Diarrhea is a bowel disorder characterized by frequent urges to evacuate and multiple (more than 3 times a day) liquid stools. It’s important to remember that diarrhea is a symptom of many intestinal diseases. However, it has been noted that diarrhea can also have a psychogenic origin.
Symptoms of diarrhea on a nervous basis include:
- Abdominal bloating,
- Gas formation,
- Rumbling and abdominal pain,
- Bowel movements up to 9 times a day,
- False urges to evacuate,
- Urges during or immediately after eating,
- Pain in the lateral areas of the abdomen and below the navel,
- Possible nausea,
- Headaches,
- Weakness, etc.
Causes of nervous diarrhea can be identified as follows:
- Genetic predisposition,
- Improper nutrition,
- Stress or strong psycho-emotional experiences,
- Premenstrual syndrome in women,
- Some mental disorders (neurosis, psychosis, panic attacks, depression, phobias, etc.).
It is known that stressful situations negatively affect the brain and nervous system. Therefore, during stress and emotional strain, the nervous system sends distorted signals to organs. Such signals reach the intestinal walls, leading to their intensified contraction. The movement of the intestinal contents accelerates, causing spasms and abdominal pain.
Adrenaline, the stress hormone, also affects the appearance of abdominal pain, as it provokes spasms in muscles (including abdominal muscles).
Typically, diarrhea on a nervous basis does not last longer than 1 day (rarely 2-3 days) and goes away after the stressful situation ends, without causing harm to the body.
However, if stress continues for a long time, the accompanying nervous diarrhea can lead to dangerous complications: dehydration, chronic diarrhea, body exhaustion, etc.
Psychosomatics of Diarrhea on a Nervous Basis
Understanding the psychosomatics of this ailment helps us turn to the functions of the affected organ – the intestine. Physically, the intestine digests food and assimilates nutrients. On the non-physical plane, it “digests” informational “food” coming to a person from the surrounding world. In other words, this organ helps assimilate new knowledge and ideas (nutrients for the mind and soul) and discard unnecessary, outdated (mental and emotional waste).
Thus, diarrhea occurs when a person fails (or does not want) to “digest” and “assimilate” useful lessons in the form of ideas, emotions, etc., immediately rejecting them (urges to evacuate during or after eating) as unnecessary.
Psychological Causes of Diarrhea from Nerves
Louise Hay attributes the causes of diarrhea to negative emotions such as fear, denial, and escaping from life. Lise Bourbeau explains the essence of diarrhea as the body rejecting food before properly assimilating it. She translates this into psychosomatics: a person hastily rejects what could be beneficial for them. Such a person finds it difficult to assimilate what is happening because they see no sense in it. Bourbeau writes that this deprives them of life’s joys and gratitude.
According to Bourbeau, a person suffering from nervous diarrhea often feels rejected and guilty more than grateful. Such a person fears not having something or doing something poorly, too little, or too much. She notes that patients with this ailment are usually hypersensitive, which turns harmful for them. At the slightest fear, they reject the situation instead of experiencing it and gaining useful experience.
Bourbeau emphasizes that diarrhea indicates that a person does not value themselves enough, thinking they do not deserve good things. Reiki experts Bodo Baginski and Sharamon Shalila assert that the basis of diarrhea lies in problems related to fear. The desire to free oneself from something (experiences, impressions), rather than accepting and processing, predominates.
V. Sinelnikov sees the causes of nervous diarrhea as strong fear and anxiety. Such people live with a sense of the unreliability of this world. They are not ready to accept events due to fear (hence the so-called bear’s disease, or emergency syndrome).
O.G. Torsunov believes that the basis of nervous diarrhea includes negative qualities such as fussiness, weakness, cold attitude towards people, fear, a sense of injustice, sloppiness, indiscriminateness in everything, including food.
Luule Viilma writes that despair related to the acute desire to immediately get rid of all unpleasant matters, as well as the desire to be strong and demonstrate one’s strength, leads to this ailment.
Paths to Healing Diarrhea on a Nervous Basis
To identify paths to healing psychosomatic ailments, it often helps to analyze the content of their psychological causes. In our case, the essence of the psychological causes of diarrhea on a nervous basis boils down to the fact that a person does not want to experience and assimilate the invaluable experience offered by Life (in the form of ideas, emotions, situations, experiences, actions, etc.). They reject this life experience, not understanding that it is all given for their development, growth (moral, intellectual, psycho-emotional).
Hence, healing nervous diarrhea can only occur after a person realizes the incorrectness of their chosen life stance. Understanding that running away from difficulties only worsens the situation, a person will want to change their behavioral tactics. Then, their body will not have to invent a signal in the form of diarrhea.
Of course, each of us tries to avoid tense situations in life. But it is precisely such situations that temper us. For example, consider such a common cause of the ailment as fear (before an exam, an important event, etc.). Yes, it is an unpleasant feeling. But it also has the purpose of our improvement: through it, we learn to keep ourselves in check, i.e., control our thoughts and emotions (which is very important for the development of a Rational Human).
Thus, everything we go through in Life (all these stresses, exciting events, difficulties) aims at our own Development. This way, we learn to react sensibly, act wisely, live by discovering something new in every moment of Life that enriches our inner world.
But only if we accept and assimilate all this wealth of life’s colors.
Enjoy every moment of Life and stay healthy!
Lada
