hey Len....
If I'm trying to think of a pattern... I would have to say it started around my Junior Year of highschool after I started taking consistent anti-biotics and birth control which are taken together to counter scaring acne. And I feel vain, but I'd hate to have scars all over my body so I still use them every so often when it gets rough. Anyway... That is about when it started... but it was just like little, quiet noises that I think I heard more than anyone else did, but it still gave me such anxiety and paranoia that i was always so glad to get out of class and school. I never had that much gas though at the time...
Freshman year of college is when it really kicked off. I couldn't go to movies, dates, hated sitting at ALL in any quiet-close scenario with people. It's when the gassy noises starting coming, and then the really really loud burbles that would basically make me Christmas-tree my Scantrons on exams and get the hell out of there. Those noises were so loud that I would sit in the back of our STADIUM classrooms by myself and a kid three rows in front of me turned around when he heard one. It was the worst year of my life I think. I still hardly go to movies...
I tried things like the Aloe Vera cleanse.. nothing, nor did the pepermint tablets, all those things. I did Maalox for a while, and that seemed to help a little, but only for small periods at a time. Around Sophomore year is when I could feel it, like literally feel it with my hands in my intestines, and when my stomach would start to hurt on occasion or I'd get nausea. I started having to use the bathroom a lot more around that time, I felt like it was a key to at least temporary relief from the noises. Also around Freshman year I could start to feel like very thin and mild vibrations to intense rumbles down in like my colon area, which I still feel on occasion, but only the mild ones.. though they are more consistent and long lasting.
I'm into my second semester of my third year of college now, and only after the Paragone have I felt better. My anxiety was through the roof before, I would skip tests on purpose just so I could make them up my by myself in my teacher's offices, or I would just break and eventually had one teacher allow me to take the test out in the hall due to my stomach and anxiety. Exercise never helped me much, but it acted as a sort of mental placebo, so I still encourage it and try. I skipped a ton of classes between last fall and this semester. Paragone is what got me through the semester, and like I've mentioned before my anxiety is almost gone now, so again I think it acted as a sort of Placebo as well. Which, I swear, once your anxiety goes down, your noises will NOT disappear, but they will to at least a degree lessen...
I didn't mean to make this so long, but it helps me to get it out as well. Where I am at now, I generally have cut large amounts of dairy out of my diet and heavy creamy things. I hardly eat junkfood anymore unless it just calls for it... I try to eat salads, fish (really a good help), just generally healthier things. I also would take Valerian pills to help me stay asleep all night which i think could also greatly help. I can still physically FEEL the rumbles, and they just feel like something forceful is shooting gas like a pinball machine around my intestines. But, once I use the restroom, it generally goes away. My noises, even without Paragone have lessened to the point where I hardly think about them relative to what I used to... They happen maybe once a day.... only sometimes loudly...
Growlgurl, I'm going to get that Digestive Enzyme within the next few days, I've been looking for something new to try. You've helped me so much already, I think I seem to be closest to your symptoms if your results are working as well for you as they are for me. So, thankyou.
Len, I hope this helps, and anyone else.