i was lucky enough to have a sympathetic doctor who sent me for lots of tests as i was convinced i had something wrong with my stomach. tests were all negative, nothing wrong. so he sent me to st mark's hospital in london who deal with people who have our condition. first i was seen by a dodgy psychiatrist who tried to convince me i needed psychotherapy three times a week. i convinced him that i wanted c.b.t and he eventually agreed to that and biofeedback. the c.b.t wasn't good enough, (im a tricky customer) but the biofeedback was interesting. i couldn't handle the balloon up the bum tests, so she abandoned all that and gave me a handout. there was something about the fact that this nurse, who was very nice, and had experience, i decided i could trust and put my faith in her compeltely. this was the key. i read and followed her handout and it worked. basically it was like finding a nice person to tell me how to pooh. cos i felt like i didn't know. i had lost sense of when i needed to go, how much i should go..so, the handout. i thought some of you might be interested in it. ill write in out on a separate message. its very simple. i don't always follow it, i don't know why, i guess that is another story. but here it is..( and it may be of interest, but the psychiatrist told me that 50percent of people who have this condition have been sexually abused. i hadn't. but i was severly constipated as a young child and was hospitalised. my earliest memory is of enemas against my will. excrutiating to a 5 year old already suffering from mother anxiety and a nasty memory of a nurse threatening me. not sexual abuse, but i felt a shadow of that. i felt that if biofeedback could help someone who had been sexually abused, then i was in with a good chance. sorry to add this if unpleasant, but i want to put it context). ok, the handout..perhaps it will help someone.