Love-sick
Sigmund Freud has been criticised for implying that most mental illness and much physical illness is due to sex. He might have said love or attachment, but nevertheless, he was … Continue reading
Information technology: is it good or bad for our health?
We can talk to each other from wherever we are in the world, obtain information about anything at the touch of a button, hold virtual meetings with colleagues, get … Continue reading
Escaping from the tyranny of what happened: a message of hope.
Over a hundred years ago, Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud wrote that ‘hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences’. Hysteria, as a medical diagnosis, has gone out of fashion, outlawed by the … Continue reading
Nothing in, nothing out: but is there more to constipation?
Doctors tend not to consider IBS a serious condition; that would be a mistake. Although most people seem to cope with the occasional inconvenience of it and live a normal … Continue reading
The things that happen: childhood trauma and IBS later in life.
Two weeks ago I received a letter from Judith. This led to the following correspondence, which, with her permission, I have reproduced here with just a few minor edits. Over … Continue reading
When it all becomes too much.
Jenny was waiting outside in the street when I arrived, enjoying one last cigarette. Even though we had only communicated by email, I recognised the tragedy etched on her face. … Continue reading
You’re only as sick as your secrets.
Jenny had had IBS ever since her early twenties. It was the pain deep in the pit of her stomach that affected her most. It made her feel unbearably sad … Continue reading
It is not always what is so, but what you think is so
As I have commented on many posts in this blog, IBS is a condition that has no clear cause and no specific cure, but is often instigated by a traumatic … Continue reading
Feeling ill again? Is it your diet or might it be your chimp?
I’ve followed the diet so carefully, but I still get attacks of IBS, when everything I eat seem to upset me? Why does the pain always seem to get me … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 