Hijacked From the Inside: How Gut Bacteria Manipulate Your Mood, Hormones, and Cravings, and What It Has to Do With Chronic Illness

If you’ve ever felt like your cravings were possessing you, like no matter how much you want to eat clean or feel stable, something stronger takes over and you’re not imagining it.

You’re not weak. You’ve been hijacked.

And the hijacker?
Microscopic, relentless, sugar-obsessed.

We’re talking about gut bacteria, the trillions of microbes in your digestive tract that influence everything from hunger to depression to chronic pain. These microbes were supposed to work in harmony with your body. But thanks to modern living, the wrong bacteria have taken over, and they’re controlling more than just your cravings.

They’re manipulating your biology for their survival.

The Gut-Brain Axis, Your Cravings Aren’t Just Psychological

Science now confirms what many of us have intuitively known for years, our gut and brain are connected. Through a vast communication system called the gut-brain axis, including the vagus nerve, hormones, immune signals, and neurotransmitter precursors, your microbes influence:

• What you crave

• How you feel

• When you eat

• And even what you think

A 2014 study in BioEssays posed the question directly,
"Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota?"
The answer, yes. Microbes influence behavior to promote their own survival, even if it harms yours.

When sugar-loving bacteria dominate, they make you:

• Crave sugar and processed carbs

• Feel irritable or depressed when you don’t eat them

• Experience relief or euphoria when you give in

But Wait, Isn’t Serotonin Made in the Gut?

Yes - but here’s a crucial distinction most people (and even many wellness blogs) get wrong:

🧬 About 90 to 95% of your body's serotonin is made in the gut,
but that serotonin does not cross into your brain.

It’s used locally in your digestive system to regulate things like:

• Gut motility (how quickly food moves)

• Immune function

• Blood clotting

So while your gut makes serotonin, your brain must make its own, and it depends heavily on:

• The amino acid tryptophan

• Low inflammation

• Balanced gut bacteria to help it stay available

When your gut is inflamed, leaky, or overrun by the wrong bacteria, tryptophan gets diverted into neurotoxic pathways like kynurenine, not serotonin.
This is one reason why gut health issues are so often linked to depression and anxiety.

The Manipulation Loop, From Cravings to Emotional Chaos

This isn’t just a “sweet tooth.”
It’s a hijacking of your neurochemistry:

• Serotonin, The brain needs tryptophan to make it. Gut inflammation blocks it.
  (Yano et al., Cell, 2016)

• Dopamine, Reward, motivation, and pleasure are shaped by your microbial makeup.
  (Frontiers in Psychology, 2019)

• Ghrelin and Leptin, Hunger and fullness hormones get skewed when bad bacteria dominate.

The result,
You eat what they want, not what makes you feel good.

This cycle can make you feel:

• Out of control with food

• Depressed after a binge

• Anxious or tired without knowing why

How It All Started, Birth, Breastfeeding, and Antibiotics

You didn’t choose this.
Most of us were set up for gut imbalance before we could even speak.

Born by C-section

Babies born vaginally are colonized by protective bacteria from the mother. C-section babies, they’re colonized by hospital microbes and skin flora.
→ Higher risk of obesity, allergies, and depression
(Nature Medicine, 2019)

Not Breastfed

Breast milk feeds good bacteria like Bifidobacterium infantis. Formula doesn’t.
→ Lower gut diversity, higher inflammation
(JAMA Pediatrics, 2013)

Antibiotics in Early Life

Many kids get 10 or more rounds of antibiotics by age 5, wiping out good bacteria and weakening gut integrity.
→ Linked to depression, ADHD, asthma, and autoimmunity
(Cell Host & Microbe, 2020)

Your microbiome is your foundation. When it’s compromised from birth, your mood, immune system, and metabolism suffer for decades.

The Downstream Effect, Autoimmunity, Chronic Pain, and Interstitial Cystitis

Gut imbalance doesn’t just make you crave junk.
It can also break your immune system.

Chronic gut inflammation leads to leaky gut, where microscopic food particles and toxins leak into your bloodstream, triggering the immune system to attack your own tissues.

This constant activation can spiral into:

• Hashimoto’s

• Psoriasis

• IBS and SIBO

• Migraines

• Anxiety and panic

• And in many, Interstitial Cystitis (IC)

Interstitial Cystitis, A Gut Problem With Bladder Symptoms

Doctors often call IC a mystery. But research is revealing the truth:

IC is not just a bladder issue. It’s a gut issue expressing through the bladder.

Patients with IC often have:

• Severe dysbiosis

• Low Lactobacillus

• High inflammation

• A history of antibiotic use or gut trauma

• Food Intolerances

• Neurodivergence

A 2018 review in Nature Reviews Urology found significant differences in both bladder and gut microbes in IC patients, and many also meet criteria for autoimmune disorders.

This explains why people with IC often also experience:

• Chronic pelvic pain

• Food and chemical sensitivities

• Fatigue and anxiety

• Overlapping IBS or SIBO

From Cravings to Chronic Illness, The Full Cycle

Let’s connect the dots:

1. Early gut disruption, C-section, no breastfeeding, antibiotics

2. Childhood processed foods, Sugar feeds the wrong bacteria

3. Gut dysbiosis and inflammation, Microbes manipulate cravings and mood

4. Tryptophan blocked from serotonin production, Mood spirals

5. Immune confusion and leaky gut, Body turns on itself

6. Chronic illness, Depression, fatigue, IC, autoimmunity

How to Break the Cycle and Heal

You don’t need another diet.
You need a biological reset.

Here’s how to start healing:

1. Starve the Hijackers

Remove sugar, refined carbs, seed oils, and processed food for at least 7 days. Yes, you’ll feel worse before you feel better. That’s the bacteria dying off.

2. Feed the Healers

Eat:

• Prebiotic-rich foods, garlic, leeks, green bananas, artichokes

• Fermented foods, sauerkraut, kimchi (if tolerated)

• Low-histamine, anti-inflammatory meals

3. Rebuild the Barrier

Include gut-healing nutrients:

• L-glutamine

• Collagen

• Zinc carnosine

• Spore-based probiotics (Resistant to stomach acid)

4. Regulate Your Nervous System

Use somatic practices like breathwork, vagus nerve stimulation, EMDR, or EFT to calm the gut-brain loop and reduce immune overactivation.

Final Word, You’re Not Broken, You Were Set Up

If you’ve spent years feeling foggy, inflamed, bloated, or addicted to food you hate yourself for eating, you’re not lazy or broken.
You’ve been biologically rewired by your microbial environment.

But you can take your biology back.
You can reset your mood, hormones, immunity, and cravings, starting in your gut.

Contact me for a free 15 minute consult and we can walk thorough this together! 970-703-5276 or support@therapizeyourself.com