Attack of the Killer Butterflies: My Struggle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The following story is real. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Wait?! Who am I kidding. This story is about ME! And it’s one that’s long-overdue in it’s telling.

It’s part documentary and part horror flick. At all times it’s extremely intimate, if not raw.

No, the story that you’re about to read is not a cute little bedtime story about having friendly butterflies in your tummy. Oh how I wish that had been true! No, this is an epic saga about killer butterflies hell-bent on destroying your health and trashing your life.

I’ve decided to let loose on this part of my life because I know many others suffer from this syndrome and others like it. The simple truth is that we don’t have to! There is no need to suffer and sacrifice as we pursue better health. There is an easier, healthier, happier way to achieve the healthy lifestyle of our dreams.

This is my Public Service Announcement about the perils of poor healthy lifestyle habits.

If you and/or your friends/family are afflicted with IBS please know that you’re not alone. I’ll say that again – you’re absolutely not alone!

Further, you can escape from this hell and reap the rewards of a genuinely healthy lifestyle. If I am anything then I’m a testament to that.

Alrighty then, on with the show.

What in the Heck is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?

Some of you many not recognize the term Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Others may confuse it (as I once did) with Colitis. So let’s set the record straight from the get-go.

Yes, this will be the boring lead-in for this narrative. But it is important. I will try to jazz it up though!

From Wikipedia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is…

a diagnosis of exclusion. It is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits in the absence of any detectable organic cause.[1] In some cases, the symptoms are relieved by bowel movements.[2] Diarrhea or constipation may predominate, or they may alternate (classified as IBS-D, IBS-C or IBS-A, respectively). IBS may begin after an infection (post-infectious, IBS-PI), a stressful life event, or onset of maturity without any other medical indicators.

Although there is no cure for IBS, there are treatments that attempt to relieve symptoms, including dietary adjustments, medication and psychological interventions. Patient education and a good doctor-patient relationship are also important.[2]

Several conditions may present as IBS including celiac disease, fructose malabsorption,[3] mild infections, parasitic infections like giardiasis,[4] several inflammatory bowel diseases, functional chronic constipation, and chronic functional abdominal pain.

In IBS, routine clinical tests yield no abnormalities, although the bowels may be more sensitive to certain stimuli, such as balloon insufflation testing.

The exact cause of IBS is unknown. The most common theory is that IBS is a disorder of the interaction between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract, although there may also be abnormalities in the gut flora or the immune system.[5][6]

IBS does not lead to more serious conditions in most patients.[7][8][9][10][11] However, it is a source of chronic pain, fatigue, and other symptoms, and it increases a patient’s medical costs,[12][13] and contributes to work absenteeism.[14][15]

Researchers have reported that the high prevalence of IBS,[16][17][18] in conjunction with increased costs, produces a disease with a high societal cost.[19] It is also regarded as a chronic illness and can dramatically affect the quality of a sufferer’s life.

My Personal Take-Aways and Lessons On What IBS Is

IBS is…

• Not a disease you can test for; it’s a diagnosis of exclusion (precisely what happened to me)
• Not curable (crap!)
• Exacerbated by a variety of lifestyle factors and conditions (check!)
• Of unknown origins (boo!)
• A gastrointestinal (GI) track issue (think intestines)
• A disease with a high societal cost (more on this soon)
• A chronic illness that can dramatically affect life quality (um, yeah!)

To learn more about IBS please read the following:

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Health Center – via WebMD
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome – via MayoClinic
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome – via Google Health
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome Self-Help and Support Group

Digging My Own Ditch: How I Became Afflicted with IBS

My free-fall into poor health began during the summer of 2002. That’s when I had the brilliant idea to get superhuman “fit” (note I didn’t use “healthy”).

Mind you, I wasn’t in poor health to begin with. I had been a life-long athlete of many sports and ate okay. But a dark force was at work that ultimately led me to doom.

The summer of 2002 has another significance – it was the summer after my freshman year at college. College is a phenomenal and priceless experience! But it can, on occasion, come with the insidious dangers – such as overwhelm, anxiety, emotional roller coasters, you get the idea. These in large part factored into my rash decision to pursue the heights of superhuman fitness.

