Constipation - My Story
From someone who has gone from a lifetime of constipation, bloating, pain and IBS to regular and beautiful bowel habits I think I can safely say I know what I am talking about in this realm. I have had constipation ever since I was born up until a few years ago and managed to add anxious diarrhoea into the mix about 4 years ago.
The symptoms that come from IBS such as haemorrhoids, a stretched rectum (I still very rarely need to internally splint with my thumb at the posterior wall of my vagina) and anus which make it hard to distinguish between gas and liquid. Multiple public accidents really added to the need to “sort my shit out” (don’t pardon the pun). I also have some extra tissue around my perineum from the stretch and haemorrhoids which makes wiping more challenging...
I had no help from my doctor apart from an unnecessary appendectomy, a diagnosis and some chat about being a medical mystery.
What I have learned over time and through lots of experimenting is that YES you can change your diet, you can drink all the water in the world. You can move more and massage your belly (trust me when I say I have done it all) and I can help you with this to get things moving in the short term, but it’s not likely to be a long term solution.
Often things like carefully watching your diet or measuring how much water you are consuming in order to maintain healthy bowel habits can actually perpetuate the cycle and make things worse as it becomes an additional stressor in our lives.
Your bowels don’t actually “give a shit” about this stuff (again don’t pardon the pun). What your bowels care about is safety. For whatever reason you think you are experiencing reduced bowel movements, it always comes down to one thing; safety.
Are you in parasympathetic nervous system (rest/digest/restore/regenerate) or sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze/fawn)?
Your bowels care whether you are safe enough to slow down and stop to have a poo. Which many of us aren’t or can’t give enough time to in our busy modern lives. And when it doesn’t happen we think there’s something wrong with the body! Because it is confusing; why in all this perceived safety would my body be responding this way? And so of course we assume our body is wrong or broken.
Even now, after of years of regular bowel movements my constipation and haemorrhoids returned during what clearly was a really stressful time for me. I was travelling, which historically always made things worse. But because I know this about myself, and also the fact that it wasn’t “normal” for me now - I just let it be and gave myself space for it. This is what we do in a session, we work through some helpful techniques to down-regulate the nervous system and find space together to let it be.
There are some specific things that will slow your bowels down, such as strong iron supplements and some pain medications like codeine or co-codamol. So if you’re struggling with constipation and are taking regular meds check there first. But if you’re struggling with your bowels, book a session and we can help you get you moving. Diagnoses like constipation and IBS aren’t the end.
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