Everybody poops, but it's not always convenient to poop when the need arises
such as when you're in a business meeting, while you're sitting in traffic, in the checkout line at Target, out at a restaurant dining with your friends
or teaching a room full of first graders. While waiting for the opportune time to
poop is kind of a thing that a lot of people do on a somewhat regular occasion
you might wonder if it's really a bad thing to hold in your poop. And the answer is, it depends
You know, I just don't feel comfortable. I'll just hold it. You don't want to do that stuff back up on you? Top of your head just fly, clean it up.
See, you do have the ability to pick a convenient time to empty your bowels
thanks to something called the sphincter anti-externus, which sounds like a transformer but is actually a specific muscle located near the anus
When you're ready to poop, you sit on the toilet, relax the muscle, and the pooping begins
This muscle also means that you can hold off on pooping for a while, too. Until you're not busy, your social situation clears out, or you get home. Or find a sink if
you're really desperate. Problems can arise, though, when you put off your bathroom visit
for prolonged periods of time. According to Columbia University's Go Ask Alice advice column
keeping your feces tightly packed away inside for too long can lead to a bevy of uncomfortable
and potentially hazardous problems. Basically, if you don't poop when you need to within a
reasonable amount of time — let's say several hours or so — you can become constipated
This is because part of your colon's job is to absorb water from your stool
The longer you hold your poop inside, the more time your colon has to continue to leach water
from your poop the whole time, without any concern for your comfort. By the time you hit the toilet
all that's left are some hard and dry pebbles to try to release into the pot
Constipation is definitely uncomfortable if you experience it every now and then
but it can be downright miserable if it leads to chronic constipation
This condition is heralded by several signs and symptoms, none of which are pleasant in the
the slightest Symptoms can include passing fewer than three poops per week experiencing lumpy or hard stools working super hard to poop feeling like you just can get it all out feeling like there may be a blockage or even needing to remove stool from your rectum with your fingers
You don't need to experience every single symptom here to qualify for chronic constipation
though. Just two or three symptoms over the last three months means you probably have the condition
The gift of constipation can keep on giving, too. This means you can develop hemorrhoids
which are swollen blood vessels in and around the anus. They're painful
they can be itchy, and they can also bleed. Hemorrhoids. They burn. Itch. Swell. And hurt
The problems don't necessarily end there, though. If things get bad enough
you can also experience fissures. No, not those kind of fissures. fissures
which are tiny tears around the anus, which can really hurt and can also result in bloody stools
Symptoms of fissures include pain when you're pooping, pain after you're done pooping
bright red blood on the toilet paper or in the stool after pooping, a small lump or skin tag
near the fissure itself, or a visible tear in the anus. And finally, if you withhold pooping
on the regular, your sphincter can kind of give up and lose its ability to completely relax
That, in turn, can set you up for further wide-scale pooping problems. Basically
it can make it hard to physically poop everything you need to get out, which can lead to even more constipation, which can then lead to all the other bad stuff we already mentioned
That can require you to retrain your sphincter, which, yes, is a thing. While pooping can feel like an embarrassing experience in certain situations
it's always best to go as soon as humanly possible. This means that it's a terrible
idea to wait a whole day because you're hanging out with friends or don't feel comfortable pooping
around your significant other. Pooping is a normal and extremely vital human experience
so don't hold it in. You might eventually regret it