It's called Aspartame and my nurse warned me about it, after I ate a packet of sugar-free Chewits, which had a violent effect!

  That's the one that's in most sugar free things, I think.

I need to remember that!

It's so annoying isn't it grrr there's so many things that can trigger it

Hubby's diabetic nurse warned him about it too, as it is in a lot of diabetic products. 

I think most sweeteners can have a mild laxative effect but if you are only taking them in your tea, you should be fine.

 It's a right pain!

Well I take them in tea, cereal, cook with them the odd time and drink a lot of diet fizzy drinks so I most definitely need to change these things!

I can't drink fizzy drinks at all.

Do you not go out at all Ellis, taking the kids to school etc

I cut down on fizzy drinks because I only ever have Diet ones and I never buy sugar-free sweets or mints now.

I used to love mints as well 

A few years ago I ate some mentos and I was ill, when I say a few I really ate the packet but I did suffer for it ..Now having read your post I wonder if the mentos caused the upset.

They could have been the problem. Were they the sugar free Mentos?

I walk over to collect my son from school but most days at 2 minutes to 3 I'll have to run to the loo  It's like I'm freaking out about being away from home!

If I have an appointment or night out to go to I'll take imodium and I used to take Kalms but can't do that now.  I can still take imodium as long as I take my movicol drinks once I'm home to keep things moving (TMI, I know) so that means I won't go anywhere once I've taken those because they have different effects on me.

So pretty much no, I don't go anywhere unless it's planned in advance or if I know my OH is with me and able to drive me back home if I take an attack.  My attacks seem to be mostly anxiety based and I really don't know where this has come from  It's really strange and honestly quite distressing because I feel like my life is slipping away from me because of this stupid problem.

I am trying to go out more without the help of the imodium but I wouldn't go near town or food shopping etc without them.

Me too - soft mints, polo mints, Murray mints - I liked all of them.

I've just remembered, I ate half a dozen After Eights mints a couple of weeks ago, and had stomach spasms afterwards.

Yes ,that's the only reason they went in my mouth .

In that case, I'm sure they were the culprit.

I'm mostly the same Ellis  I can go out some places without taking anything but some places bring on the anxiety attacks, food is also a big trigger for me and as I've said I think I've had it most of my life, I was born a BIG baby and my mum said the nurses said I looked 3 months old but when she got me home I wouldn't take the milk, then when I went to school my mum would force me to eat cereal with cold milk and I would cry with stomach ache and she would force me out the door, I don't touch milk at all now and my mum realises I wasn't pulling a fast one  

Extra strong mints and I used to love trebor mints, don't know if they are still about

I haven't seen Trebor mints for a while.

It's no way to live, is it?  I have always hated using public loo's but I never gave it much thought.  I just knew I wouldn't ever poop when I was away from home but then the IBS started and I know I won't have any choice if an attack starts I'll HAVE to use the loo but the thought of people knowing what I'm doing really stresses me out.  I was at the dentist with my kids one day before I was diagnosed when the pains started.  They weren't even too bad but I knew what they were signalling and I FREAKED out!  Started sweating and shaking and felt dizzy.  I went as white as a ghost and had to go outside to calm myself down but the feeling got worse so I rang my OH and told him to get straight back for me and had to tell the receptionist I was sick and needed to go.  Why?  Because I was mortified at the thought of having to use the toilet because it was just there to the side of the waiting room and people would know why I was taking so long.  So silly but to me it was a big issue.  

I understand, my bathroom is next door to my daughters bedroom and she has her boyfriend over and I'm so nervous that I will need the toilet (embarrassment really)

Yes!  And that makes it worse...the more nervous you get the worse the pain gets and the more you HAVE to go.  

I hate when people even come to my house.  I start thinking about what will happen if I need to go to the loo, will they hear me?  Will they need to go to the loo while I'm in there?  Then I need to go because I'm thinking about it too much.  Craziness!

I can remember a friend saying she had been on the loo all day and I asked if she was ill she said no but after chatting a bit more she said she had a cold and had ate a whole pack of lockets, you have to watch what you eat

I remember buying weight watchers sweets at a meeting once.  They were lovely so I ate them quite often for a few days.   No wonder they were weight watchers.  I spent so much time on the loo that I ended up with a great weight loss that week

You are me aren't you  one thing I do and it works, is go out and talk to yourself telling yourself you are ok you don't need the loo and you are fine 

My daughter thinks she has it too, I don't think she does but she's seen me over the years and now thinks she's the same, she used to have a long journey to college and she had belly ache got off the bus and came home, now she goes to the loo about 10 times before she leaves the house  I'm bringing her around eventually that she doesn't have ibs

My cousin who had v serious, life threatening, anorexia many years ago used to, when she was hospitalised, eat a certain brand of mints, (can't remember which ones now.) We wondered why, when she was down to 4 stone and would eat nothing else: turned out they had a sweetener in them that had a laxative effect

 It's so good to know that I am not alone in my craziness.  If I distract myself by talking to my OH and do big deep breaths (inhale so long so that you feel it in your tummy, then exhale slowly) I can sometimes convince myself it's all ok.  

I really try not to let my kids know what's going on because my eldest already has the public toilet phobia (we had a bit of a nightmare with him at the airport once when he refused to go to the loo but we knew he needed to.....my OH had to go find a disabled loo for him to use otherwise he wouldn't go for fear of people hearing him) and I don't want them talking themselves into thinking they have it.

That's awful.  Is she recovered now?  My best friend is a former anorexic and she is very savvy about what's in certain foods, something that most of us wouldn't even think about.

You can't help your kids knowing really as we are for ever looking for toilets 

I have to keep it a secret from my youngest because he's a blurter.  He would say something completely inappropriate if I said I needed to go to the toilet.

I was in the car outside my mother in laws one day when I said to him to go in and tell daddy to hurry up because I needed to get home.  He walked in to his granny's and in front of my OH's brothers and his mum, said 'dad, mammy said hurry up she needs to get home and do a poo'.  I hadn't mentioned the word poo at all but he must have picked up on my urgency to get home. 

 I know the feeling, I shouldn't really say this but do you ever think there's something really wrong like cancer? I've been like this for years and I'd be long dead if it was but still the thoughts go through my head 

No, I think mine is mostly in my head but if you feel like yours is something more than IBS you should definitely get it checked out.  There are a few other things it could be and maybe if you got it checked out you could be on the way to healing whatever it is that's wrong.

Anyway, I'm too fat for it to be anything more serious I don't even lose weight with the IBS even though I am more often on the loo than in the kitchen!!

Yes, despite all of the odds, she has two fabulous children and is very happy

Was no fan of hers on CBB but I think this illness has taken it toll on her.