At The IBS Network, we’re lucky enough to have volunteers from across the medical and academic spectrum. As part of the Self-Care Week series, one of our volunteers Lauren White shares her personal perspective on the extent to which self-care means going it alone.

A researcher at the University of Sheffield and an IBS sufferer, Lauren’s PhD explores the social experiences of those living with IBS and how they balance symptoms and daily life.

You may recognize her from last year’s BBC feature on the reduction in numbers of public toilets where she discussed her toilet mapping project.

Today, she shares her perspective on the importance of having a support network when attempting to self-manage a chronic condition like IBS.

As an organisation, The IBS Network feels that self-care is not only the most powerful treatment for IBS, but a way that people living with IBS can take ownership of this chronic condition and feel empowered by their understanding and control.

To get started, take a look at our Self-Care programme or join the network to access a dedicated IBS nurse support helpline and Ask the Experts feature.

 

Self-care is a common term these days – we see it in books, newspaper articles, lifestyle apps to name but a few. Self-care suggests that we should take care of ourselves, and create important space, with appropriate changes, in order to make our lives better or improved.

Some would say this includes dedicating an hour in the evening for a relaxing bath, embracing a favorite book, or ensuring you drink more water throughout the week – what is self-care for one may be different for another depending upon the time and place you are at in your life.

Creating time and space for ourselves is even more important when living with a condition such as IBS that can be chronic and sensitive to the pressures of everyday life, with changing symptoms, good days and bad days.

However, we must be careful not to overemphasize self-care – as in some stages of life, all of us need a helping hand, or we need things in place for us.

While taking individual steps to manage IBS as a condition is important and empowering when we have agency over our own bodies and our lives, self-care needs to work alongside something else – wider support.

We as individuals are not in a vacuum – we are interdependent. We have family, friends, partners, and work colleagues – we need them like they need us.

I’d say that with gaining ‘independence’ or ‘self-managing’ a condition like IBS, it goes hand in hand and is indeed only possible, when we have a structure or a society that leads us on our way, holds us up and makes accommodations when we need them to.

For example, the stress of IBS at work and our self-management of this can be improved by changes and reasonable adjustments to the work environment: an understanding network of colleagues, flexible working hours, appropriate access to toilets with time, space and privacy.

Similarly, negotiating our individual fears of accessing toilets when out and about could be improved with a broader understanding and availability of schemes that make this easier for us, such as community toilet schemes, a knowledge of Can’t Wait cards and Radar keys.

Finally, accessing support groups – this could be in the form of a network of friends or people you already have around you, or it could be an IBS support group, online or in person.

We need to work hand in hand with others to create a system that makes individuals lives and our self-care that bit easier.

 

For more information on RADAR keys and Can’t Wait Cards follow the link: https://www.theibsnetwork.org/shop/

For more information on support groups please follow the link: https://www.theibsnetwork.org/support-groups/