When you’re at your breaking point emotionally, feeling physically bad is the last thing you need—but all too often, the two go hand-in-hand. Even though the pairing might seem random, stress can be accompanied by bloating (and even other GI issues), experts tell SELF, even if your diet hasn’t changed at all. Meaning: If you’re having a bad day, you may well start to notice some stomach discomfort on top of everything else.
There’s even a name for this connection, which you may have heard before: the gut-brain axis. “Our gut is like our second brain, and it’s very impacted by our nervous system,” Rebecca Ditkoff, MPH, RD, a certified intuitive-eating counselor and the owner of the New York City-based private practice Nutrition by RD, tells SELF. Your digestive system can mirror your emotional state because the two are closely linked.
While the gut-brain axis can work in your favor when you’re on top of the world, it’s not necessarily on your side in this specific scenario (as your stomach knows all too well). Here’s how stress can trigger bloating via this pathway—and what you can do to make yourself feel better in both body and mind.
Why stress can cause bloating
Your enteric nervous system, a component of the autonomic nervous system, serves the GI tract and regulates digestion, so it’s responsible for the association between the two. “We kind of exist in two [nervous system] states,” Melissa Groves Azzaro, RDN (a.k.a. the Hormone Dietitian), a practitioner who specializes in women’s health, tells SELF. First, there’s fight-or-flight (and we’ll delve into the second state, rest-and-digest, more in the next section): Some source of danger (like a pack of wolves in prehistory, or a missed deadline in 2026) triggers intense emotional distress, releasing a flood of stress hormones—cortisol, epinephrine (better known as adrenaline), and norepinephrine (or noradrenaline)—from the adrenal glands. Way back when, these physiological changes would have prepared you to either run away (flight) or stand your ground (fight).
During this physiological transition, your digestive system essentially shuts down to allow your body to prioritize escape over food breakdown, according to Azzaro. (Because in a classic fight-or-flight situation, the former would obviously be way more important than the latter). Basically, “all the blood is being pulled away from your digestive system and towards your muscles” so that you have the energy to run, Azzaro explains. Digestive muscle contractions dwindle, as does digestive secretion production.
