Anxiety Diarrhea: What Causes It and How to Cure It

gpointstudio/Shutterstock

If you’ve ever received distressing news and needed to rush to the bathroom, you know that feeling anxious or nervous can have a direct effect on your digestive system.

​​Key Takeaways

• Diarrhea and other stomach upsets are common symptoms of anxiety.
• Communication between the brain and the gut, and vice versa, is key to how we respond to anxiety.
• The health of your microbiome can affect this gut-brain communication.
• Improving the health of your gut microbiota by avoiding foods you’re sensitive to and supplementing with probiotics may lower your anxiety response.
• The herbal antimicrobial berberine may also help gut issues and anxiety.
• You might also consider cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other anxiety-reducing therapies like yoga and meditation.

Anxiety diarrhea is a delicate topic, but definitely worth addressing, as there are some relatively simple steps you can take to make things better.

First, let’s have a look at what’s going on when your emotional state affects your bowels. There’s increasing evidence of a direct link between your gut and brain, and that addressing gut health is a great way to deal with anxiety symptoms. We’ll investigate this link and discover some ways to address both digestive issues and underlying anxiety.

What Causes Anxiety Diarrhea?

Though it’s not entirely certain why acute anxiety prompts a sudden need to poop, one theory is that it’s the result of a heightened reaction to fight-or-flight response hormones (such as adrenaline) produced when we feel under sudden threat [1, 2].