Why do anxious feelings create the need to go to toilet frequently?

Anxiety often causes discomfort in the mind and the body. Therefore, the anxious feelings affect your body, and alot of the time that can be your stomach, which often causes more toilet use. However this does help as it is a sense of letting go.

There is actually something I learned recently. When people are in the sympathetic nervous system mode (fight or flight), their blood flow leaves the digestive/GI system (to go to your limbs as if you'll run away), which causes stomach issues.

Is it something you ate? I get like that when something I eat doesn't go well with my body and it rejects it.

Anxiety triggers the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands located atop your kidneys. Your body's response to adrenaline causes your body to produce blood sugar from fat stores and direct your blood away from your core into your skeletal muscles in preparation to make a quick getaway. While your blood is being directed toward your skeletal muscles, it is also being directed away from your vital organs. For this reason some people begin to feel nauseous, and have difficulty breathing. In more acute responses it can cause people and animals to lose continence. People who experience chronic anxiety will likely experience frequent diarrhea from incomplete digestion as well, which will also contribute to the sudden urge to void their bowels.

They are several hyphotesis: The first one is that when we are anxious, the nervous system operates at a higher level of sensitivity, which could cause the bladder to activate the mechanisms even if it is not completely full. In addition, the adrenaline generated by the stress situation could activate the mechanism to give relief to the body. Another possibility is that, in a state of anxiety, many of the muscles of the body become tense, and among them could be those of the bladder. That's what I've listen and read. I'm not sure if that's the real reason.

It has to do with the fact that our body is preparing for a dangerous situation, and it wants to make sure we have all the attention necessary to deal with it without distractions. If you notice, it generally happens up until the point you have to deal with the "dangerous thing." For example, if you are nervous about an exam, you'll go to the bathroom for a few hours before and then once the time comes, you can sit through the exam quite normally. Basically, it's the body emptying itself out so that you can give your all to the upsetting situation. Imagine having to fight a tiger and all of a sudden you have to pee ;)

Anxiety involves the activation of the fight-or-flight response. This is an ancient mechanism that brains have developed to get us out of dodge as quickly and efficiently as possible. If something makes us afraid, we better get out of there or be prepared to fight that thing. Part of fight-or-flight is that we can't be "wasting" any energy on digesting food, or holding urine in the body. Our has to be dedicated to our muscles and limbs. So, for the same reason fear causes people to soil themselves or throw up, anxiety creates the urge to go to the toilet.

I actually have Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, in part because of anxiety. Most people don't realize how tense their body is, and all muscles in the body are connected. When people get very anxious their whole body is often subconsciously tense. Bladder and bowel muscles can involuntarily contract. Of course, nausea doesn't help. Progression muscle relaxation is one of the best methods for relaxing your entire body. Keeping your physical body relaxed will help keep you from going to the bathroom all day long. Often just taking some deep breaths and relaxing your muscles when you get the urge to go to the bathroom helps.

I researched it. Do you feel as though you have to urinate more frequently than usual? Do you feel you need to urinate even though you just urinated? Anxiety can cause frequent urination. Behaving in an apprehensive manner activates the stress response, which sends out stress hormones into the bloodstream and bring out physiological, psychological, and emotional changes to ensure the body can deal with a threat. Kinda like flight or fight. A part of the stress response changes includes causing the body to eliminate waste as quickly as possible (so you don’t bave to stop and do it while you’re either fighting or fleeing). Therefore, many people feel the urge to go to the toilet when they wr stressed or anxious.

Behaving in an apprehensive manner activates the stress response. The stress response secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream where they travel to targeted spots in the body to bring about specific physiological, psychological, and emotional changes that enhance the body’s ability to deal with a threat - to either fight with or flee from it - which is the reason the stress response is often referred to as the fight or flight response. A part of the stress response changes include causing the body to eliminate waste as quickly as possible (so that you don’t have to stop and do that when either fighting or fleeing)