Why stress can make you poop more (or not make you poop at all)

If you have The intestines seem to be going on the fritz Every time a wave of stress hits you, it’s not a coincidence. Maybe a rough patch at work leaves you toilet-bound with loose, runny stools; Or on the flip side, you haven’t had a bowel movement in three days since that fight with a friend. Both stress-induced diarrhea and stress-induced constipation can be a good thing anyone– You do not have to have a diagnosable bowel disease or disorder; Megan Riehl, MDclinical director of the behavioral health program at Michigan Medicine GI and co-author of Take care of your gutsays the self.

This is due to the connection between the brain and the gut. There’s a reason you feel butterflies in your stomach: your brain and gut are talking back and forth nonstop. Kyle Staller, MD, MPHsays the director of the GI Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Your digestive tract contains many nerves, and it is an organ of the nervous system, much like the brain,” he says. “The brain can influence what happens in the digestive system, and vice versa.”

Dr. Riel points out that funky bowel movements can also be their own flavor of stress, adding to the mental chaos, threatening to spiral into a vicious cycle. Below, experts explain the reasons why feeling stressed or anxious can set off such a chain reaction in the first place and share ways to break free—or prevent irregular stress stools altogether.

How can stress cause diarrhea, constipation, or both?

A stress episode can trigger a series of physical changes that can lead to bowel problems. To start, it taps into your sympathetic nervous system (aka fight or flight) and prepares you for action by “sending blood to your large muscles, directing it away from your digestive system.” Catherine N. Tommasino, Ph.Dsays associate professor of medicine and psychiatry and co-director of the Digestive Health Behavioral Medicine Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This can disrupt the normal rhythmic contractions of your intestines, causing stool to pass more quickly or slowly,” she says. Stool flying through your system leads to diarrhea, while sluggishness also appears holding.

Meanwhile, an increase in stress hormones like cortisol can change the secretions in your intestines and throw your body off balance. Gut microbiome (the community of bacteria it contains), says Dr. Riehl, which can also alter bowel movements. All of this can mess up the crosstalk between the nerves in your gut and your brain, leading to bowel spasms. Whether you experience diarrhea or constipation depends on where the cramps occur and the location of the stool in the intestine. Ashkan Farhadi, MDdirector of the gastroenterology project at MemorialCare Medical Group in Fountain Valley, California, tells SELF.