Bathroom anxiety--in remission

I was diagnosed in 2006 and after bad flare got things settled. A mild flare in 2010, but started Apriso with my Azathiaprine, and things are under control FTMP. So why am I experiencing more anxiety about my UC and needing a restroom more than ever? I get very anxious about going somewhere out of the ordinary or being somewhere without easy restroom access. As you can imagine, this anxiety activates my gut and makes things worse. It's typically when I go somewhere with others; when I'm by myself I tend not to get too worked up.

I typically have one mostly formed stool in the morning and that's it. Which I realize would be a dream for a lot of people here. My stomach bothers me once in a while, but not a big deal. It's almost like PTSD or something, but I've been mostly fine for 10 years now!

Anyone else experience something like this? Life in general is making me anxious, so maybe exasperating this problem. But seems to be getting worse.

It takes time to get over flare anxieties. I was in a remission for a year and still would get extremely anxious about bathrooms. Fears are real and pervasive, and impossible to rationalize your way out of them. I found they did fade slowly in time. The fears were seeded when accidents and extreme urgency happened and it's a deep animal mind protection mechanism (separate from higher learning). Those fears are slowly undone when you succeed over many months of not having those troubles, repeated reinforcement works. Make a point to go out to breakfast each morning and you'll succeed repeatedly and that helps (as morning's are usually when uc is at it's worse). Practice mindfullness, meditation, yoga and use destressing techniques. Find distractions, like listening to music you love and in my case singing badly to it. There's no easy button.

It's like iPoop said - these are primitive thoughts imbedded in the human mind. The fight vs. flight mechanism. Once people start to think about something bad, even if it's not realistic, the paths our minds can go down can be like digging holes.

I had an old shrink who used to impress on me that we can't control the first thought that pops into our head but we CAN stop every thought that follows. I try to practice this always. Easier said than done, but definitely something we should all try in all walks of life.