Panic symptoms before bowel movement

I have this too. I am 44 and female. For me it started about 4-5 years ago? maybe less. I have the same feeling of "doom" that doesn't go away until I have gone to the bathroom. I thought I was a weirdo and the only one who suffered from this weird issue.

I am a 33 year old male having the exact same issue. I'll often wake my wife up and have her stay awake with me to help calm me down. it's a strange thing. I'll be laying in bed and feeling fine, and asleep. I wake up around 2 or 3am, feeling a little anxious and suddenly notice my arms and/or legs feel a little tingly (from lying a weird way - which is normal) and my mind will wander if I'm having a heart attack or something. Sometimes ill feel some paristalsis (movement in bowels) and then, BOOM! - all at once I feel a sinking, scary feeling of impending doom in my gut. My heart rate sky rockets to between 120 and 160bpm as if I've been jogging for 10 min... it's so weird and scary. Then I'll try every mother bleeping mental trick, deep breathing, stretching under the sun but it never helps. I usually feel like I'm going to pass out and my arms and legs go numb and tingly. I'll usually feel a strong urge to poop at this point, all while apologizing to my wife who is half-asleep at how pathetic I feel. It's extremely scary and basically just feels like I'm dying. I'll have a bowel movement (poop) while trying not to pass out. once I'm done I'll usually start to feel a little better. One thing I've found is helpful, so far is I'll run some hot water over my hands while I'm on the toilet. My bathroom is tiny and I can reach the sink. something about the warm water is calming. I don't have a solution now but I'll post here again if I find one. At least we can all think of eachother while we are pooping right? 🤣

good luck out there!

Glad I found this post, it has been driving me mad and I just cannot describe the symptoms to anyone. I am perimenopausal and it has coincided with that. I have been thinking that it is hormonal and vagus nerve related but the doctors just look at me like I am mad! Reading this has made me feel better and not so panicky about it. I get the feeling in my chest, it's like every single nerve ending is activated and I just need to run away from myself, have a BM and it passes for a while, sometimes days but it is always just as scary when it comes back. Any advice is very welcome.

Hey all - I don't get them very often - but every now and again I wake up in the middle of the night with the exact same symptoms as some of you describe, impending sense of doom, fear, sadness, waves of panic, just horrible - occasionally I've brought myself to tears... Then, I sit down on the toilet - have a bowel movement... And everything, every single fibre of my being, calms down. It's almost soothing. I don't think the anxious feelings are triggering the movement (I know what that feels like), it's almost the other way around, like the movement/gut itself is causing the anxious feelings. Is this possible? It's a relief to read that others experience similar symptoms. I'm male, 48.

Glad I found this post because I experience this panic feedback loop with anxiety and my bowels... but over the last couple years it definitely seems as though it gets worse the days leading up to my period. It has been awful but it feels better knowing we are not alone.

This started happening to me about 9 months ago. I'm 30. i have extremely severe panic symptoms and the only thing that relieves them is going number 2. I thought it was relates to birth control so i stopped taking it and for a few months it stopped but then started again. i have monitored my heart rate with my apple watch and its usually high and erratic beforehand. I've been waken out of deep sleep from this. I've visited the ER when its happening and they couldn't find anything wrong. its so frustrating

I've been coping a fair bit better since adapting my sleeping position but still not out of the woods yet. No further issues with panic attacks on the toilet, although I still get extreme bloating when I excercise or shower, seems to be caused by physical/heat stress.

Latest theory is that I have an umbilical hernia, as after sleeping on my back for several months I continue to have a gnawing pain just north of my belly button, I also have a slight bulge there. My GP told me that even though I have had full abdominal scans, the radiologists would not have been looking at my abdominal wall throughout all of the Ultrasounds and CTs which I've had previously, which is why it could have gone undetected. Even though I have pointed the bulge out on multiple occasions already. I didn't actually realise you could get a hernia that high up on your abdomen which is why I didn't pursue it.

They've done another ultrasound already and said it's not a full hernia it's just a gap in my abdominals, so it's not clear yet if there's anything that can be done about it, or if it's truly causing the issues.

My symptoms seem to have changed and I have an issue now with continuous belching which as well as being unpleasant to be around, is making me feel pretty bad. It's also odd that I can suddenly belch again as while I was sleeping on my front it's one of the issues I had, I couldn't belch at all. Also, my vision seems to be affected when I'm having the bad episodes. I have another physical symptom which might possibly be related to the hernia or a perforation which has a rather grim prognosis.

NHS is in shambles in the UK so I've had to go private to speak to a surgeon. Still waiting to speak to him at the moment.