Stress and Stomach

[sunnythinks]

Good evening, everyone.

I've had rather a rough week after a brief period of ease, and I've got a few things going on that are absolutely devastating me.

To make a long story short, I've been stressed out and bawling nearly every day for the past week; my stomach started to act up yesterday, and I don't know if it was something I ate or my stress coming back to haunt me. It seems as though I went to the bathroom more, and my stomach felt achy and crampy. It still feels that way right now, some ten hours later! In fact, it's making it difficult to stay asleep, hence being awake now.

How do I deal with this? I woke up hungry yesterday morning, but as the day went by, my stomach lost the urge to eat; can the stress from crying so much impact my stomach? Can it make me go to the bathroom more or feel bloated and sick? I'm not really nauseated, but I'm scared I'll come down with a stomach virus!

[dazza]

stress has a DIRECT impact on your guts

Ever had a major, traumatic break up? or been seriously depressed?

I for one recall that my entire body was completely out of sorts during a period after I split with an ex, many yonks ago.

I lost loads of weight... couldn't eat (didn't see the point)... couldn't do anything really. I was a total mess.

Stress (and the effects) is/are very similar to depression imo.

[dazza]

Oh, and as gross as this sounds... I've NEVER had the shits like it until I developed anx disorder.

Blood is diverted from the guts to vital organs when in fight or flight. Your stomach WILL seriously act up during bad times.

Eat well and don't stuff yourself... give your tummy a bit of a break.
Try some over-the-counter, popular tum settlers too.

[raggamuffin]

As Dazza said, stress and anxiety seriously affect the stomach. I had a stomach ache lasting 2 months without relent. If you dedicate worry and fear towards the pains they'll just continue to act up. I went to doctors and the hospital tried 3 over the counter meds and 2 prescription ones and they didn't do a thing. My GP kept saying it's definately a physical condition (IBS) mixed with anxiety. Normally with the whole helath anxiety i'd have believed her. But I actually took the view that it wasn't anything physical and accepted it was just anxiety and a few days later it went away.

That's not to say there won't be times when you feel fine and a pain or symptom might come along. but the sooner you accept it's anxiety and don't spend time worrying or fretting over ti, the sooner the discomfort goes away.

General rule of thumb as far as I could tell with regards to stomach pains was if you're not vomitting, don't have diaherra or constipation and you've not lost all your appetite or have extremly sensitive stomach to the touch then it's not going to be anything serious. Which is a bit difficult to accept at times as sometimes my stomach pains had me curled up in a ball on my bed just hoping it'd go away.

But it just goes to show how real and painful anxiety pains can get if you feed it with enough fear and worry.

Hope you feel better soon.

Ed

[sunnythinks]

Thank you all do much for these words. I have been having a horrible week and it seems as though the more I relax, the better my stomach feels.

I'm going to just keep drinking water and eating light. :)

[JeepersCreepers]

I wonder if anyone has any tips on coping with gut issues? Just about every day that I work my anxiety acts up before I even wake up. I have to endure stomach cramps and yes, the poops (charming!) throughout the entire workday. It's pretty bloody embarrassing when you have to stay home many times a month because of this! So again, any tips for those of us living with an anxious tummy?

OP - I don't mean to hijack your thread, so I hope you don't mind my asking.

[LeslieJoy]

I can relate so well to all the stomach problems that has been mentioned. I have always gotten stomach cramps whenever I would get upset or anxious about anything. Not to be to descriptive but bouts of constipation and/or diarrhea have been part of my life for the last 10 years or so. This past June 2012 I started having diarrhea every day all day long, this lasted for 2 months! Emergency room for fluids was part of my life then. No one could figure out what was going on till I went to see a gastronologist that was on his first day of work in our town after moving here from out of state. Within 1 week he had me getting a colonoscopy and biopsies of my colon. He was shocked to find out that I had a rare form of colitis called collagenous colitis. The lining of your colon has 3 layers and the middle layer of mine had turned to gel basically. I was put on steroids and within 3 days my stomach was great. I could at least leave the house.
I wrote about this here because it is rare and if anyone is having any of these symptoms with no relief, it is worth checking into.

[JeepersCreepers]

I can't even leave my toothbrush in the bathroom for fear of getting poo particles in the bristles, nevermind keeping 'samples' in the fridge for a doctor. Is there any correlation between people with anxiety and gastro-intestinal disorders/diseases?

[LeslieJoy]

I am not a dr but I can say that anxiety and stomach problems go hand in hand in my situation. I am 54 and since I was a teenager I related my stomach cramping & diarrhea with my times of stress and anxiety.