IBS has taken over my life!
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a real physical condition that causes real pain and discomfort.
And, there is significant, and very real, link between the gut and the brain… there’s a reason we use phrases like “gut instinct” and “gut feeling.”
Stress and anxiety have a direct, physical impact on our bodies in general (your shoulders get tense when you’re stressed out, right?). And, stress and anxiety can wreak havoc on our guts specifically. So, many people who struggle with anxiety, or who are under stress, have gastrointestinal (GI) problems.
The take-home point: stress and anxiety can contribute to — or even create — GI symptoms, and if you have IBS or another GI disorder, stress and anxiety can make those symptoms worse.
With me so far?
Now, if you have IBS, you have a superpower — you have a heightened sensitivity to the sensations in your gut; that is, you can feel all the everyday, normal activity occurring in your gut, while the rest of us are oblivious.
Which is kind of cool… except when you become afraid of all that activity and sensation and change the way you live because of it.
A quick tangent: You’re about to walk down a dark alley. You’re told there is an axe murderer waiting for you in the alley. As you walk through the alley, you will be hyperaware of every sound. All of your senses are on high alert. You would hear a mouse fart in that alley you’re listening so hard, right? Because you know there is a threat to you in that alley.
Now, take two. You’re about to walk down a dark alley. But this time you are told nothing. You have no reason to believe there is a threat to you in the alley. How do you walk through the alley? No hyperawareness. No high security alert.
When your GI symptoms take over your life, it’s because you’ve become hyperaware of the sensations in your body, and you’ve labeled them as scary and dangerous, and then you act to protect yourself. You know there is a threat to you in the alley and so you take proper precautions.
And, how do you protect yourself? You avoid lots of delicious foods. You no longer go out — or if you do, you make sure to carry Imodium or swig Maalox before you leave. And you always, always, know where the bathroom is.
Your thinking has changed too. You tell yourself living this way is ‘intolerable,’ that you’re ‘helpless,’ or that this is ‘terrible and it’s not going to get any better.’ You spend a lot of time thinking about how it affects — and limits — your life.
You do not have to live this way. There are strategies and tools to help you reclaim your thoughts and your life from IBS.