FREAKING OUT!!! BAD!!! HELP!!!

25 male. Suffer from anxiety. Have been doing okay... and have had control over most of it.

Today, I went to the bathroom, and finally had a nice hard stool today. My anxiety has been causing me to have soft stools latley.

Well, I looked at my stool, and it look light brown, but I noticed two little pieces that were the size of a quarter or so, and they were solid, but they were RED! And this FREAKED ME OUT SO BAD! I thought to myself automatically "THIS IS BLOOD IN MY STOOL!"

I then started to take a step back, and yesterday, I ate a little bowl of goulash for lunch, had some bread sticks with red dipping sauce for a snack, then had ravioli with lots of red sauce ontop for dinner.

Do you think it was just the tomato sauce showing up in my stool? Or was it blood? IM FREAKING OUT TERRIBLY RIGHT NOW!

My mother said "DONT WORRY! YOURE LETTING YOUR ANXIETY RULE YOU RIGHT NOW! I'm sure when you have your next stool, it will be fine!"

Just need someone to tell me what they think so I can calm down. Thank you!

[SassyLassie]

Was it a bright red? I would probably get it checked, the doctor can do a simple test to rule out real blood in the stool You could have broken a little blood vessel in the rectum from straining, since it was hard, this would cause some bleeding as well.

[cnote]

I don't think it was bright red... but it was kinda tomato red?? You don't think that it could have just been the tomato sauce?

[Paxiled]

If there's blood in the stool, it will usually show dark black.  If it's bad enough to be red, you'd probably be throwing up and feel like you had the flu from loss of blood.  You can always go to the doctor, it's painless to check, but if you're feeling fine, not feeling dizzy, weak, or something like that, then monitor it and if it goes away it's what you ate.  Happens when you eat beets, too.

[cnote]

Hey, I don't think it was blood. I think it was from the tomato sauce, I did a search on stool coloring, and one of the top things was tomato sauce.

I worried myself so bad though today, that I got a little loose stool followed by diarrhea... but it was NOT red at all.

So I am 100% convinced that it was just all that tomato sauce from yesterday.

Does anxiety cause loose stools and diarhea (diarrhea)? Is that common? I've been having it for about a week now, off and on. But I've also been having anxiety as well.

Thanks guys.

[cnote]

Just got home from work. Had diahrea again... No signs of blood... but the diarhea (diarrhea) is probably caused by anxiety. My stomach got SO nervous after my freak out earlier today. I have GOT TO STOP DOING THIS TO MYSELF!

[cnote]

Oh, and this sounds disgusting, but I took a photo of my stool from earlier today, that I thought had blood in it, and I showed it to my wife.... (not the funnest thing to do) lol.

But she said "Honey! No, that is not blood!"

[azqtpies]

I would bet it was just the tomatoe sauce since it was in a compacted area! I truly understand the fear I took had BAD anxiety! healthy anxiety ever little pain ache! I think the worst it is somoething bad lately I have made myself develope bad symptoms... my problems is I freak out sooo bad but I am too fearful of going to the doctors in fear they will tell me horrible news!

I had a similiar freak out 2 months ago when they gave me antibotic (antibiotic) for a bacterial infection and it gave me soft stools! I googled  the meds side effects and it said life threating colitis! OMG that was it I knew i must be dieing.. this stuff was gonna kill me.... it took 3 weeks to clear up and Im sure  the anxiety made it worse! ..  

How do you deal daily with your anxiety! last dr I went to just laughed at me!

[RichReligion]

I think it was the food. I went throught the same thing and me and my sis came to the conclusion that it was just bred and red juice. It scared the living hell out of me for a second.

[cnote]

Yeah, I've determined that's all it was, red tomato sause. Had a bowel movement this morning, and it was just brown.

But my bowel movements are so strange... I think its b/c of my anxiety...

Can a nervous stomach really cause strange bowel movements? Loose bowel movements. It seems like every time I eat something... my stomach starts to rumble... then a couple hours later or so I go #2. It's not diarrhea all the time or anything... just real soft stools... and they break up really really easily when i flush.

Irritable bowel syndrome possibly?

Gosh I'm so embarrassed talking about this. lol. But I have a feeling it's the anxiety... which is causing me to have a nervous stomach... and the nervous stomach is messing with my digestive tract, and making me cramp and go to the bathroom alot... which in return, my stomach/bowel movements is making me have anxiety... which in turn is starting the whole process over and over again...

its an evil cycle.

i know once i get out of this FUNK, i'll start eating like I used to again... and my bowel movements will go back to normal.

2 weeks though just sounds like a long time... but I'm sure people have had these issues longer than that...

[silverberg]

Do me a favor and read your post in this thread from top to bottom (no pun intended) I think this can really be a LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR YOU, myself and others!!

In reading this thread all you did was increase your Anxiety, I would hope others would read this thread as this is a GREAT EXAMPLE (not the stools) OF WHAT WE DO TO OURSELVES.

THIS ANXIETY YOU EXPERIENCED, WAS SOLELY BROUGHT ON BY YOURSELF and for no reason?

1) Unless you have a very severe medical condition, you have no reason to look at your stools?
2)  why the stool change because your body felt DANGER (fear) from your mind.

THe best thing you can do now is to NOT< I REPEAT NOT, send anymore (-) messages to your brain and one way to start is by, NOT looking at your stools starting now, I am NOT saying not to look at them for acouple days, lets go for a MONTH! send that message to your mind that you are in GOOD HEALTH PERIOD!

you've been around here long enough to know I am saying this to you because I care, not to put you down. take care.

[cnote]

you are right silverberg. you know me by now. im trying so hard not to think about it today. i keep having to have assurance from my mom and wife today that they positively dont think it was blood. they keep assuring me it wasnt bc it was the actual stubstance that was a tomato red... it wasnt all over... and the water didnt change color... so i am feeling alot better today about it. and have had another stool since then... and no reds. so it had to have been the tomato sauce. i will be feeling better soon. just in a funk right now... biggest symptoms right now is nervous stomach... loss of appetite... and a result of constant nervous stomach is looser stools... but thats where anxiety takes over. i worry about one thing... which leads to anxiety... anxiety leads to a nervous stomach... nervous stomach leads to no appetite... then i worry bout appetite... then nerves cause loose stools... diarhea (diarrhea) ect. then im worried about my stools and digestive system.. its a constant downward spiral... the cycle of anxiety

[silverberg]

I hope you  can really work on finding that start point of the (-) thought and say NOT THIS TIME, this may sound trivial, but doing this repeatly is a start to breaking that cycle. Honestly you will may (like me) have to do this ALL day, I did and it took allot out of me, I started to wonder, will this ever end, that was awhile back and THe benefits are GREAT!!

It really gets less and less! , keep me posted.

[cnote]

thanks for making me feel better silverberg. i know i will snap out of this. i always do. i had two hard stools today. once this morning, then once this afternoon. then all of a sudden this evening i felt the urge to go again. and i did, but it was a little bit of diarhea (diarrhea).. not a whole lot., just a bit. but... im sure its just my nervous stomach. i know that an anxious stomach can mess with you digestive track. so i can almost positively be sure that the strange bowel movements will go back to normal when i quit thinking about it so much... and the anxiety leaves.