How many times is normal to use the toilet in a day?

[phil06]

I suffer alot of anxiety over this found myself in google again last night. I posted a few times about it and many said IBS I've managed to cut two types of junk food out my diet which has meant my stools have been less like Diarrhea. I found eating one type of food would set me for 2/3 days of soft stool but now cutting those two out it seems a hard stool.

I find I go to the toilet 3 times per day sometimes more if it's in smaller bits. But I find I have anxiety each time I go to the toilet now I get so worked up and annoyed at the regular movements. I'm not sure how much they have changed, I do feel I go more but maybe it's just regular 3 movements a day or incompleteness. I get anxiety and worked up feeling incomplete cutting those two types of foods out means I go less in bits or a rush as it's more solid but instead I get more constipation. If I eat something I tend to go not long after eating it now.

But my worry is it normal and I'm worried about how I can cope with it as my anxiety gets worked up over it..does anybody else find they are awkward when out in fear of crapping myself or something? I don't fancy getting these things at the doctors where they put cameras up you either. But nobody has told me it's defo IBS but I don't have lots of blood nor have I lost alot of weight so that means there's less cause for alarm? My thinking is you only worry then?

But right now I regularly go to the toilet and don't feel right done, and when I go back it's for a small piece. Just feel I'm always in the toilet...I probably have 1 day in a week where I go zero times and another day it's only once but most days it's 2/3..the only time it was like 6 or something is when I ate that junk food that went for me a certain curry where I'd just be constant and it would just run out me.

I also wonder how much of the movements is caused by anxiety? Sometimes I get excited, nerves, panicy and it makes me feel I need. Or is it IBS or something worse? I find it hard to believe my diet alone can solve this as I've ate crap for years and I'm 22 right now..but at one stage I had maybe 3 takeaways in a week maybe more and I was in the toilet alot more so maybe my diet had worsened without noticing? I'm quite fussy with food eat alot of meats..I'm trying to vary my diet first of all..but maybe it's alot down to anxiety too?

[countrygirl]

I normally go to the toilet 3-4 times a day but if I overeat fibre then it can be up to 6 times a day. I have never every gone a full 24 hrs without a bowel movement and I can count on one hand the number of days that I have only gone once. For me anything from 2-6 times a day is normal. I also can get loads of mucus if my ibs is playing up usually after I have eaten too much grain fibre.

[phil06]

Anybody else had this?

[Groundhog]

The thing to remember is that what is normal for one person is not necessarily normal for someone else. You will find practitioners use the term ‘what’s normal for you’ when it comes to number two’s. This could be twice a day or twice a week. The only time to worry, other than the obvious blood, pains etc, is if there is a radical long term change with no clear explanation. In your instance adjusting to a diet change means you digestive system needs to settle and this could take time especially if you allow your anxiety to take over from your rational thinking.

[rubynoodles]

I have ibs and this is exactly how I am.

I go on average 2-3 times a day and always feel as though there is more left!

My bowel movements have become such an obsession that it is all I think about. I once read that there is something called the 'rome criteria' which doctors use to diagnos ibs and it says that anything from three times a day to three times a week is classed as 'normal'. So now if I go more than three times a day (especially if its all first thing in the morning) im in a complete panic that there is something wrong with me.

I dont know what makes my symptoms worse, one day i'm convinced its food based, the next anxiety, the next worry that its something much worse.

All I know is that it has completely taken over my life.