What can I tell people who insist my IBS is 'all in your head'?

What can I tell people who insist my IBS is 'all in your head'?

Lin Chang (UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases) gives expert video advice on: What causes IBS?; Can stress make IBS worse?; What can I tell people who insist my IBS is 'all in your head'? and more...

I think the best way to approach Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and trying to have a patient understand what they have is to explain that even though there's no anatomic or structural abnormality that we can see, the function of the body is not completely normal. Sometimes I use this analogy, and I'm not sure that this is the best analogy, but I'll say "If you see a car that looks perfect on the outside, that's the way the body can look, the bowel can look. But if the car doesn't start, it doesn't work normally. And that's kind of the same thing with the gastrointestinal tract; it's not functioning normally but anatomically and structurally it looks fine."