Always feeling like I need to poop or release gas

[LunarCoffee]

I'm only 13, and in the last two weeks or so, I've begun worrying about having colon cancer because of "a change in my bowel habits," which I know might be one of the most vague descriptions, but still bothers me anyway.

Here are the changes:
- I've been pooping more often. I used to go once every other day. Now, I poop every day.
- I poop less each time, around 1/3 to 1/2 of what I used to.
- I now constantly feel a subtle but noticeable feeling that tells me I need to poop (a lot of the time I just release gas).
- When I sit down to poop, I just can't until at least a day has passed, at which point it comes out like normal (within at most 30 seconds of sitting down without any effort).

I've heard that being highly anxious about something makes you more aware of it (definitely true, I was prodding my lymph nodes waaay to much when I was worrying about lymphoma), so is this just me being way to overaware of this? Also, using common sense, it probably is, as if I poop 2x as often but around 2x less, that's still the same amount, but I just can't get myself to believe it.

Another weird thing is that I get weird rumbling sounds that seem to originate from my rectal area, and I can also feel what I assume is my food and stuff travel in my intestines sometimes (which might be normal, I just never paid attention).

So is this normal?

[ankietyjoe]

There is virtually zero chance of you having that kind of cancer at your age.

And yes, being aware of something will make it worse as there's a very strong connection between the mind and body.

The most likely culprit is some kind of digestive issue and/or IBS like problem. If you worry about things, it's often the digestive system that suffers first as the brain and stomach are so closely linked.

Is there anything you're worried about at the moment at home or school? That's often the cause of digestive issues too.

[LunarCoffee]

I was typing about how I just have some extracurricular homework and piano to fit in to the schedule now (regular school is over, though), but I accidentally hit "previous thread" instead of send. :( I have been stressing a little about it, because I still haven't practiced piano yet and it's the day of the class.

[ankietyjoe]

It's unlikely that a single incident of stress would cause digestive issues, but if your schedule is constantly busy (students in the UK are overworked far too much now imo), then that low level persistent stress can cause problems.

[LunarCoffee]

I mean, I've actually been pooping less often now. Before, it was every morning, but yesterday, I went in the afternoon. Right now, I don't really feel like I need to go. It feels like there's probably some, but not enough to just go. I'm just gonna try and follow my old poop schedule.

[LunarCoffee]

At this point, I just remembered that I had this feeling even before I first started with health anxiety. It started around 3 or 4 months ago, maybe before that, even. I've always had a thing where I'd sometimes get short cramps in the rectal area that would come every half an hour I didn't poop when I needed to. At this point, I've pretty much convinced myself I have colorectal cancer, even though it's probably not. The thing is, though, over the last year, I've been getting more and more tired, slowly.

[LunarCoffee]

Just pooped 3 times today, one time pretty dry and hard to push out, the next more wet than usual with smaller stool pieces, and the last pretty normal. The last time (just around 20 minutes ago), I saw a tiny bit of mucus on one of the stools. Because I've always had some cramps followed by the urge to poop occasionally, and generally passed more gas than everyone else, at this point cancer really isn't an option. The fatigue may or may not be getting worse, I'm not sure, but it definitely isn't bad enough to make walking a short amount exhausting. In fact, I can walk and bike fine, and the fatigue is mostly mental (though also physical sometimes, but that isn't that bad). I'm not really sure if it's mental fatigue or brain fog at this point, but I just know the feeling exists. I'm gonna try adding more of each type of fiber into my diet, and see how that turns out. At this point, I'm thinking this is IBS or IBD or colitis or something like that, probably IBS considering I match the most symptoms out of that. I actually went on to the WebMD symptom checker to validate myself, and, boom: IBS as the top result, and any type of cancer nowhere to be seen (polyps were at the bottom of the full list, but they generally aren't cancerous anyway). I don't think my parents are going to bring me to the doctor anytime soon anyways.

At this point, specifically as I type this, my biggest concern is my constantly irritated throat, which is irritated enough a few times a day to make me cough (usually voluntary). I used to get this type of thing a lot, but it went away after an hour or two. I think it was triggered by eating anything cold and/or sweet. This time, it's lasted two days already. I suppose it could be the cold or something, just really not severe, because my poop was slightly green on the toilet paper the day before yesterday and once today. Also, I've had this weird habit of rubbing my index finger on my inner lower lip, then licking it (sorry), so at this point I've probably contracted way too many diseases from that. Will try to stop doing that.

About the fatigue and brain fog... I think those are probably unrelated to the bowel symptoms (besides anxiety and that). Probably just stuff that happens with hormones during puberty, which would explain the slow-ish over the last 7 months entrance. If it does keep getting much worse, I will definitely tell my parents and hopefully get it checked out, but it's nothing I'd consider debilitating.

Some other stuff include that I will no longer be home alone during the next two weeks, I'll be going to volunteer at a camp (not sure how I'll do with my current mental state, but I'm in really good terms with the leader, so that's good) with some of my friends. I'll try to stop googling anything related to my symptoms, and make my parents the first ones to tell (probably gonna be hard, but it'll be a step forward). I'll try to just stop caring about my fogginess and bowel changes (unless they persist too long or get much worse). Of course, I can't really keep my promise here; my anxiety kinda hits me at random times with crazy theories, and I can't really think straight (but isn't that just what that is?).

In other other news, I presented a speech about mental health and how it's the most important thing to me (right now, at least), which included my personal story. This was at an extracurricular class (I also take math and debate there, it's fun, interesting, and friendly), and it made me feel pretty good.

(if you actually took the time to read all that, thanks)