How Unhealed Trauma and Anxiety Could Be Causing Your IBS

If you’ve been living with IBS and feel like you’ve tried everything—from cutting out foods to adding supplements—but nothing seems to bring lasting relief, you’re not alone. So many people with IBS spend years chasing symptoms, when in reality, the issue isn’t just in the gut—it’s in the nervous system.

If you’ve ever noticed that your symptoms flare up when you’re stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, that’s not a coincidence. It’s your body’s way of saying, “I don’t feel safe.”

Let’s talk about how unhealed trauma and anxiety can cause IBS, what’s actually happening in your body when this occurs, and—most importantly—how you can start to heal by calming and retraining your nervous system.

How Unhealed Trauma Causes IBS

When most people hear the word “trauma,” they think of major life events—accidents, abuse, loss. But trauma isn’t only about what happened to you. It’s about what happened inside you as a result.

Any experience that overwhelmed your ability to cope—emotional neglect, chronic stress, medical trauma, years of walking on eggshells—can leave an imprint on your nervous system.

When trauma goes unresolved, the body doesn’t just forget. It stays in protection mode, constantly scanning for danger. Your amygdala (the brain’s threat detector) becomes overactive, sending false alarms through your body as if danger is always near.

That constant “on edge” state keeps your body in fight or flight, flooding it with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. And while those hormones are helpful in true emergencies, they suppress the very systems that keep you healthy—like your digestion.

Because when your brain thinks you’re in danger, it’s not prioritizing breaking down lunch.

Over time, this leads to chronic tension in the gut and inflammation. The result? Bloating, cramping, constipation, food sensitivities, diarrhea, and that frustrating sense that your gut just can’t find its rhythm.

This is why trauma-related IBS is becoming more recognized in both the scientific and mind-body healing communities. Your gut isn’t malfunctioning—it’s responding to what your nervous system believes is happening.

In fact, this case study found that IBS is associated with childhood trauma, and these traumas often occur prior to onset of IBS symptoms.

The Gut-Brain Connection: Why Stress Shows Up in Your Stomach

Have you ever had “butterflies” before a big event or lost your appetite when you were nervous? That’s your gut-brain axis at work—the direct communication line between your brain and your digestive system.

The brain and gut are in constant conversation through the vagus nerve, a major part of your parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) system. When your brain feels safe, digestion flows naturally. But when your brain feels stressed, your gut tenses, slows down, or even shuts off certain processes.

For people with unresolved trauma or chronic anxiety, that stress signal gets sent far too often. The nervous system becomes hypersensitive, and the gut reacts to even small triggers as if they’re real threats.

That’s why the nervous system–gut-brain connection is so important to understand. IBS isn’t “in your head.” It’s in your body’s communication system.

When your brain’s alarm system (the limbic system - including the amygdala) stays switched on, your gut can’t function smoothly. It’s not broken—it’s just confused.

The Anxiety–IBS Loop

Here’s where things get tricky: anxiety and IBS feed each other. Picture this:

• You start with IBS symptoms—pain, bloating, urgency.

• You get anxious, worrying about when it’ll happen again...

• That anxiety triggers your stress response...

• Stress hormones fire up and digestion slows down...

• This causes your symptoms—pain, bloating, urgency— to flare once again...

And the cycle continues.

This is the anxiety–IBS connection, and it’s one of the most common patterns I see in clients. The more you focus on the symptoms, the more your brain perceives them as threats—and the stronger the gut reaction becomes.

So, to truly heal, you have to work with the root cause: a nervous system that doesn’t feel safe.

Why Traditional Treatments Often Miss the Root

If you’ve been told your IBS is “just something you have to manage,” I want to gently challenge that idea.

Most traditional approaches—like dietary changes, fiber supplements, probiotics, or medication—only focus on what’s happening in the gut, not why it’s happening.

And while those things can help temporarily, they rarely create long-term change if the underlying issue is a dysregulated nervous system.

You can follow every gut-healing protocol in the world, but if your brain still thinks you’re under threat, your body will continue to respond with stress. And your digestion will continue to suffer.

