Hi, I'm a 22 year old female with high levels of anxiety about health, life, and pretty much everything.
Recently I've been having anxiety over what appears to be red in my stool. I don't know if it's food or what, but it's causing me to panic every which way and Dr. Google isn't helping. It kind of looked like flecks and it only seemed to be really noticeable after wiping. I'm also experiencing some irritation with my anus, so it's led me to be a bit worried.
Some background though, I experienced this today, and yesterday I had pizza and a taco with a few tomatoes in it, as well as being constipated and straining recently due to stress from a large assignment over the weekend, to which I even had a panic attack over at work which was embarrassing. I've also had stomach/bowel problems ever since I was a child, according to my mom, and pretty much everyone in my family is either A. Allergic to dairy, eggs, gluten, and B. Have some form of IBS (which I also probably have because I get stomach problems depending on what I eat,, not to mention anxiety causes issues.) I have no family history of cancer, save for my grandfather getting Leukemia in his late 70s. The females in my family also have a history of having some type of reproductive problems, my sister PCOS, my mom has a "fluffy uterus," a few of my cousins have endometriosis. Heck, I probably have some problems but I just haven't been formally diagnosed and it's usually solved with my BC pills. (Note: My dad also died from a weird heart mutation that gave him congestive heart failure, which I have been tested for and do not have, as well as most of my mom's side having diabetes. But that's a story for another day.)
I could be panicking for no reason, but there's this underlying fear and it's causing problems with focusing in school, work, or other life activities, as well as causing depression which I'm prone to.
I've seen this type of thing before, too, but I feel like I can always trace it back to something red I ate the day before.
I'm also seeing a new doctor next week, and I feel like I should tell her about these problems to get some reassurance. But some talking sense to would be nice, as I feel like I'm driving myself up a wall with this worry.
Thanks for reading this far!