Anxiety & gut issues/IBS - has anyone tackled their anxiety which then eased their gut issues?

[Handcreamqueen]

I know the 2 often go hand in hand and they feed off each other but has anyone managed to reduce their anxiety and stress levels and found their digestive issues eased or went away completely?
If so, how did you manage to ease the anxiety?

Mine are chicken and egg. I drastically altered my diet. Absolutely no caffeine, no dairy, no gluten, very low sugar (I was never interested in sweets anyway but don't have flapjack or excessive fruit), no alcohol (not a great loss for me as I didn't drink anyway). I also took up walking once I felt better about being away from a toilet . My anxiety is better and my bowels are much more predictable, with reduced anxiety because I am more confident that I can do car journeys without emergency toilet stops.
It's been worth it for me. My quality of life has improved, I've lost weight and have fewer panic attacks and the ones I do have are less severe.

GoodyHoodie I have to avoid all of those foods too, chicken and eggs upset me too. I sadly also have to avoid wheat products which I hate doing as I love bread and can not stand gf breads. I am also strictly low fodmap. Sadly, cutting out these foods hasn’t reduced my symptoms. I am now contemplating trying some anti anxiety meds.

Cutting out alcohol, and increasing exercise works for me. Exercise is good for anxiety too. Do you know what's causing the anxiety?

xyz111 I’ve only had about 10 alcoholic drinks my whole life lol but I know they give me a very bad tummy so I don’t miss drink for that reason. I do walk my dog for over an hour each day and walk very fast, any other vigorous exercise upsets my tummy for some reason.
Ive always suffered from anxiety but have been suffering a lot since my mum has had dementia but also the gut issues cause me a lot of stress and anxiety - it’s a horrible vicious cycle which I just can not break.

I was diagnosed with IBS many years ago after I had a laparoscopy where they found endometriosis hat had attached my bowel to my stomach wall. While separating they manhandled my bowel too much and triggered constant IBS. Anyway, in order to "destress" my bowel I was prescribed citalopram on a low dosage, not because I was stressed or depressed, but instead to try and calm down the IBS.
I never knew this was a thing until then but it actually worked. I still get flare ups, but it's usually stress that causes it, but being in citalopram for 6 months really did work.
Maybe this could help with your anxiety and IBS.

Inulin in my morning cuppa has really helped me. I get a huge bag of it very cheaply off Amazon. Helps me sleep at night as well.

bookwormcrazy I actually have a packet of Citalopram in my cupboard, which I never took as was scared it would make things worse. What dosage did you take? Maybe I should give them a go?
CampervanKween that’s actually one of the things I haven’t tried, thanks I will have a Google.

It was about 15 years ago but at the time it was a really low dosage, maybe 20mg... can't remember but it was low.

Thanks bookwormcrazy