ASD and IBS

April is Autism Awareness month, and IBS and Stress Awareness month, and all three of these can be closely connected. People with autism often have gastro problems, which IBS is one of, and stress from autism can cause IBS, and this is why I am posting about all three now.

I have autism and IBS. My IBS started when I was an adult in the 90s. Most of the time it is caused by foods. Other times it is from nerves, anxiety and stress.

My tips if it is due to foods is to work out which ones cause the problem and eliminate them for a month, then add them back in to your diet one by one with a few days in between. That way you will get to know what the foods are to avoid. My foods are many. I'm intolerant to dairy, gluten. I can't eat raw apples, carrots, or dark green veg, except a few Brussels. I can't eat too much fibre either. I have since found out that many of these are high FODMAP foods. (Fermented, Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monos and Polyols (sweeteners ending in 'ol')).

If you know for certain that a particular food causes a problem eg stomach upset, then avoid it altogether. I avoid all dairy and gluten foods, esp butter which makes me v ill, except Marmite. I esp avoid wheat as I know that does give me IBS flare ups.

So that is what to do if food causes you gastro problems. What if it's anxiety and stress? Read my next post for that topic....

Coping with IBS whilst working, or not

Having IBS really affected my life when I worked. In the morning I sometimes had IBS after breakfast, so it would delay my leaving time to get to work. If there is one thing I hate it is being late to anywhere (something connected to my Asperger's, I think). I remember a time many years ago when I was on what was then the Youth Training Scheme (one thing that I feel should be still available today to youngsters leaving school. Esp young ones who are like me quite shy and not sure about working straight after school), there was a period when I had pseudo diarrhoea. That is when you feel you want to go to the toilet time and again but can't go. Later on when I worked properly, just before I found out I was intolerant to dairy, it really affected me like that again. I kept going in and out of the toilet (I know it's not nice to talk about, but that is what IBS is). It really affected my work performance, in that I couldn't do all the work I had to. It affected me on and off over the years until the last time it really affected me again was due to stress - after I was told I was being made redundant from my job of 20 years. I found this really stressful, and it didn't help that a colleague wasn't very nice to me. When we had this altercation, it really stressed me out, and brought on IBS again, v badly. So badly that everytime I did a number two I bled.

So it appeared that stress made my IBS flare up badly when I worked. Next time I shall post about IBS, it will be about how it has affected my home life. But my next post will be about the workshop I attended yesterday and what I learnt and what I did. Until then...