A troubled intestine can send signals to the brain, just as a troubled brain can send signals to the gut. Therefore, a person's stomach or intestinal distress can be the cause or the product of anxiety, stress, or depression. That's because the brain and the gastrointestinal (GI) system are intimately connected.
Firstly, microbes in your colon have been shown to affect your mental health and may even cause psychological illnesses such as anxiety disorder or depression. This could occur as a direct impact of the microbes themselves or how they may be causing inflammation in your GI tract.
Constipation is strongly linked to anxiety and other mental health conditions. While it's likely stress can make constipation worse, constipation may also increase your anxiety symptoms.
When you're feeling stressed, nervous, or upset, your colon will spasm. These spasms can make you experience stomach cramps and discomfort that trigger your IBS symptoms. Cortisol can also affect the levels of good bacteria in your gut to cause IBS.
GI Conditions Linked to Anxiety
Some GI conditions—such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)—have also been linked to anxiety disorders.
As many people who have experienced anxiety will know, it's often linked with gut issues like feeling sick, a sensitive stomach, and constipation or diarrhea — or with ongoing conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Researchers have found that worse IBS symptoms can be associated with more severe anxiety.
It should be noted, however, that bloating can also cause anxiety. Once again, this is especially true for those that have panic disorder (but it may also occur in anyone with anxiety). Bloating causes many symptoms that can create fear in the person struggling with the gas and air, including: Chest Pains.
How Gas Can Cause Anxiety. While symptoms of anxiety (changes in breathing, stress on the gastrointestinal system) can cause gas, the opposite can be true as well, in that gas can cause anxiety - especially those already prone to it.
While constipation affects the intestines and not the stomach, being constipated slows down the entire digestive system, which can delay or prevent food in the stomach from reaching the intestines. When this happens, constipated patients may feel nauseous or even vomit.
The vagus nerve essentially creates a two-way street of communication from the brain to the gut. When it's stimulated, as it is during a poop, the vagus nerve can lower a person's blood pressure and heart rate, which leaves us feeling relaxed and with a sense of “poo-phoria”.
When you have it, you may feel: Cramping, churning, tightness, or knots in the stomach. “Butterflies” in the stomach feeling. Shivering, shaking, or twitching of muscles.
In the general population, a diagnosis of gastritis appears to be connected with a significantly elevated risk of mood and anxiety problems. Gastritis is caused by those prone to stress, as the more a person's susceptibility to stress, the greater the chance of gastritis.
Stress caused by anxiety may also affect contractions occurring in the esophagus, which propel food toward the stomach. If these contractions become irregular, it can lead to reflux. Finally, high stress and anxiety levels may increase the production of stomach acid.
When you are anxious, some of the hormones and chemicals released by your body enter your digestive tract, where they interfere with digestion. They have a negative effect on your gut flora (microorganisms that live in the digestive tract and aid digestion) and decrease antibody production.
More evidence from 2020 also suggests that probiotics and prebiotics can have a positive effect on mental health conditions. Finally, a study from 2021 also notes positive effects of probiotics on anxiety and stress. To sum it all up, researchers seem to believe that probiotics may help with: anxiety.
One of the easiest ways to tell the difference between a gut instinct and anxiety is by how long your symptoms last. A gut instinct is often a reaction to an immediate situation. Anxiety, on the other hand, might be present regardless of its relevance to your current experience.
Digestive conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease have been associated with increased rates of anxiety and depression.
Preliminary evidence shows that imbalances in gut microbiota can exert a powerful influence on the brain via the gut-brain axis in ways that affect anxiety. What's more, disturbances in neurotransmitters — brain chemicals that send signals throughout the body — may play a role in psychological conditions like anxiety.
A deep sigh is your body-brain's natural way to release tension and reset your nervous system. Simply breathe in fully, then breathe out fully, longer on the exhale. Studieshave shown that a deep sigh returns the autonomic nervous system from an over-activated sympathetic state to a more balanced parasympathetic state.
Gastrointestinal function is particularly influenced by stress. Common gastrointestinal symptoms due to stress are heartburn, indigestion, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and associated lower abdominal pain. These symptoms and the alterations in intestinal function that cause them are becoming understood.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like sertraline (Zoloft) and fluoxetine (Prozac) are commonly used to treat anxiety disorders, but they could be helpful for people with anxiety and IBS. These medications make the gut more active, so they may be better for those with IBS-related constipation.
Internal vibrations, also known as internal tremors, can feel like a person is shaking on the inside. They typically affect people with Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, or essential tremor. Internal tremors are shaking sensations felt inside the body.