Why does anxiety cause diarrhea or constipation?

[Ganesh Ujwal]

Anxiety sometimes cause diarrhea, sometimes constipation, and sometimes both. It's interesting because it seems their underlying neurophysiology is somehow different. What are underlying physiological processes that lead to these two symptoms in anxious people? Particularly in terms of the activity of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system?

[davidivad]

http://www.gutsense.org/constipation/stress.html

 

apparently there is the effect that your emotions are responded to by the gut brain which it does not say exactly in my supporting material.

the article says it has an effect though. that's good enough for me because i experience butterflies sometimes in certain moods.

 

a second consideration is medication although i'm sure you were considering something else.

most anxiety sufferers try to get medication from a doc or self medicate. medication clearly affects the gi tract.

 

to note...

the article i found stated that first you get the runs and then you get backed up. this however in no way says that it can't be caused by separate things.

i would love to see a link on any material you may have covered on the subject.

Edited December 16, 2014 by davidivad