So why does your brain know and panic that you need to get to the loo say to be sick or poop etc but not control it until you get there? Your brain literally tells you that you can’t do this bodily function where you are currently and makes you panic, then proceeds to do it anyway if you’re not fast enough?
In: Biology
There are varying degrees of “control” over the body’s functions. Some things, like your heartbeat, are essentially completely beyond your control. You can *influence* it by doing breathing exercises and other such things, but to a very real extent, you can’t control whether your heart beats. It just does. Likewise, you can’t meaningfully control the rate at which food moves through your digestive tract–it just does. You have *some* control over your anal sphincters, but even that is limited. Your physical reflexes are another example of something not really under your control–your knee will jerk if the doctor hits it with their little hammer thing, you don’t really get a choice about that.
A step up from that is stuff like breathing and blinking. You can *partially* control these things, e.g. you can intentionally try to breathe faster or slower or hold your breath for a long time, you can close your eyes or try to hold them open for a long time, etc. But by and large those things just sort of happen without your brain really being involved. Sexual arousal is another one that falls in this range, where it’s possible to trigger or suppress it to some extent, but it can also happen to you without your consent.
All these things are part of what’s called the “autonomic” nervous system. They’re things that just happen, on their own, without your brain’s participation. They happen even while you’re unconscious.
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