hello Chris . I read your post here and it seems to be a common problem with several person with autoimmune disorders. You can do a little research and you may surmise that the underlining cause is the over active immune system ( or some very complex inter actions , reactions with ones immune system and organs ) . Crohns and colitis are autoimmune disorders. I have had my J pouch sense 1995 and one of the problems I have still is that I don`t understand that " I`ve been cured " lol ??? Any how I was gutted back then and so "cured" but, what triggered my immune system to attack my colon ? I went through what sounds very similar to what your describing . The one symptom that is not a symptom common to some other ailments is the irritability. You may have to compare the symptoms from a few credible or, credited sources but, the irritability pretty much narrows it to one cause only . A over or under active thyroid ( getting to much adrenaline at times to make you irritable ) I was ( after 6 years) diagnosis-ed with Hashimoto`s thyroiditis. The blood test showed that my TSH were out of the instruments range . I went misdiagnosed for toooooo looooong . I had figure out that there was a conflict of interest when I was not understanding that I was "cured" . Endocrinologist specialize in this commonly misdiagnosed disorder. Another thing that may make the row hard to plow is that the normal range of TSH levels had been widened to administratively not waste resources on less than serious enough symptoms or, condition ??? Any how it takes time and can be like plowing a gravel parking lot.