Alas, in the summer of 2002, I started running like a fiend (can you say Exercise Bulimia?). I began insane strength training regimens. I mindlessly cut back on my calorie intake. I was ignorant of proper nutritional science and exercise recovery. That’s a deadly cocktail that lead to a drastic result – a 30lb weight loss in 3 months! I dropped from 185 to 155.

Note that I’m 6’3″ and, at the time, was 19.5 years old. That’s bloody insane!

But the ditch-digging didn’t stop after 3 months. If it had I’d probably never have suffered from IBS or any of the other poor health fallout. The logic here is simple – the 30lb drop was a physical result, not a mental or emotional one. The latter elements, as we learned, are the real accelerators of IBS.

Thus, if I had put the air-brakes on after just 3 months, I probably could have saved myself from years of turmoil. I didn’t.

So, my saga continued with my sophomore year. Ironically (and tragically), sophomore year was my hardest by far from an emotional standpoint. My stress level was through the roof with academic pressures (I was a perfectionist), relationship woes, identity clarity (what in the hell do I want to do with my life?!), and more.

You can imagine how this reeked havoc on my IBS and overall health.

I hit rock-bottom during junior year.

All the while I had still been training like a madman. In fact, my training had increased to include swimming. I certainly had gotten more athletic, but my health certainly paid the price.

But at least the rebound had begun! This moment was actually euphoric as it released me from my self-induced prison. I had hope of a recovery. But recovery wouldn’t come with the flip of a switch. My ditch was deep – we’re talking fathomless depths!

I had a long way to go to crawl out…

Blowfish-itis, Volcanic Eruptions, and Other Not-So-Nice Effects

Let’s pause on the chronology and delve into the gory details of what IBS feels like. For those that are squeamish you may want to close your eyes for this part of the flick.

IBS is a chameleon – it can take on many forms. Thus, it impacts everyone differently. Yes, there is a suite of common symptoms and shared accelerators (as we have already learned). But the hallmark trait of IBS is it’s shape-shifting nature.

This is also what, I think, makes it such a dangerous and debilitating disease.

The tenor of my IBS was mainly bloating of airship proportions. I became a walking blimp when IBS struck me hard. Granted, it didn’t look bad from the outside. I didn’t all of a sudden appear like I was 300 lbs (I was in the neighborhood of the mid-160s by then). But the internal pressure and discomfort were devastating.

Devastating you say?

Hell yes devastating! When hardcore IBS fits struck they’d completely zap my physical energy, mental focus, and emotional stability. I would become effectively worthless.

Naturally, the psychological effects of this blowfish transformation were the worst. I could have probably pushed through a lot of these episodes on a physical level – but my mind didn’t tell me I could. Deadliest of all were the feelings of despair – that I’d never be rid of this; that I’d never be “cured.”

This condition can lead to genuine madness.

“Volcanic eruptions” are another manifestation of chronic IBS. Yes folks, you know what I’m talking about. Thankfully (I think), I didn’t suffer from these episodes too frequently. This was a least a little win – not having to race to the restroom every hour or so.

I will say, however, that such eruptions do alleviate the geyser-esque pressure from your stomach. So when viewed that way, the eruptions are actually a blessing (yes, I know that’s gross but so true nonetheless).

To reiterate, the major culprits of these symptoms are the emotional ones – stress, anxiety, low self-confidence, mental fatigue, etc. But don’t discount the role that nutrition plays into the equation! The quality and balance of my nutrition (though never terrible) was certainly not great. And given my OCD tendencies, I’d typically overdo things.

Such it was with fiber consumption!

Fiber is good for you, right?! So naturally more fiber is better, right?! Um, not-so-much! I’d later learn that your GI-track can only effectively handle so much fiber per day. If asked to process too much (like the 100g-ish a day I was eating) then it goes haywire! It actually contributes to the GI-seizures. You read that right – I was unknowingly further exacerbating the problem.

Epic fail!

Hopefully all that gore illustrates for you the very real consequences of IBS (specifically) and poor health habits (generally). There are many other IBS symptoms that I could talk about. But the above are those that affected me the worst.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms please consult your doctor. I also highly advise that you do some self-study on the subject as I did (see resources above). That knowledge is vital to deciphering the cryptic nature of IBS.

Lifestyle Suckage: The Ultimate Price of Debilitating IBS

As you can probably conclude, the ultimate price of my IBS wasn’t any individual cost – a specific IBS attack, a lost day of productivity, a missed opportunity for collegiate fun, etc.

