What’s your experience with GI discomfort?

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When I lived in Houston more than 20 years ago, I nearly always felt uncomfortable after eating at one particular chain Mexican buffet. The food was good but it just didn't agree with me at all.

For a long time, I thought it was the spices, but I finally came to realize that it was the amount of grease in their food. Except for my chana masala that I used to make, nothing else ever bothered me because of spices.

My chana masala was way too hot. I would use canned chickpeas and a spice mixture I would buy from the local Indian grocery. The tinniness of the canned chickpeas bothered me so much that I would keep adding spices until I couldn't detect any tinniness at all. I'd also toss in some dried red peppers while cooking.

The result was chana masala that was so spicy that I could only eat about five spoonfuls as part of one meal. Every spoonful had to be followed by at least half a glass of water and some rice and whatever else I had to cut the heat. Even then, it was so irritating to the sphincter muscle at the top of the stomach that it would open up and let in gastic juices. Sometimes it was so bad that I would have to sleep sitting up.

@kokopelli whoa maybe you should have just gottten different chickpeas

They were too good.

Besides, back then I only slept about 2 hours a day.

That’s insane, I would have gone crazy if I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep per day for more than 4 days. I used to operate at almost hibernation levels, I slept over 24 hours before, and my average used to be 14-16 per day. Now it is about 10 hours. I have stayed awake for about 55 hours straight before because I was working on a project. I think that was another example of my forgeting to eat times, I think I ate once or twice during that.

I did it for more than ten years. The only exception was if I took certain medicines for allergies, especially Benadryl. Benadryl can put me out for 24 to 36 hours.

At one point, I got sick for a couple of weeks and my average sleep went up to about 3-4 hours during that period. Over the last 15 years, it has gone back up to normal most nights. It's rare for me to get any less than 6 hours of sleep any more and often 8 to 10 hours.

I've had IBS since I was about 7 years old. That was definitely caused by anxiety.

I also get reflux problems since I gained weight a few years ago. I don't take any meds for that as I've found that drinking milk eases it.

@kokopelli that’s interesting. For me, Benadryl never had much of an affect on me sedative wise, just makes me dehydrated, but phenergan knocked me out quick and hard. I had to take it for nausea once and no one told me that it had sedative side affects, so it’s a good thing I didn’t drive that day.


@renaeden huh, I think that’s the first I’ve heard of someone whose discomfort eases instead of worsens after drinking milk.

ScarletIbis, I was thinking about you, and I remembered that I wanted to say that ginger and fennel seed (tastes like black licorice) will help settle nausea or gas, and bitters (like dandelion leaf) will help stimulate the appetite.

I didn't know if you knew that already . . .

I hope you're having a good day!

Thank you plainjain! I did not know about any of those other things, except ginger. I already knew about that. Since this the last time I posted on this thread, I have started isolating what my meals are to figure out exactly what upsets me. For example, instead of pork chop, corn, green beans, and rolls for supper, I would just eat pork chop or just rolls, etc. so far it’s given me a list of what doesn’t upset me. Bananas, clementine oranges, pork chop, certain types of herbs, are all things I have eaten alone for a meal and didn’t have problems. The list is growing, as is the list of things to avoid.

That's a very good idea! Soon you'll have enough of a list to start making meals. Good work.

The only thing that upsets my stomach is hunger. Otherwise, I have no GI issues at all.

Sometimes if I eat too much different kinds of food I get those burpy hiccups (where a burp comes up at every hiccup). But that doesn't really count as GI issues as such.

My anxiety causes headaches more than anything else.

I've never really had GI issues at all, as it's not a factor for my Asperger's. On rare occasions, some ginger in the form of ginger ale helps to settle my stomach.

No, because GI issues are a common co mordbid of Autism.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking when I put it here, just checking.

I have IBS, and I am lactose intolerant. Also have acid reflux and heartburn reasonably frequently. When I get nervous my stomach feels like a washing machine. I frequently end up with severe cramps and since I was a young child my response to stress is to shake and feel sick. I also can't have caffeine because it makes me feel really ill, and at the dentists I need to have local anesthetic without adrenaline because that makes me feel awful.

I’ve been thinking, what if my appetite problems are a result of thyroid problems? It occurs frequently in my family on my mother’s side including my mother, so I’ll place that on my list of possibilities.