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How do I stop getting embarrassed?

I've been dealing with Crohns for around 13 months. I'm at the point where I let people know what I have, and I'm like I didn't choose it so it's not my fault.

Anyway....how do I stop being embarrassed in public or around people when I keep using the restroom?

or when my intestines make CONSTANT bowel sounds to where it sounds like farts sometimes but it's not, it's internal?

or how do I get myself to stop at public restrooms along the way to where I'm going without feeling bad? (Sometimes I'll stop at places and the people at the counter will be like can I help you? and I'll be like no I'm using the restroom, then they get mad and/or laugh and say haha they just came for the bathroom).

How do I stop feeling like I have to apologize for using the restroom so much?
 
Honestly, it is possible :) I had crohns for 8years before I got brave but now I just have a series of one liners and special 'looks' I throw at people....
When questioned about using the toilet... Would you prefer I did it on the floor?
The noises... Sorry, I always did have something to say...
Those days when you just don't feel up to anything much and your friends/family pressure you... Do you need to see the pictures I took of shark attack in the bowl this morning as proof I'm not up to it?!
Humour, sarcasm, whatever it is, will get you through :)
Good luck :)
xxx
 
I get so embarrassed too. Public toilets, and explosive diarrhea.... I cringe at the sound my bowels make while sitting chatting to people sometimes. I hate to use even a friends toilet, with what my diarrhea sounds like, as it comes out. On the more flare gassy days, even at home, if anyone comes over, I cringe at the thought that they can hear the explosive wet farts....and I hold them in on public toilets usually, then feel worse. When I'm flaring(well I kind of always am but when it's the worst and least predictable), I don't really go out to even see friends much. Using the bathroom, the sound, the stink, it just makes me so embarrest.
So I don't know what to tell you about how not to feel that way, but I know how you feel. :(
 

tlc-x

Undiagnosed Teenager
Location
England
I get embarrassed as well. The other day at college I got D and I was in the toilets that's just for my course... so I know all the people and people sit in the corridors so will see you walk in and out of the toilets. That alone puts pressure on me. They'll see my face, hear and smell everything... it's so embarrasing. So the other day I tried as much as I could to be quiet, wait until someone flushes the chain or something.. but it was the one time that everyone wanted to go to the toilet and it was awful. In the end I managed to run from those toilets, down 4 flights of stairs and into another toilet where it was completely empty and no one knows me there. I find it so embarrassing. Just hoping either the society becomes more tolerant and understanding (ha) or we give up caring.. if you've gotta go, you've gotta go...
 
When I was younger I was very self conscious of "bombing" a public bath room. I recall one time while in school, during an attack I was bound and determined to not use the schools bathroom. There was around 2 hours remaining in school, I was sweating bullets and not paying attention to the teachers, but I made it to the bell, and then to home.

I'm not anywhere nearly as self conscious as I was back then, and thankfully I'm not as ill as I once was, but using a public bathroom during an attack is a troubling experience.
 
I get the feeling that you are probably late teens or early 20's (pardon my assumption, especially if I am wrong!) I think almost everyone with Crohn's goes through this, and it can be really tough at the ages I mentioned because it is such a social time for most of us. It kept me from dating, ruined my early post-school career aspirations. My bowel noises actually were at their worst during a lab exam in university in a cramped, small, stress filled class. It sounded like oil glugging out of a bottle. Felt it coming, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Turned into a great stress reliever, and then a great opportunity to educate others.

I think a lot of the nervousness/anxiety will disappear when you come to terms with what you have, and accept that the likelihood exists your body will embarrass you a bit. I still get a littel embarrassed when I have really bad gas (really need to stay away from garlic bread when I am going to be in public the next day). Don't worry too much about public washrooms. Bad gas is probably far from the worst thing that happens there. And if it dissuades someone from shooting up there, all the better!
 
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