Can health anxiety make me obsessed with my bowel movements?

This article will discuss if having health anxiety can lead you to become obsessed with your bowl movements. It will show how a healthy bowel movement is a sign of a healthy body, and how to cope when you feel you are obsessing about it.

Can health anxiety make me obsessed with my bowel movements?

Yes, health anxiety can make you begin to obsess over your bowl movements. It can make you start to worry if your bowl is working properly. It can be that you become concerned that your bowel is moving too much, meaning you may be worried that diarrhea is a sign of something more serious.

Or, health anxiety can even make you worried when you are feeling constipated. You can begin to worry that this constipation may be related to some kind of illness, and it will make you extremely aware of all of your bowl movements.

But so you understand a little more about how health anxiety can make you obsess with your bowel movements, let’s understand a little more about what is health anxiety.

What is health anxiety? 

Health anxiety is what makes you worry constantly, and irrationally about your health. It may be fixed on one matter, as we are discussing here, your bowel movements, or at any other sing, or matter you think is happening to your body.

When a person has health anxiety they become hyperaware of any little sign their body gives and will quickly look for more information around it. People will often turn to internet search engines, such as Google, to discover what is happening to them based on the smallest sign.

Those research will usually lead to a more serious condition than what the person has, or it can lead to misinformation. This is why people should prevent doing that. 

Health anxiety is different from a common health concern because it is not necessarily based on real symptoms. 

Because the person with health anxiety can be hypervigilant about every sign their body gives, they can usually interpret a momentary event as a serious illness. It may also be based on a mild symptom or a family history of some condition.

The condition will also make it harder for the person to keep their life habits, or even to create and maintain healthy relationships. 

It can often be caused by a poor understanding of your body signs, or because you have had a family member that had health anxiety as well, or finally, it can be related to having gone through a traumatic experience involving illness as a child.

Previously, people that experienced health anxiety would be diagnosed with a disorder called hypochondria. But nowadays, the diagnosis of the condition will either be diagnosed with illness anxiety disorder, when the person has no symptoms of illness or only mild ones.

They can also be diagnosed with somatic symptom disorder which happens when the person experiences symptoms that are perceived by them as distressing, or if they have multiple symptoms. 

To be diagnosed with one of the two, your doctor may do a long exam to discard the possibility of any physical illness related to the symptoms you are reporting, and afterward, you may be referred to a mental health professional to discuss your worries.

Can my bowel movements indicate a health condition? 

Our bowls are an extremely sensitive part of our bodies, so yes, sometimes more severe health problems can begin to show themselves through your bowel movements. But this doesn’t mean that every matter you experience with your bowel is a sign of an illness.

Sometimes you can be constipated because you are not having a healthy diet, or even because you have trouble going to the bathroom in other places aside from your house, which is called pooping anxiety.

If you experience, for example, diarrhea, you can begin to worry that you have a serious illness as well. But most of the time it is often related to the food you have been ingesting, or sometimes even to your emotional state. 

It is a known fact that anxiety can often lead you to experience many gastrointestinal problems, including diarrhea.

So before your health anxiety takes over, and you begin to obsess about every bowel movement, know that there are ways to cope. So now let’s discuss what you can do.

How can I cope with health anxiety that is making me obsessed with my bowel movements? 

To cope with health anxiety that is leading you to obsess about your bowel movements, you may want to look for the mental health professional. Initially, a therapist may help you. As you share your concerns, they may become more evident, and it may be easier for you to recognize them.

Therapy can also help you develop other ways to look at your body, and experience the sensations that come from it. It may also help you manage those worrying thoughts, and become more aware of how they impact your life.

Hopefully, therapy will also allow you to find the strength to do things you have been avoiding because of how they make your body feels, and regain the ability to function in your everyday life. In some cases, though, only therapy won’t be enough, and people with health anxiety may need medication.

