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Understanding IBS & the Gut–Brain Connection
Clear, practical articles to help you understand IBS and other disorders of gut–brain interaction, the gut–brain connection, gut-directed hypnotherapy, anxiety and stress.
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RECENT POSTS
IBS and Anxiety: What You Do Next Can Reduce — or Reinforce — the Cycle
What you do after anxiety is triggered can either help you deal with the risk — or unintentionally keep the IBS–anxiety cycle going.
That’s the focus of Part 3 of my series on IBS and anxiety.
In Parts 1 and 2, I looked at how IBS symptoms can trigger thoughts about their consequences, and how engaging with those thoughts can develop into worrying and intensify anxiety.
This final article in the 3-part series asks a practical question:
What do you do next?
I explore four common responses:
Risk mitigation. Avoidance. Escape. Safety behaviours.
The meeting isn’t the problem…
The meeting isn’t the problem. The possibility of your gut hijacking it is.
You can lead a 60-minute meeting.
But can you trust your gut for 60 minutes?
That’s a very different question.
For many professionals with IBS, the challenge isn’t capability.
Your Gut Didn't Get the Memo
Why does your gut react before your thinking brain has caught up? In this post, I unpack the biology behind anxiety-driven IBS symptoms — from the vagus nerve's gut-to-brain "reporting line," to why a stray worry thought can end in an urgent trip to the bathroom. I also look at why treating the gut and the mind as separate problems is often where IBS management goes wrong.
IBS and anxiety: the hidden loop that keeps your symptoms stuck
The cramping starts even when you’ve eaten nothing unusual, and suddenly every bathroom between home and work feels essential.
IBS and anxiety often form a gut‑brain loop where worry triggers symptoms—and symptoms trigger more anxiety and IBS.
This cycle is learned, not permanent, and can be retrained.
In this five‑minute read, you’ll learn one practical step to start interrupting IBS‑anxiety flare‑ups.
Your Gut Has Its Own Nervous System
IBS is real. Explore how the gut’s own nervous system and the gut-brain axis help explain IBS symptoms such as pain, bloating, urgency, diarrhoea and constipation. Discover how gut-directed hypnotherapy can help reset gut-brain communication, calm digestive threat responses and rebuild trust in the body again over time, safely.
Why does work anxiety always lead to bathroom panic — and how do I break it?
If work anxiety triggers IBS urgency, cramping, or bathroom panic, your nervous system may be predicting threat. Learn how the gut–brain axis, worry, safety behaviours, coaching, and gut-directed hypnotherapy can help retrain the response.
What Is Anxiety Really? And Why Does It Matter When You Have IBS?
Most people feel anxious from time to time.
· Before a job interview.
· While waiting for test results.
· When something important is uncertain.
That kind of anxiety is normal. It is your survival system doing its job, flagging a possible risk and nudging you to pay attention.
But when you live with IBS, anxiety can become much more specific.
Flare-ups and the Survival Switch
If your IBS shows up when you need to be sharp, it can feel like your body is sabotaging you. This post unpacks what is really happening in the gut-brain axis when pressure turns into threat, and why digestion gets downgraded in survival mode.
The 4As of IBS Relief
If you’re struggling with IBS, you’re probably not “managing” it. You’re organising your life around it.
IBS is a gut–brain disorder — so progress often comes from resetting gut–brain communication, not adding more rules.
In this post I share the 4As of IBS Relief I use with clients:
Which “A” are you stuck in right now?