Could I be unaware that stress is worsening my irritable bowel symptoms?

When it comes to stress related to symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the stress response may be activated without any conscious awareness of feeling stressed. We call this "the crouching tiger in the mind" -- when your stress response is activated but you don't feel stressed. The triggers/stressors of the stress response are not necessarily perceived or realized.

The physical expression of the stress response -- for example, the symptoms of IBS -- are not necessarily accompanied by a mental awareness of anxiety, fear or stress. So you can have the abdominal pain and bowel function disturbances of IBS without feeling nervous or stressed. Furthermore, psychological tests for anxiety may be normal despite activation of the emotional motor system within the brain neuromatrix (the orchestration of the MindBodySpirit connection by way of its connection with the chemical messenger system (CMS) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

In other words, you would not necessarily be found to have "abnormal" anxiety or fear were you to be evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist or to take a psychological test.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.