the workings of the digestive tract....but, oh well.

I guess basically, I´m not sure if the problem you´re having involves the stomach or the intestines. You used the word "stomach" in your original post, but if the problem you are having is IBS, then it would involve the intestines. So I have a different answer for each, depending on what it is. Bear with me.....

For years I had intestinal pain, and I was told that I had IBS (actually, "spastic colon" was what they said). I was told that it was stress related. But eventually, it got worse and worse, until I finally discovered that I was a celiac: (intolerant to gluten). Now that I´m on the gluten free diet, I feel great! Have you been checked for gluten intolerance? There is a blood test to check for it: unfortunately, like with many tests, there are false negatives- (if you´re in the advanced stages of celiac disease, often the antibodies are no longer present in the blood, but in the gut instead). In my case, I just tried the gluten free diet, and felt much better right away. Or you may have another food allergy. If you haven´t been checked for food intolerance, that may be a good idea.

If the problem is in your stomach, and you feel nauseated, I can understand this problem too. (I have a total fear of throwing up, I guess due to sensory issues. I can get panic attacks about this). What´s helped me when I´ve had an upset stomach has been these things called "sea bands"- (you can get them in most drug stores). They´re bands you wear around the wrist that push against a pressure point on the inside of your wrist, that helps to settle the stomach. (It´s like acu-pressure). I wear them for motion sickness, or general nausea, and they really seem to work! I even used them when I was on chemotherapy, and I never got sick.

I also find that deep breathing exercises or yoga can help. Unfortunately, if you feel ill, and that makes you feel nervous because you don´t like it- (that´s how I am anyway), that nervousness can make you feel sicker. That´s why relaxation can be helpful.

Antidepressants can help anxiety but will take longer to kick in...

Specific phobias do tend to respond well to progressive desensitization--that's where you expose yourself deliberately to what you fear, starting out with the things you fear the least, that make you only mildly anxious, until you get used to them, then move on to what you're a little more scared of (which by now should be as mild as the first)--you keep going until you've extinguished the phobia. It's kind of a learning thing--you learned, at some point in your past, that this is a frightening thing; so now you have to unlearn it by proving to yourself that it is in fact tolerable.

I know this works because I used it to extinguish my own phobia when I was a teenager--I was afraid of dead bodies--now I'm a biomedical engineer and successfully completed an anatomy lab course to learn about the human body. So yeah, it really does work, and it's actually not as unpleasant as it might seem as first, because you go so slowly and gradually that you're never more than mildly anxious.