No, the real sticker price of IBS is what I call “lifestyle suckage.”

Listen up – when you’re afflicted with IBS to the degree that I was you don’t stop thinking about it, ever!

It’s always with you. You’re constantly worried about when your next attack will be. You become paranoid about eating food (is this going to trigger another episode?).

In sum, chronic IBS sucks the life out of your bones. It leaves you with despair and a very pessimistic outlook in general. Not cool.

Even worse (if it’s even possible) is the torment of others.

No, I’m not suggesting that anyone “forced” me to eat something I didn’t want. And no, people didn’t mock me for my condition. But if you haven’t suffered from IBS then it’s truly hard for you to empathize. You don’t know what it feels like. And it’s near-impossible to articulate to others all that IBS does to you. All this can leave you feeling very isolated and alone. Not cool x1,000,000.

Here’s the take home message – IBS sucks!!!! (yes, quadruple exclamation point)

A Brave New World: Fearless Health

It’s time to return to our chronology (well, my chronology anyway).

It was junior year when we left off above. I had hit rock-bottom. But hope existed because I gave the “big finger” to my dismal health and vowed to fight. My IBS and lackluster health would not best me. I would do whatever was necessary to smash these demons.

I would become fearless!

Such tenacity resulted in years of personal research and experimentation…

• I read near everything I could get my hands on that was of a wellness, nutritional science, exercise physiology, sports medicine, etc nature.
• I sought out friends, doctors, mentors, and more to help me figure out a good path forward.
• I experimented with new, wholesome foods and nutrition programs.
• I formally studied Yoga and Tai-Chi to better understand the mind-body connection.

In short – I became a living health laboratory.

My journey out of my self-made ditch took years. It took seven years – from the summer of 2002 until the summer of 2009.

The moment that really marked the end was an amazing holiday my sister and I took to Chicago. It was an absolute blast! And for the first time in many, many months – I wasn’t paranoid about weighing my food! I had found genuine balance, calm, and happiness.

And now that I knew what it felt like I knew I could reproduce it (I’m a geek about stuff like that!).

That moment then catapulted me into into writing about my experiences. I’ve always relished writing. And now I had something of value and substance to share with the world.

In part, it led me to write my manifesto, Fearless Health: How to Thrive in an Unhealthy World.

How I Destroyed the Killer Butterflies

There isn’t anything inherently magical or profound in how I suppressed my IBS and won-back my health. It all came down to the tried-and-true basics. They, of course, bear repeating – so I’ll list some of them here…

• Stop eating crap! Focus on wholesome foods – the less processing the better!
• Watch out for toxic-level fiber consumption – more is not always better
• Commit to the belief that health is not a destination but a lifestyle choice
• Understand at a profound level “why” you seek vibrant health – you need a healthy lifestyle mindset to win
• View your health as your empire – it takes a while to build but is yours to rule
• Be active often – not just “working out” but constant lifestyle activity
• Stop making excuses! – you’re only fooling yourself
• Adopt a lifestyle befitting our ancestors – the paleo lifestyle works for me; I feel it can work for you
• Fitness is the least important piece in your overall health – view the Holy Grail of Health to learn more
• For God’s sake, do something you love so much you’ll hurt from joy! – for me, that’s writing
• Stop giving a damn about other people’s expectations – odds are they’re far less healthy than you anyway
• Pursue a legacy of greatness – live as you’d like to be remembered

To Be Continued…

My story is long from over.

I have escaped from the pits of darkness. I am now indeed joyfully healthy! But my story continues now in the form of a crusade for vibrant and remarkable health!

My aim is to inspires as many as I can to seek similarly vibrant and remarkable health as a means of maximizing their life. Hence, I’m so glad and thankful that you’ve joined me on this quest for better health and happiness!

If you’d like to get more involved with my healthy lifestyle crusade, please consider joining the League of Avengers – a passionate alliance taking a defiant stand for a better life. You can also subscribe for free updates by email by or RSS.

And if you have questions, I’d love to hear! You can stalk me on Twitter or just email me

Lastly, please help spread this message on IBS and healthy lifestyle awesomeness by sharing this article on your favorite social networks. You can use the social share buttons below if you’d like. Thanks for helping propel the noble fight against IBS!

To infinite health, and beyond!

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Image Credit: Jack Hynes