How to stop morning urgency

[WorriedOlive]

Hi,

I have IBS-D and really want to get rid of this urgency in the morning. It’s something to do with the process of waking up, because if I wake up the once and go that’ll be it, if I wake up and go and then go back to sleep, it’ll happen the second time I wake up and so on. Basically within about 1 minute of opening my eyes my bowels suddenly urgently need to go, they will go all crampy, and I’ll have a loose Bowel movement. Then I feel fine for the rest of the day unless I eat breakfast too early or drink caffeine or eat something really rich.

Annoyingly this always happens at the exact same time 5:45am which I know isn’t exactly mega early but I would prefer to sleep until my alarm at 6:30.

I am a very anxious person with health anxiety, so every morning when this happens I get this nagging BC worry, is this the norm with IBS?

Does anyone have any remedies that could help?

[NoraB]

My IBS is predominantly constipation but when my anxiety ramps up - it goes the other way, and like you I am waking up and needing to go, but that's it for the day. Hasn't always been this way - other times I have gone a few times a day. To be honest, waking up and needing a poo used to be norm for me - going back many years. I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep because I would have that 'ya need to go poo' feeling, You know?

P.S your body will react more sensitively to the release of cortisol (this happens naturally and to everybody) but with non-anxious people, it's a gradual process over a few hours. With the sensitised system - it can be, you wake up and you're in dire need of a poo'.

Aint IBS fun?

[Librella]

Gosh, I wish I knew. This is one ibs symptom I haven’t been able to shake. It’s more about urgency than the type of bm—I get the urge to go immediately even if I’m a little constipated, which is annoying because then I just have an incomplete feeling all day.
It got worse after my food poisoning incident and I was scared at first it meant I had ibd or bc too, because ibs “isn’t supposed to wake you up” but I’ve had all the tests.
I do think it might have something to do with anxiety and basically waking up in flight or fight mode. Someone told me to meditate and say some mantras before I sit up and try to resist the urge...but that doesn’t really work for me so far lol.

[NoraB]

because ibs “isn’t supposed to wake you up” but I’ve had all the tests.

Certainly not the case with me, and I've had the tests too!

Someone told me to meditate and say some mantras before I sit up and try to resist the urge...but that doesn’t really work for me so far lol.

But then, it's not healthy to hold poo in as your body is holding onto toxins (I'm currently into Ayurveda lol) but it is true, and that's why constipation is such an issue. When I think back to when my bowels worked normally - it was the norm for me to wake up and poo (getting outta bad, obvs). It was also the norm for me to want to 'go' every time I went up into the loft. (still haven't worked that one out) and I've been going every morning for a week - then I got a migraine and had to take codeine (only thing that works) and this morning my bowels are having a massive kip.