Psychosomatics of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

In medicine, there has been an increase in cases of hard-to-diagnose diseases that manifest without apparent reasons. Sometimes, tests show no deviations from the norm, and no pathologies are found. In such cases, doctors conclude that the disease has a psychosomatic nature. Psychosomatics suggests that diseases develop due to mental stress, including conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

Development of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Psychosomatics

IBS has become quite common. It manifests as regular bowel disorders (constipation, diarrhea, dysbiosis), uncomfortable sensations in the abdomen (colitis), and excessive gas accumulation in the intestines (flatulence).

Risk Factors for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

In treating IBS, it’s crucial to first identify the psychosomatic factors influencing the symptoms. The intestine, which leads food to its exit, represents the uninterrupted functioning of all body systems. Similarly, emotions that are held back and have no outlet affect the body. Suppressing emotions pushes feelings deeper, preventing their release. Main psychosomatic factors of IBS include negative emotions, fear, and anxiety stored inside.

Medical statistics show that IBS occurs more frequently in women than in men. This is often attributed to women being more emotional and sensitive, tending to internalize negative events. Therefore, they are more prone to intestinal diseases, even without physiological predispositions.

The Impact of Fear and Irritation on the Intestines

Fears of failure, obsessive thoughts about negative future scenarios, and fear of financial insecurity make a person feel vulnerable and threatened. Such perceptions of life lead to intestinal rebellion: emotions impact the body, resulting in symptoms of IBS.

In people with IBS who are constantly irritable, the hormone norepinephrine is released, affecting the intestinal walls and causing flatulence and diarrhea.

Depression often leads to fears, triggering adrenaline release, which constricts blood vessels. Poor circulation can cause dysbiosis – bifidobacteria no longer receive proper nutrition, stop reproducing, and pathogens increase. Dysbiosis leads to bowel disorders.

The Impact of Stress on Intestinal and Stomach Functionality

Hans Selye, a French physiologist, developed the stress theory after analyzing patients’ conditions. Laboratory experiments established a cause-and-effect mechanism of stress and gastrointestinal tract issues. Each person reacts differently to stressful situations. Inadequate body responses can lead to psychosomatic reactions. Emotional stress from suppressed emotions and feelings of hopelessness affects the entire gastrointestinal tract.

Stress can be intense, but people gradually emerge from it. Afterwards, the body needs substantial rest to recover. However, people often neglect this, continuing their usual life without change. Coping with stress effectively requires support from close ones and a warm, trusting environment.

Like the intestines, the stomach is also affected by stress. When facing problems, human glands produce stress hormones, filling the heart with blood and preparing for a fight. The stomach, intestines, and the entire digestive system halt their functions, stopping food digestion for self-preservation. A common stomach condition resulting from frequent stress is gastritis.

Childhood Stress as a Cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Valery Vladimirovich Sinelnikov, a therapist, homeopath, psychotherapist, and author of several discoveries revealing the psychosomatics of diseases, asserts that IBS indicates immaturity, low self-esteem, and insecurity in one’s decisions. These traits stem from childhood when a person experienced significant pressure and humiliation, forced to do what their parents wanted, not what they themselves desired. This psychological trauma impacts further personality development. Such individuals cannot muster the courage to be themselves, and due to the lack of affection from parents in childhood, they become dependent on others. These psychosomatic factors lead to intestinal diseases.

Nervous Disorders and Their Connection with Diarrhea

Diarrhea and colitis are closely related to frequent anxiety and intense experiences, worry about changing usual routines, and the pressure of unresolved problems. People subjected to such states often have “bear disease,” characterized by acute diarrhea, at least three times a day, accompanied by pain and discomfort in the abdomen, subsiding after bowel movement.

The basis of nervous diarrhea is the change in neurohumoral regulation of the intestinal functional state. During anxiety, the body actively produces hormones that not only speed up the nervous system but can also alter digestion processes and cause stomach upset during stress. Hormones known to stimulate intestinal motor function, causing diarrhea, include:

• Gastrin
• Motilin
• Cholecystokinin.

How to Get Rid of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Normal gastrointestinal functionality symbolizes the ability to overcome hardships, boldly move through life, timely rid oneself of outdated ideas and everything that has lost relevance. Psychosomatics links the healing methods of IBS with the treatment of its main functions:

• Absorption (small intestine)
• Elimination (large intestine) If digestion processes are normalized and psycho-emotional problems are resolved, recovery is inevitable.

Identifying Psychosomatic Causes

Initially, a medical examination is necessary. It’s important to follow the doctor’s recommendations, but remember that IBS treatment won’t be effective without addressing emotional issues. Internal struggles with feelings are required. Think and write down what specifically causes fear and anxiety, showing symptoms of IBS on a nervous basis. What will happen if the fears come true, and can you influence it? Often, it’s impossible to affect the situation, and the best option would be not to worry about the negative scenario. However, anxiety usually prevails until constipation starts.

Detoxification and Reboot

Simultaneously, while identifying the causes of the disease progressing on a nervous basis, it’s essential to detoxify from the toxins accumulated due to improper digestion and chronic inflammation in the intestinal wall, plus reboot the microflora. All this effectively prepares the ground for specialized anti-stress support of the nervous system.

Lise Bourbeau’s Method

The name of the well-known writer and qualified psychoanalyst Lise Bourbeau is quite authoritative in medicine. The main idea of her methodology is to listen to the signals of your body and accordingly change your worldviews and habits, leading to healing from ailments. Diseases, conflict situations, fears, various experiences, and anxieties are formed through the prism of individual world perception. People often mistakenly assess the situation because they have an incorrect understanding of themselves and the world, do not comprehend what’s happening around, refuse any responsibility for their lives, build relationships incorrectly, and do not love or respect anyone, including themselves.

IBS on a nervous basis, according to Lise Bourbeau, speaks of emotional blockage: if the disease occurs in the small intestine, it means that the person cannot benefit from each lived day and absorb useful information. There’s a fixation on details when a more global view of the situation is needed. Because of some trivial, unsatisfactory detail, the person refuses to accept what’s happening.

Problems with the large intestine arise in a person unwilling to let go of old ideas or beliefs that are no longer needed (constipation), or who too quickly discards useful ideas (diarrhea). The person does not “digest” the influx of information. Being very irritable, such individuals fail to see the positive sides of the situation.

Intestinal problems indicate that a person should learn to nourish themselves with positive information, not waste energy on fears and doubts. People should not fear poverty. It’s essential to live with the belief that a part of God lives in everyone, that the Universe cares for everyone without exception. Letting go of everything old frees up space for the new.

Lise Bourbeau is confident that it’s necessary to accept that everyone is responsible for their life, and by bravely going through all difficulties, working on their mistakes, they become stronger. Only perseverance and determination will lead to happiness and health.

It can be confidently said that in many, IBS on a nervous basis may go away on its own after analyzing one’s psychological state and replacing negative thinking with positive. However, it’s not advisable to refuse treatment prescribed by a doctor, as professional help and comprehensive treatment are often necessary.