You know life has gotten stressful when even your intestines can’t tell if they’re angry or just moody. Enter the alphabet soup of the gut: IBD vs. IBS. To the untrained ear, they sound like two competing indie bands at Coachella. To your body, they’re worlds apart; but both equally good at ruining dinner plans.

Here’s the gist:

* IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) is when your immune system decides your intestines are enemy territory and launches a full-scale war. Think trench warfare, but in your gut. Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis are its star players.

* IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) is more like your colon saying: “I’m not sick, I’m just not vibing with you right now.” No ulcers, no inflammation. Just chaos, bloating, and a bathroom routine that could rival New York subway delays: unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic.

The kicker? Stress makes both worse. Which is just perfect, because what do we have in 2025? Stress served fresh daily with a side of doomscrolling.

You’d think our insides would cut us a break. But no! Our gut is basically the original drama queen. And if you’ve ever tried to explain IBS or IBD to someone who thinks “gluten-free” is a personality trait, you know it’s like playing charades with your colon: you’re gesturing wildly while everyone else just guesses “food poisoning.”

Maybe that’s the life lesson buried in all this mess: our bodies are just as absurd as the rest of the world. The gut doesn’t lie, but it does exaggerate. IBS and IBD remind us that stress literally eats at us. And maybe, just maybe, we should treat rest and self-care with the same urgency we treat a charging phone battery.

Because honestly, whether it’s IBD or IBS, your gut is simply yelling: “This world is too much, and I refuse to digest it.”