Gastroenteritis: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What gastroenteritis is

Gastroenteritis is an infection of the stomach and intestines that causes diarrhoea and vomiting, often with tummy cramps, nausea and sometimes a mild fever. It is usually caused by a virus, most often norovirus in adults and, in young children, viruses such as rotavirus. Bacteria (such as Campylobacter, Salmonella or E. coli) and parasites can also cause it, often through contaminated food or water. It spreads easily from person to person and from surfaces.

Most people recover within a few days without specific treatment. The priority is to replace lost fluids with small, frequent sips of water or oral rehydration solution, to rest, and to eat when you feel able. Antibiotics are not needed for viral gastroenteritis. Babies, older people and those with other illnesses can become dehydrated quickly and may need medical care. Good handwashing with soap and water, and staying at home until 48 hours after the symptoms stop, help protect others.

The emotional meaning of gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis has an outer cause, a virus, bacteria, contaminated food or water. Spiritually, the question is what was happening inside you at the time it took hold. The infection is still an infection. The question is simply there if you want it.

Too irritated to absorb anything

Compared with gastritis, which affects the stomach alone, gastroenteritis involves both the place where food enters and the place where it begins to be absorbed. Spiritually, this points to an irritation and frustration so strong that you cannot take in anything at all. You want to reject a situation or a person, sometimes life itself, and you may be "red with anger". The vomiting and diarrhoea are read as that double refusal.

What turns against you

A person or a situation may be indigestible to you, and seem to turn against you, inflaming you emotionally. Old patterns of thought that are no longer useful may still be held on to. Certain thoughts haunt you and gnaw at you from inside. You may live with constant uncertainty, while despair creeps in and your sensitivity is shaken.

Fear of yourself

The spiritual interpretation also names some harder feelings. Treat them as questions to recognise or set aside. Am I afraid of myself, of what lives in me? Do I see myself as bad, or fear that I have many enemies? Is it hard to accept the way events unfold, including the fact that we all die one day?

Blending in and swallowing the rules

There may be a preference for melting into the crowd rather than standing up, even if standing up would make a few waves. You do not allow yourself to live your life as you wish. Authority may be what is hard to digest: you live by the established rules and, under old beliefs, see no possibility of stepping outside them.

A gentler way to hold it

The aim is not to blame yourself for catching a bug. Viruses spread easily, and fluids and rest come first. Once you are well, the emotional perspective invites you to look at what was weighing on you.

• Open to something new. Let a new idea or a new way of seeing a situation in, even a little.
• Learn to trust again. Notice one person, or one part of life, that you could trust a little more.
• Say when you are disappointed. Disappointment voiced is lighter than disappointment left rumbling inside.
• Question the old rules. Ask which rules you follow because they are right for you, and which only because you always have.
• Stop waiting for approval. You can choose your way without everyone around you agreeing first.
• Look after your body. Rest, sip fluids, wash your hands, and let yourself recover before you return to everything at once.