r/SIBO

I’m 21M and I’m posting my full story because I’m really hoping someone reads this and recognizes what I’m experiencing. I’m not looking for Reddit to diagnose me — I mainly want to hear from people who have gone through something similar, what they eventually found, and what testing actually helped.

Before all of this

My stomach wasn’t always like this.

Earlier in my life I did have issues with heartburn/acid reflux and used to take heartburn medication for it. I also previously took SSRIs for anxiety, but I’m no longer taking them.

Despite that history, I used to eat a pretty normal diet and live normally without constantly thinking about my stomach. I could go out, travel, eat different foods, drink occasionally, etc.

Over roughly the last 2 years, my entire GI baseline has changed and things have progressively gotten worse.

What I deal with now

My main symptoms are frequent loose stools/diarrhea, severe urgency, abdominal cramping, gas/bloating, lots of gurgling, and an almost acidic/sloshy sensation in my stomach/abdomen.

Mornings tend to be the worst.

The urgency is probably the symptom that has affected my life the most. Sometimes I can feel okay and then get this intense cramping/contracting sensation where I know I need to find a bathroom.

Another major symptom is what happens if I go too long without eating. My stomach becomes EXTREMELY acidic feeling. It starts gurgling/growling and can become very uncomfortable. Eating can temporarily calm that sensation down, which creates a frustrating situation because eating itself can then trigger my lower-GI symptoms.

My digestive system also seems dramatically more sensitive than it used to be. Greasy/oily foods, fried foods, coffee, alcohol and heavier meals can make things substantially worse. As one example of how much my baseline has changed, I used to be able to go out and drink without thinking much about my stomach. Now that can leave me dealing with diarrhea/urgency for much of the following day.

The elimination diet has shown me something really strange

Recently I started a very strict elimination diet.

I’m mainly using an elimination/meal-replacement shake made with rice protein that contains amino acids, vitamins and other nutrients.

The ONLY solid foods I’m currently eating are basically chicken, salmon and white rice. Even those are extremely plain. The only things I put on them are salt, thyme, basil, parsley and the lightest amount of olive oil. No sauces, butter, spicy seasonings, dairy, etc.

The shake does NOT make everything perfect. I can still occasionally have loose stools while drinking it and I can still experience the acidic/gurgling feeling in my stomach.

But overall, my bowel symptoms and urgency seem significantly more manageable when most of my nutrition is coming from the shake.

The really strange part is what happens when I add solid meals.

Shakes + one solid meal: Most days I can actually feel pretty good. I can sometimes have completely normal, formed bowel movements and significantly less urgency.

Shakes + two solid meals: This seems almost impossible for my body to tolerate right now.

It doesn’t even necessarily matter that I leave many hours between the meals.

For example, recently my first meal was salmon + white rice. I felt good afterward and had a normal formed bowel movement.

I continued drinking the shake and waited approximately 6–7 hours.

My second meal was literally chicken + white rice with only the basic seasonings mentioned above.

Within around 3 minutes of eating, my abdomen started hurting/cramping. Within roughly 10 minutes I developed extreme urgency and that unmistakable feeling that everything was about to come out.

It feels like my intestines suddenly start contracting extremely hard.

Obviously the chicken and rice I swallowed 10 minutes earlier couldn’t have physically traveled through my entire digestive tract and become that bowel movement. That’s one reason I’m wondering whether the act of eating is triggering some type of exaggerated gastrocolic/motility response.

But I genuinely don’t know.

What I DO know from this elimination diet is that there seems to be a huge difference between my body handling one solid meal versus two.

Another confusing part

My body clearly still has the ability to produce completely normal stool.

I can have a normal formed bowel movement one day or even earlier in the same day and then later have severe urgency/loose stool.

That’s part of what makes this so confusing.

There also seems to be a weird balance with food:

Go too long without eating → extremely acidic/gurgling stomach.

Eat one simple solid meal → usually feel pretty good.

Add another solid meal → potentially severe cramping/urgency.

I feel like I’m constantly trying to stay within this tiny window where my stomach is somewhat comfortable.

Whey protein has caused significant bloating for me in the past, whereas this rice-protein elimination shake seems considerably easier for me to tolerate.

Testing I’ve had

So far I’ve had:

* CT abdomen/pelvis with oral barium + IV contrast — reported as normal

* Fecal calprotectin — normal

* Bloodwork

* Stool testing

Interestingly, drinking the oral barium for my CT absolutely destroyed my stomach and caused some of the worst watery diarrhea/urgency I’ve experienced.

My bloodwork has also shown a low WBC/absolute neutrophil count. My WBC has apparently been on the lower side for a while, so I have no idea whether that’s related, but I’m mentioning it for completeness.

I previously saw a gastroenterologist but unfortunately didn’t feel like I got many answers or a real plan for figuring this out.

I’m now trying to get into a neurogastroenterology/GI motility specialist because I want someone to look at the whole picture rather than continuing to randomly eliminate foods.

I’ve come across things like IBS-D/an exaggerated gastrocolic reflex, bile acid diarrhea, SIBO, abnormal intestinal/colonic motility, rapid gastric emptying and other functional/motility disorders.

I’m NOT saying I have any of these. I genuinely have no idea. I just want the appropriate testing to start ruling things in or out.

The anxiety side of this

This has now created a huge amount of anxiety around my stomach.

I understand anxiety and the gut-brain connection can absolutely worsen GI symptoms. I also have a history of anxiety and previously took SSRIs, so I’m not dismissing that component at all.

But the current bathroom/travel anxiety has become dramatically worse because of repeatedly experiencing unpredictable urgency.

I’m now scared of long drives, being somewhere without immediate bathroom access, eating before going somewhere, etc. There are times where I genuinely don’t want to leave my house because I don’t trust what my stomach is going to do.

I’ve started gut-directed hypnotherapy because I’m willing to work on that side of this too, but so far it hasn’t resolved the physical symptoms.

I’m only 21 and I really want my normal life back. I don’t want to structure my day around bathrooms, be scared of eating a second meal, or constantly calculate whether I’ll have access to a bathroom.

I genuinely need some help figuring out where to go from here

If anyone has experienced anything remotely similar, please help point me in the right direction.

I don’t know what type of doctor I should be seeing anymore. I don’t know which tests I should be asking about or what avenue I should be pursuing next.

I’m at the point where I feel like I can’t deal with this anymore. My fear of suddenly needing a bathroom has gotten so bad that I genuinely don’t want to leave my house anymore.

I’m not asking anyone here to diagnose me. I just need help figuring out where to go from here.

If you recognize any part of my story, please tell me what happened to you, what type of doctor finally helped you, what testing you had, and what eventually made things better.

Someone please help point me in the right direction. I just want my life back.

Please help

My story.. please help ME

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