IBS : More than meets the eye

   06/12/2019
IBS more than meets the eye

Do you find it really difficult to understand your IBS, your body, and why you get flare-ups when you do? I have found that with IBS there is more to this than meets the eye.

We often look at food and digestion as the culprits. It’s the most logical place to look.

But what if there was something we weren’t seeing?

More To This Than Meets The Eye

more to this than meets the eye: the house
Drawing by Karen Arnold

There was once a man who lived in a lovely house. It was a little different to the others in his street, because it had 3 floors and a high roof.

But there was a problem with the house.

From time to time, and for no apparent reason he would get a small pool of water in the middle of his kitchen floor.

He concluded that something must be leaking. So he looked around the kitchen at what could be causing the pool of water.

First he checked the dishwasher to see if that was leaking. He put it on, and stayed in the kitchen until the end of the cycle. But everything was fine.

So he wondered if he had a problem with the plumbing, even though he couldn’t see one.

He got a plumber in to check that his pipes under the kitchen sink weren’t leaking. But they were all fine too.

Then he checked that his freezer hadn’t gone wrong and defrosted. But it wasn’t that either.

He wondered if it could be the extractor fan. Could the ventilation hole be letting in the rain.

A man came and checked it, but he said it was all fine.

The man scratched his head. He just couldn’t work out why he had water on his kitchen floor.

It was a mystery.

Over time, the pool of water appeared more and more often.

And got bigger.

What had been an occasional annoyance became a real pain. He had to keep mopping it up before he went to work, or when he got home.

A year passed.

One day the man noticed that the roof needed cleaning. Some green moss had been forming for a while. So he had a man in to clean it off the roof.

He couldn’t do that himself, because he had 3 floors and a very high roof. The roofer did an excellent job and the roof looked brand new.

While I was up there, I sorted out your gutter for you.”

“Was the gutter broken?” asked the houseowner.

“It wasn’t broken, but it was clogged up with leaves. I noticed it because when I put my ladder up, I could see a trickle of water running down the side of the house. So I’ve cleared out the leaves for you.”

more to this than meets the eye

The man thanked the roofer very much.

When he looked at where the water had been trickling down the outside of the house he could see where it ended up: by the kitchen wall.

From there the accumulated water began seeping through his kitchen wall. And the pool of water had formed in the dip in his flooring.

The wall took a few weeks to dry out, and the pool of water gradually disappeared. Until there was no problem any more.

And your IBS?

What if there was more to this than meets the eye?

The man couldn’t see what was causing his problem, as it was out of his sight.

You may be looking in the kitchen for something that needs fixing, when nothing needs fixing there. In fact nothing needs fixing at all.

Tell me, is your gutter clogged up? (Bet no-one has asked you THAT before!)

Think of the gutter as your mind, the leaves as repeated thoughts about past events, and the rain as a bad day, or IBS trigger loops.

Over time leaves (your repeated thoughts and worries) can accumulate.

You only need a little rain for you to find water accumulating, seeping through your kitchen wall (your digestive process) and creating a pool of water (your IBS symptoms).

You can learn to release repeated thoughts, worries and unhelpful past memories. I can assist you if you need help with this.

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