Why your stomach shuts down under stress
Sunday night, before going back to work. The morning of a trip. Half an hour before a hard conversation. Many people know exactly when their stomach is going to hurt.
Bloating, cramps, gas, three trips to the bathroom, or none for days. There have been tests, sometimes several, and they came back normal; someone said "it's just a nervous stomach", and that explained very little.
What follows is what sits behind that phrase, seen from the body.
What is a nervous stomach?
"Nervous stomach" is how most people describe it. When it keeps coming back and the tests are normal, medicine often calls it irritable bowel syndrome, IBS. The gut shows no damage on the tests, but it doesn't work well: it moves too much or too little, and it hurts with stimuli that wouldn't hurt someone else.
A doctor makes that diagnosis after ruling out other causes. Some diseases look similar and need a different treatment.
Once those are ruled out, there is a question almost nobody answers. If the gut is healthy, why does it behave like this?
Why does stress go straight to the stomach?
Digestion is parasympathetic. It happens when the body is in rest mode: brake on, pulse low, saliva flowing, the gut moving calmly.
When the nervous system detects a threat, it presses the accelerator and shuts down whatever isn't urgent; blood goes to the muscles, and digestion stops or hurries to empty out. It makes sense. Nobody digests while running away.
The trouble starts when the threat doesn't end (or it ended on the outside but not on the inside), and then the gut lives in a state of emergency that nobody declared.
The gut and the brain talk both ways
The gut has its own network of neurons, so extensive that it is sometimes called the second brain, and it is connected to the brain mainly through the vagus nerve. Information goes back and forth.
That is why stress changes digestion. And the other way round: a disturbed digestion changes mood, sleep and anxiety. Head and gut are one system, and you can work with it from either end.
Over time, a gut that lives on alert becomes more sensitive. Ordinary things (a little gas, the movement after a meal) register as discomfort or pain, and that heightened sensitivity is one of the features of IBS.
Diarrhea one day, constipation the next
The nervous system has more than one way of defending itself. When the accelerator dominates, the gut tends to hurry: urgency, diarrhea, cramps. When the body runs out of energy and goes into a kind of shutdown, everything slows: constipation, heaviness, a digestion that doesn't move forward.
Many people swing from one to the other in the same week, and seen from the nervous system it adds up: it's the same body switching between two emergency strategies.
Diet helps, halfway
Cutting out irritants, eating at regular times, chewing slowly: it often helps. But if the gut keeps getting an emergency signal, even the best diet only half works.
I know this from my own body too. I had years of digestive problems: tests, bacteria, parasites, supplements that helped for a while and then stopped helping. So I don't dismiss diet. I don't stop at it either.
Signs that call for a doctor first
Before thinking about stress, some signs call for tests and shouldn't wait:
blood in the stool, or black stools
weight loss you weren't trying for
fever, or diarrhea that wakes you at night
anemia on your blood work
a change in bowel habits that started after age 50
close relatives with colon cancer, celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease
If any of these apply, your first appointment is with your doctor or a gastroenterologist.
How I work with it
As a doctor, I go over your tests, what you already take and what still needs to be ruled out. If something needs another test or a specialist, I'll tell you. Homeopathy and natural medicine are among my tools, alongside conventional medicine, never in place of a treatment you need.
Then we work with the brake. With somatic therapy, the body learns to notice when it goes into alert and to come back, without forcing it. Something familiar from my practice often shows up: the stomach rumbles, a breath goes deep. That's digestion coming back.
With Gestalt we look at what the stomach is carrying that doesn't have words yet. Sessions last 60 minutes, in person in Tepoztlán or online by video call, in English or Spanish.
When this doesn't come first
If you have any of the signs above and haven't been checked yet, this doesn't come first. The doctor comes first.
If you already have a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease or celiac disease, this work doesn't replace your treatment. It can go alongside it, in coordination with whoever manages it.
If you're looking for something to make the symptom go away this week, this probably isn't it; here we work at the root, and the root takes its time.
Not sure this is for you? Write to me first. Deciding not to book is fine too.
Frequently asked questions
Is a nervous stomach the same as IBS?
Not always. A stomach that tightens before an exam is an ordinary stress response. When it keeps coming back over months and the tests are normal, medicine often calls it irritable bowel syndrome. IBS is a problem in how the gut works and how it talks to the nervous system, not damage you can see on a test.
Is a nervous stomach all in my head?
It's physical. It also has to do with the state of your nervous system. The pain and the changes in the gut are real. Ongoing stress makes them worse because the gut depends on the nervous system's brake to work.
Do I need tests before starting?
If you have blood in your stool, weight loss you weren't trying for, fever or diarrhea that wakes you at night, yes, and before any therapy. If you've already had tests, bring the results to the first session.
Let's talk
If you recognize yourself in this, we can talk. In the first session we go over the tests you already have and work out together where to begin, at your pace.
Book a first session or message me on WhatsApp.
You may also want to read: waking up at 3 a.m.