Women and people with female anatomy and/or hormones are said to suffer from chronic gut issues like IBS and Crohn’s disease more often than men This is partly physiological, but the more researchers look into these chronic conditions, the clearer it becomes that the nervous system and the gut-brain connection play a major role. Some of us have learned to swallow our emotions rather than express them. To stuff down our needs rather than insist they get met. Many of us (including me) have a history of disordered eating. It makes sense: we’re trying to digest way more than food.

For many people with IBS, especially people with childhood trauma, one of the strategies we’ve used to survive what is happening in our lives is to try to digest too much: to take on other people’s energy, to swallow our own feelings, to eat our needs and boundaries so we can get through the day.