I am having some weird bowel symptoms. I have been on imipramine for nearly six months, of which one side effect is constipation. However..it is like this. Constipation for 2 to 4 days. Then huge abdominal cramps followed by a big movement which tapers off into diarehea. Then small diarehea squirts a couple more times that day. Then fine again. Then the constipation starts again.
It also seems that fiber makes the diarehea worse, lettuce and tomato seem to be more like ex lax than vegetables.

Any ideas? I will be seeing my doc in less than a month, so I will bring it to him as well.

What do you mean by constipation? Constipation refers to hard dry stools and not the frequency of the stools. If the stools are not hard and dry then having them every 2-4 days would not be considered constipation. As for the diarrhea that could be from what you have eaten or if you truely do have constipation then this would not be unusual. I think you need to specify what you mean by constipation for more suggestions.

Originally posted by mlgable:
What do you mean by constipation? Constipation refers to hard dry stools and not the frequency of the stools. If the stools are not hard and dry then having them every 2-4 days would not be considered constipation. As for the diarrhea that could be from what you have eaten or if you truely do have constipation then this would not be unusual. I think you need to specify what you mean by constipation for more suggestions.


Ok...sometimes they are hard and dry, sometimes not. Usually I feel a kind of feeling in my left side, too. Kind of like gas I suppose.

I guees i would also describe these 'constipation' periods as 'feeling all backed up inside'

Hope that clarifies it a bit.

As far as diarehea being from what I eat, it seems that fiber makes it worse.

It sounds like that you are getting constipation because you are not getting enough water with the fiber. That causes a temporary blockage which can only be relied by the build up of a flood of diarrhea. The squirts of diarrhea later in the day is just something that happens when you get diarrhea - it never goes away in one hit. Try drinking more water with the fiber intact (monitor what you are doing - don't just assume that you are getting enough). See how you get on with that. The other thing is to drink water at regular intervals during the day and do not resist the urge to go to the toilet. I have had this problem before.