My name is Stephen. I'm 24 years old and I live in Seattle, WA. I've been peeking at this website for almost a year now and I finally decided to post my story in hopes that someone may help.
My earliest symptoms started at age 15, after having many uncomfortable constipation reactions to foods like pizza, beans, milk, ice cream, etc. Everyone assumed it was because I was lactose intolerant but it also seemed to happen if I ate a burger without cheese or even spicy foods like buffalo wings. For the longest time, I assumed it was IBS because I was young and Google was available. I went and got checked, and my doctor also assumed it was IBS and told me to stay away from the foods I thought were causing trouble. I did that with little progress, and I was young and my body was changing. I also was a teenager and loved my pizza, I just endured the symptoms. Instead of having constipation, I began to have diarrhea more frequently. It was a running joke with my friends that I never had to use the bathroom, but that soon became the opposite.
Fast forward to college, I turned 21 and noticed that wine and other alcohol gives me horrible runs. I saw a new doctor, and he gave me medicine to help with IBS specifically, but it also made it harder for me to urinate and I didn't like that at all. I still had diarrhea without the cramps.
It started to finally get to me after many years of eating nearly anything that I was still getting diarrhea losing weight, getting fatigued more often, and I just didn't feel the same anymore. I also got a little tired of everyone commenting on my weight, as I was near 115 at one point. Naturally, my mom expressed her concerns and constantly tried to get me to go to a new doctor, but admittedly I was afraid because I was starting to think I didn't have IBS, but I also didn't think it was life threatening since it was nearing 7 years later and I wasn't dead yet. I'm pretty stubborn sometimes...
It also didn't help to be on a college budget and eating university food...I finally made a visit to a GI doctor and got a colonoscopy in December 2016, with my doctor telling me it was indeed IBS, and we would make an appointment when he got my lab results back to discuss anything further. For the next 2-3 months, I didn't hear anything back and assumed I was in the clear. I called for a follow-up and when I went to see him he asked me how my medication was working, but I was confused. Long story short, the office didn't properly contact me, nor did he tell me to my face until then, but I was finally diagnosed with Collagenous Colitis. I truly thought I was going to die, but he told me that it's better in some ways because it's treatable. However, he prescribed me some Budesonide and told me to just take it and hopefully, I'd be good after 3 months. That didn't happen.
I moved to Seattle last summer, and I took the medicine as prompted, but I'm a bit more knowledgeable now on why it didn't work after I stopped. I am seeing a new GI out here and she is wonderful, but I am still having trouble and I'm on the verge of a breakdown trying to figure the next option. I mainly eat tuna and salmon with brown rice and have eliminated gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, shellfish, and eggs for the time being.
It's been so difficult and I still have many negative reactions. Every once in a while I will have a normal solid stool and I celebrate internally although it doesn't last long. I'm a very positive and upbeat person but oh man does this process suck. I go to the gym 4 nights a week at least, and I see my progress coming through, which is a bit of hope since my body is absorbing protein I put into it.
I wanted to join this forum so I could talk to other people like me and stop relying on what people think they know to help me when they are really talking about something else like just Celiac, Crohn's, etc. I do realize that everyone is different and our bodies all have different triggers. It's just getting really old to go into a store and check the ingredients to something and almost have a breakdown every time because it's just another thing I can't have. Changing a diet is a huge mental struggle and something I have a really hard time with.
I'm also considering being a Pescetarian. Chicken and turkey are good but I'm not really as big of a meat eater as I am with tuna and salmon. I think I need to try a proper elimination diet, as I just cut out many foods to see what would happen, without even knowing if they cause a reaction. Except dairy and spicy foods. I know that for SURE.
Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. Getting this all out has helped me already. It's a pleasure to meet you all. :)
I had a colonoscopy when I was 16, and another this past year at 21 because my symptoms got worse during college too- a definite testimony that this disease is highly connected to stress. I feel you on the difficulty remaining positive... but joining this forum will help you immensely, as well as just being open about what you're going through with your family and friends. I lived for years TERRIFIED every time I said "I'm going to the bathroom" and one of my girl friends would say "let me come with you" ya know, cause girls always go in packs to the restroom. I was mortified when I had to use the restroom at my high school boyfriend's house because I didn't want him to hear me poop/fart or smell it afterwards. 
But since I was diagnosed and started being sarcastic about it and cracking jokes at myself things got a lot better. Now I poop in public without shame or without waiting until no one is in the restroom to let it out. I openly talk about how I'm feeling day to day, and I find people are actually really understanding of it and don't always find it gross and weird. I can't even tell you the last time I had a solid stool; maybe when I was five years old I remember looking in the toilet and thinking my poop looks like how it does on TV and thinking THAT was weird! So hopefully that makes you feel a little better lol! Welcome to the forum!