Hi,

I was first diagnosed with IBS about 30 years ago. I am having a flareup of it with food sensitivities now and, like you, have lost weight that bothers me. I can't afford to lose more weight, but many foods cause me stomach and abdominal distress, even though I have cut out foods and am on a low FODMAP diet. Recently I cut out rice krispies and rice chex because I was eating too much of them and they each have 50% of the Iron Daily Value in one bowl, and iron can upset stomachs and guts, too. So paying attention to side ingredients especially in fortified foods is important.

Good luck with getting any help from a gastroenterologist or other doctor, not because they don't care, but because they often may not be able to offer much that helps. IBS, especially in flareups, is very hard to deal with by medical providers, who in my case have not helped a lot.

I suggest looking at IBS forums (which I haven't been good at) because there are many other people who are also dealing with IBS.

Stress reduction can help a lot in IBS as well as Bipolar, but stomach and abdominal issues, losing weight, and food sensitivities are very stressful, too! But trying to reduce stress or attitudes towards stress (coming to accept and tolerate stress without becoming stressed-out from having stress) can be helpful.

I have been taking Lamotrigine for several months at a low dose. I also have lots of other food sensitivities, and I was having abdominal upset that I could not be sure was related to Lamotrigine or something else. But I have had the side effect of dry mouth with Lamotrigine that had not gone away.

The low dose that I was taking helped me a lot to be much more stable with a more manageable life but I still needed self-help measures such as reading and partipating in the Bipolar Forum and even so sometimes I was struggling with stability. My GP (I live in rural area and I am fortunate to have a GP) suggested increasing my dose a couple of weeks ago, but I got bad constipation, and my GP said that if have side effect of dry mouth, then constipation is also frequent because of dehydration. I reduced my Lamotrigine dose, and the bad constipation has gone, which is a sign that it was related to my increased dose of Lamotrigine. But I am still dealing with abdominal issues.

I don't know if my constipation is a result of any lactose included in Lamotrigine or associated with dry mouth.

My point in all this is that it can be hard to tease out causes of stomach or abdominal problems between IBS, medications, their side ingredients, and/or from foods that we need to eat that can also result in stomach or abdominal issues.

Good luck & sorry I don't have much to offer, except to persevere and to realize that you are not alone!