Comment by phaedrus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by phaedrus | Hacker News Reader

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I have IBS. During my last visit, my GI doctor apropos of nothing blurted out, "you've got to get your anxiety under control!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You said the stress of getting ready to leave for the office triggers your attacks," he said.

"I work from home!!" I said. "_YOU_ posed a hypothetical and I answered with a hypothetical: that it would certainly be stressful if that happened. I also said I still have the IBS attacks when I don't have a stressful day."

In my opinion general practitioners (who are not therapists) putting their patient's issues down to "anxiety" or stress is like doctors diagnosing "hysteria" in 19th century women: it contains the in-built subtext that you're not a reliable narrator of your own symptoms, and there is no evidence you can present to disprove the accusation of "hysteria" or "anxiety".

Yeah, that's my issue; stress is a somewhat nebulous thing that's hard to directly quantify and therefore it can be a kind of "catch all" for nearly anything.

I'm not saying that stress doesn't have effects, but I think a diagnosis based on "stress" can often be reductive; who doesn't feel some stress throughout the day?

Actually, "stress" is extremely easy to measure: You have stress, you have specific hormones in your bloodstream.

Those hormones change things in your body, like redirect the blood in your body contracting or extending blood vessels.

>who doesn't feel some stress throughout the day?

It is a quantity thing, you can feel stressed during seconds, or during hours or during entire days.

For example, in a war when your family members could die at any moment, you feel stress for days. In you live in peace you just don't have an idea what that means.

I have not lived war myself but I had close contact with people in Ukraine and in the past conflicts like Congo or Central Africa Republic and other African wars.

Stress effects were obvious for people living in farms. Animals like hens can stop laying eggs or cows stop giving milk just by stress alone.

> stress is a somewhat nebulous thing

So is IBS. I am not sure its fair to expect precise diagnosis for a nebulous "disease".

did you find out what the cause was?

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