Strange bowel symptoms (but also health anxiety)

[healthanxietysback]

Hi everyone,

Apologies if this is TMI. For the past two-ish weeks, I've had strange bowel movements, sometimes very soft/diarrhoea-like but sometimes a little bit constipated. I've had problems with constipation previously, linked to stress. I also feel quite bloaty, like I've got a fat tummy, but I can hold it in, if that makes sense. A few weeks ago, I had a really flat tummy all the time, so this has come on quite quickly.

I'm on holiday at the moment (this started just before) and my diet hasn't been the best. Quite a lot of bread, cheese, beer, and I've not been getting all of the 'roughage' I'd get from my normal diet at home.

I'm really worried that it's something serious. I do suffer with health anxiety and my DP is feeling a bit fed up with my worrying. At Christmas, I thought I had MS and had an MRI which came back fine. Before that, I was worried I had bowel cancer because I had constipation for a week or so.

I also have the Mirena coil (have done for over 3 years), and have had bloating in previous months. I wonder if it might be related to my cycle, as I have a couple of spots on the left lower part of my face, near my mouth, and my nipples feel slightly sore to the touch, which is normally a sign.

Can anyone advise me what to do? I've seen the list of symptoms for ovarian cancer, so I'm really panicky about that, but equally, I'm only 26 and the poo symptoms have come on quite suddenly. And as I say, I do have a history of panicking about my health and any symptoms I detect.

Sorry for the long post but thank you if you read this.

You don't need advice on your current set of symptoms. You're fine - or it's something and nothing - and the rational side of your brain knows this. Therefore it's not helpful for people to share their experience of these issues with you. It just feeds the HA

What help have you sought for HA? That's the real issue here and the one that needs tackling because you know as well as I do that you'll be on to another fatal disease next!

I understand how you feel and HA sucks but the key is to trying to tackle it

Yes it’s the health anxiety you need to address.

Sorry to hear you’ve been worried.
I’m just going to ask whether you’ve got problems with your periods, eg excessive pain. If you do then I wonder whether endometriosis would ring any bells with you. The stomach bloat, bowel problems could be symptoms, also anxiety is a big endo symptom. In more severe cases it can also cause symptoms like pain when walking and numbness.
It affects 1 in 10 and many women get diagnosed very late (took me over 20 years and I was severely affected and also had huge health anxiety due to not being listen to for so long).
I hope you feel better soon. Best of luck.

There's a good book called 'overcoming health anxiety'. It explains why you end up feeling more anxious when you attempt to reassure yourself by googling symptoms etc, and how to wean yourself off this behaviour. As an aside, bowel symptoms are very often linked to anxiety. It really is that that you need to address OP

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your replies. I think you're right that it's the HA I need to focus on. @CharlOtteSometime, you're completely right about 'developing' one condition after another. I think that's what's so draining for DP, it seems constant.

@meanameicallmyself20 I don't get periods as such with the Mirena, just very light ones every so often, but I do seem to still have PMS, which is nice! But thank you for suggesting it. I hope you feel better now that you have a diagnosis 💐

@AHF1975, I've just downloaded the Kindle preview of the book this morning. It's really spooky seeing what happens in my head written down on a page! Thank you for the recommendation. I'm going to download the rest of it too, I think.

I suffer from health anxiety, the thing that helps me now after years of having it is thinking about all the times I thought I had various diseases but it turned out to be absolutely nothing. Now when I get symptoms that I google and it tells me I have cancer I think about the last time I was conceived I had cancer but actually I didn't, so this makes me feel better now!