In cases like that, a psychiatrist may prescribe you some medications. In those cases, it is often prescribed a type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). But be sure to look for a psychiatrist before taking anything.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Can health anxiety make me obsessed with my bowel movements? 

What is poop anxiety? 

Poop anxiety is a form of social anxiety or even phobia that causes the person to become anxious whenever they need to poop in public. In some cases, it can make it impossible for the person to poop out of their own house. 

It is something that can happen to everyone, and it can lead to problems in the person’s social life. People with poop anxiety can avoid going to public events, or on vacations. It is something that can also impact the person’s routine of study or work.

Poop anxiety can make people so nervous that they may become constipated in situations where they don’t feel comfortable going to the bathroom. People that have this form of anxiety can feel self-conscious about people listening or even smelling what they are doing. 

So using a public bathroom, going to someone else’s bathroom, or even doing it when they have people close can be difficult.

How can I cope with poop anxiety? 

As with any type of anxiety, to deal with poop anxiety the person may need to go to therapy. In that process, they will learn why they have such intense anxiety about pooping, and how to create positive strategies to cope with it.

And when anxiety is too severe, it is common that people will need medication. In some cases of anxiety, and phobias there is a form of antidepressant that can be prescribed, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which may increase the level of serotonin in the person’s body, which will ultimately improve their mood.

Is it possible for poop to come out of your mouth?

Yes, poop can come out of your mouth. But that is not a simple thing. For that to happen, the person needs to have been experiencing a blockage in one of the parts of their intestines. It can be either on the small intestine or the large one.

This causes what is called intestinal obstruction, so the waste you have in your body is not able to leave it through the rectum. So of time, as you continue to eat food, and it doesn’t find a way out of your body, it will leave your body through your mouth.

What are types of anxiety?

There are many types of anxiety disorders, and those will usually differ in what triggers each person’s anxiety in each of them. For example, as said before, there is a social anxiety disorder. 

This type of anxiety causes the person to feel anxious whenever they see themselves in a social gathering. They can be anxious about how they will behave, or even how people will perceive them.

Another form of anxiety is a generalized anxiety disorder. This type makes the person anxious even with the daily activities. There is also a panic disorder that can make a person develop panic attacks, which are characterized by sudden, and intense symptoms of anxiety that the person is unable to control.

Aside from those, there is separation anxiety that commonly happens to children, because they are afraid that they will be left by their loved ones. There are also types of phobias, in which the person is afraid of some particular situation, like being afraid of heights.

Does anxiety have a cure? 

No, there is no cure for anxiety. That is because there is a genetic factor to anxiety that can’t be changed even if the person goes through anxiety treatment. But it is important to keep in mind that anxiety can be treated.

When you go through the proper treatment, you may discover the roots of your anxiety, and what triggers it. With that, little by little you may be able to react to those events differently than you did before. 

What is important to remember, as you improve from your anxiety disorder, is that you should keep caring for your mental health as a way of preventing a relapse from the condition.

What are the main symptoms of anxiety? 

Anxiety affects the person in many ways. It generates physical, and even emotional symptoms. On the physical side, it can make the person’s heart beat faster, as well as their breathing. It can cause the person to shake, sweat, feel weak, and even fatigued.

It can affect the person’s sleeping patterns, causing them to have insomnia. It can also affect your gastrointestinal system. As for the emotional aspects of anxiety, it can make you tenser and makes you feel like it is difficult to relax. 

A person with anxiety may also be worried all the time, and feel like the worst is about to happen to them, which will make them afraid. They may have a harder time focusing on other matters that are not the ones they are worried about. And because anxiety can be so uncomfortable, they can begin to avoid being in places that trigger it.

Conclusion 

This article explained how health anxiety can lead you to become obsessed with your bowl movements. The article also discussed what it means to have health anxiety, and how to cope with the obsession around your bowel movements.

If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to write them in the section below.

References

https://www.healthline.com/health/health-anxiety