Healing IBS from a mind-body perspective isn’t about perfection or control—it’s about helping your body finally exhale.

The IBS Solution: Rewire Your Nervous System for Safety

Here’s the good news: your nervous system is not stuck this way forever. It can be retrained.

Through neuroplasticity—your brain’s ability to form new pathways—you can teach your body that it’s safe again. And when your body feels safe, digestion naturally resets.

There are two powerful ways I help clients do this:

1. Root-Cause Healing with Hypnotherapy

In private hypnotherapy sessions, we work directly with the subconscious mind, where trauma, stress, and emotional memories are stored.

In this deeply relaxed state, we can safely explore and release the emotional root of the dysregulation that keeps your system in high alert. Then, we reprogram the subconscious mind to feel grounded, calm, and safe in the present moment.

When your body starts recognizing safety again, digestion begins to rebalance on its own. You don’t have to force it—it happens naturally. Typically, this can be achieved in as little as 4-6 sessions.

Clients often notice that not only do their IBS symptoms improve, but their anxiety, fatigue, and tension ease as well. Because once the root cause is addressed, everything else begins to shift.

2. Regulation & Rewiring with The Recovery Code

For those who want to start retraining their nervous system at home, my self-paced brain training program, The Recovery Code teaches you how to rewire your limbic system and regulate your nervous system for safety and calm.

Inside the program, you’ll learn:

• The science behind how stress affects the body and digestion.

• How to identify your unique stress patterns and triggers.

• Simple daily tools to regulate your nervous system.

• Guided practices to rewire your brain from fear to safety.

These are the same tools I use with clients every day to help them calm their nervous systems and heal the gut-brain connection.

When you retrain your brain to stop sending false alarms, your body finally gets the message: “I’m safe. I can rest. I can digest.”

5 Signs Your IBS Might Be Trauma-Related

Wondering if unhealed trauma or anxiety might be contributing to your IBS? Here are a few signs to look for:

1. Your symptoms worsen when you’re stressed, overwhelmed, or emotionally triggered.

2. You’ve experienced past trauma, chronic stress, or emotional neglect.

3. You tend to feel anxious, hypervigilant, or easily startled.

4. You notice other symptoms like fatigue, pain, tension, or insomnia .

5. You’ve tried everything for your gut, but nothing creates lasting relief.

If this sounds like you, there’s a good chance your IBS isn’t just about digestion—it’s about your nervous system being stuck in survival mode.

Healing from the Inside Out

Here’s something I tell all my clients: your body isn’t working against you. It’s protecting you.

IBS, anxiety, and even fatigue are often just signals from a body that’s been in survival mode for too long. When you start working with your nervous system instead of fighting it, everything changes. You feel calmer. Your digestion starts to regulate. You sleep better. Your energy returns.

Healing isn’t about fixing what’s “wrong” with you—it’s about reminding your body that it’s safe to let go.

Start Retraining Your Brain Right Now (for free!)

IBS is not just a gut issue—it’s a mind-body communication issue. Unhealed trauma and chronic anxiety keep your nervous system stuck in overdrive, and your digestive system bears the weight of that stress.

But the incredible news is that your body can heal. You can calm the overactive amygdala, retrain your brain to feel safe again, and allow your gut to find its natural rhythm.

Interested in using your mind and body to heal IBS for good? Learn more about brain training and learn actionable steps to start healing today in my Free 3-Day Brain Training Challenge.

Over three days you'll receive short, to-the-point videos from yours truly that not only explain exactly how you heal IBS with the brain and nervous system, but also practical step to take each day that will start regulating your nervous system and rewiring your brain immediately.

Join the Free 3-Day Brain Training Challenge

Katie is a board-certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Pain Reprocessing Therapist who helps people retrain their brains, calm their nervous systems, and heal chronic pain and illness naturally. She teaches somatic techniques, guided visualization, and hypnosis to reduce stress, inflammation, and anxiety, empowering clients to step into wellness, self-compassion, and lasting healing. Explore her signature brain retraining program, The Recovery Code  to start your journey toward recovery.