IBS: Why trigger loops are important

   12/10/2018

Have you tried EVERYTHING but just can’t seem to get your IBS symptoms under control?

Maybe it’s time to consider what else may be causing your IBS to go round and round: trigger loops!

For me an important part of the IBS puzzle was finding my IBS triggers and trigger loops. I have now fully recovered from IBS. I don’t manage symptoms. And I eat freely whatever I want to. And I no longer obsess about toilets. After years suffering from chronic IBS.

How Trigger Loops Set In

I specialise in looking for the triggers behind IBS symptoms:

The associations the mind makes between an event and a feeling.

Many of these we first experienced in childhood when we had limited choices and limited power.

If those situations were repeated, they can wire reactions and unwanted behavior patterns that we just can’t seem to shake.

They are stored in our subconscious, and play automatically when we experience a similar situation.

associating event with feelings

We interact with the world via our 5 senses. Based on our beliefs and our previous experiences, our mind interprets and labels each event. We will have an emotional reaction, a physical reaction and an energetic one too. And resulting behaviour.

When we have reactions and don’t express them emotionally, physically or energetically, over time they become lodged in the body. This can include events back from childhood that we were not allowed to express, or even stress situations you are having at work or at home on a regular basis.

How is IBS triggered: associating feelings with siutations

They can turn into neuro-muscular spasms and trigger patterns that start interfering with normal body function and the natural circulation of energy in the body. In this article In this article I presented a relationship between chronic constipation, diarrhea and pain.

A trigger loop in action

Back when I had IBS-C, I was actually “lucky” enough to see a trigger loop establish itself. I was using paint stripper and paint while fuming about not having been accepted for a marketing job (again). I felt excluded from the job market in France, destined to have low-paid temping contracts teaching English.

While I was painting, over the space of several days, my brain set a negative association between the products I was using and the deep emotions I was feeling. I was feeling so much resentment inside.  Because I felt excluded, and that I would never have what I wanted: emotions I had felt growing up.

Also, I was not letting those feelings out. I was trying to control it and keep it in – as I learned to do from a very early age.

The result: I became intolerant to fresh paint, but also perfume, nail varnish and air fresheners.

I had unconsciously wired in that association and behaviour pattern. And because any of these products would set of a major IBS flare-up, make me bloat up, vomit and give me migraines within a short space of time.

I walked around in a state of unease, trying to avoid these products. And this reinforced the trigger loop.

But I can’t change how my mind and body reacts. I was born like this…

baby

You weren’t born like this. You were hopefully born as a happy, healthy baby. It’s what happened during your life experiences that progressively impacted you, when you had specific experiences.

In case you’re wondering, you don’t have to have lived awful experiences to have trigger loops setting off flare-ups.

You may have experienced a situation that went on for a while that you found difficult, for a reason that is unique to you. And that is going round in a loop.

The good news

The good news is that you CAN change how your mind and body reacts.

I specialise in helping IBS sufferers like you undo those trigger loops.

Concerning your IBS there may be many triggers to sort out, or maybe just a few. For me there was one core trigger that was very deep and central to my IBS. And a few others that were hooked onto it, but that were much easier to change.

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