Peeing a lot in the morning and diarrhea!!

[blondielady]

About 2 months ago I started feeling anxious. I started having trouble sleeping and decided I would try to go to bed earlier and make sure I was getting a full 8 hours every night because I had only been getting like 6 hours. Once I started going to bed earlier, I found that I'd wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble going back to sleep. Then what started happening is I would get about 6 hours, then wake up and have loose stool. I'd still be tired and want to go back to bed and sleep. Then anxiety got worse and I'd be unable to go back to sleep after waking up to go to the bathroom and I'd just lay in bed feeling weird, like almost with vertigo and just an all over bad feeling in my body. I noticed every morning I would have to pee several times, although the rest of the day was normal and I wouldn't have to go for hours. I went to the doctor to get blood tests done and she said everything came back fine. She said I had anxiety pretty bad and wanted me on antidepressants. I don't like pills so instead I went to counseling, which helped a bit until one session I started feeling claustrophobic. I wound up leaving the session (which was first thing in the morning) to go use the restroom. After that I was ok.

Gradually I started to feel a bit better and was able to start sleeping a little better and wake up later without being awakened having to go to the bathroom. Then as Christmas drew near, I felt a bit more anxious. Still, I was more active and feeling better than a month prior. I even went through a bout of influenza, yet overall my spirits were better. Then I had a bout of tachycardia where my heart rate was sustained at like 170 BPM. I was diagnosed with AVNRT a few years ago and have had these issues off and on for 20 years. They are still very unpleasant, even though I know I'm not going to die from them. I wound up having to stay at the hospital for 5 hours because they said my potassium was 2.5 (normal 3.5-5) and they had to give me this super slow potassium IV. I was sent home with potassium pills, which I've been taking. Now I'm having those same problems again of having to pee multiple times in the morning and waking up early with diarrhea. I started googling and have convinced myself I have some horrible kidney problem. I know that if I did have a kidney problem there would have been more wrong with my labs than just low potassium. However, I don't know what else would have caused it!

Yesterday was also a family christmas party which always sends my anxiety into overdrive. So right now my logical brain is telling me this is the potassium pills doing their normal side effect of stomach issues and diarrhea, but my panic brain says I have kidney disease or Chrons or diverticulitis or something :(

[Katki]

I am going through something similar.

Rest assured it is not your kidney, I have had a kidney infection and i KNEW about it. I was in agony. I was rolling around in pain and I definitely was not online writing about it! It would also show up in your urine sample.

Any medication you take can potentially upset your stomach - I have just finished a 7 day course of trimethoprim and it gave me D like clockwork at 8:30am every morning as well as a very disturbed sleep.

I also think I have Crohns and have previously been misdiagnosed with diverticulitis - I don't have it though, upon closer inspection. I don't know how old you are but apparently it's unlikely in younger women who have no history of stomach illness.

It's just your body being regular, which is actually a good thing. Even though it's loose stool, that's probably just your anxiety causing a little bit of IBS. Don't worry it sounds like you're fine. Vertigo is also a symptom of anxiety, as is feeling generally horrible, I wish I could give myself all this advice I'm writing!! x

[Elle-Kay]

Our bodies increase peristalsis when anxious, to try to help us - anxiety & panic are natural reactions to perceived danger, and if we empty our bowels we can either run from external danger more effectively, or rid ourselves of internal danger. In situations where there is no actual danger we just end up with anxiety + loose bowel movements. It's nothing to worry about - your body is just trying to help you, but has misinterpreted whether the 'threat' is real or imagined.