Does anxiety affect your gut?

I've had terrible anxiety for the last six months or more and recently it's starting to affect my stomach and intestines. I was diagnosed with IBS many years ago and it's flared up the past month big time. Of course, being a die hard hypochondriac, I"m sure this time it's colon cancer or something else terminal, but it could just be the result of so much anxiety I've been having. I have all kinds of odd stomach pains and gas and it's also affected my bowel movements but no blood or black stools. I'm terrified to go to the doctor, as usual, and because this current condition has always gone away eventually when i've had it in past years, I'm just trying to talk myself down from this constant fear and wait for it to subside again. I've always heard that anxiety can affect your gut so I guess it makes sense in my case but it's so hard to deal with both the general anxiety and the physical discomfort on top of it. I take Zantac and Gas-X for stomach and they help somewhat but it's the mental fear that is the most debilitating....it's hard to know if what I'm feeling is real or my mind overworking. Any thoughts?

Hi

In short the answer is yes.

Anxiety can cause all sorts of symptoms including IBS so by reducing your anxiety levels you should find that some of your other symptoms lesson or completely go.

Hibee

As far as I am concerned its which came first the chicken or the egg. Nearly everyone with anxiety had
some form of stomach or intestinal problem i take prilosec every morning and as my IBS calmed down so
did my Panic, still have days of high anxiety. Peace

Larry ***

Definitely! GI issues are one of my biggest anxiety symptoms. I constantly feel nauseous, rarely have solid stool, lose a ton of weight, and my acid reflux flares up.

I agree with Blu's Mama- try some Kombucha if you haven't already. Probiotics have done miracles to help restore my stomach when I've eaten very little due to anxiety / sickness. Some people even believe that mental health is directly tied to your overall gut health (I forget why, I think it has something to do with a huge amount of serotonin receptors in that location), so that's also something to chew on.

The gut is definitely attached to anxiety! I have struggled with it for years. I now eat Greek yogurt every morning which seems to calm my stomach and help with some of the other symptoms.

I will say, I have found the less sugar and processed foods I eat, the better my gut feels. I think what we eat also correlates with how we feel in regards to anxiety.

Hope you feel better soon!