While potty training, my daughter held her poop for over a week. We had to cave and let her use a diaper, because she was at risk of permanent injuries. Then suddenly one day she decided diapers were for babies and started pooping in the toilet.

Jesus… I poop 2-4 times every day.

I HAVE done a three-day zero-poo adventure many times at festivals. Usually I’d just eat those heavy bars and beef sticks. Then on the way back we’d stop at whatever place has the greasiest food, order an appetizer sampler, and just destroy the place’s toilets.

Woah, I did the same thing. My parents ended up taking me to several pediatric Psychologists to help figure out what the problem was, including some quack that tried to say I was acting out in subconscious anger because my Grandfather was a Freemason! Not, you know, the fact I didn't realize that bowel movements aren't supposed to be painful. I think I made it for two weeks once although I wasn't keeping exact score. And yes, I did end up in the ER over it at least once that I can remember.

I developed the same weird irrational fear about it from a young age. I'd hold it as long as I could. Even once that embarrassed me enough to start trying to stop, I still wasn't "regular". I'd go, it would be painful, and then I wouldn't have to go again for weeks on end. My mom kept tabs on the situation, took me to all kinds of doctors, tried all different laxatives and stool softeners, got a colonoscopy done, but the answer was always "I guess that's just her body's schedule". Best lead we got was allergy testing that came back positive (mild) for pretty much everything; the worst being eggs, whey/milk, and gluten. Which wasn't realistic to cut out on our budget but we reduced as much as we could.

Then my period kind of forced me out of it. So I have a couple big shits around my period that need to be cut with a knife and that's that. My PCP still asks about it occasionally lol, says her kid had the same issue, but as far as she can tell I'm in perfect health so...

Aside from the mild embarrassment I get when the topic comes up for whatever reason, I can't say it's the worst thing to not have to go super frequently. And I guess I got pretty good control of my bowels from the whole ordeal 😅 Although in terms of people in my life knowing about it from here on, I'll probably take the entire experience and my "schedule" to my grave.

honestly i was like this for a while too, though i very much understood what was going on.
it just becomes a hard cycle to break because we're so hard-wired to avoid unpleasantness.

in my case the solution was consuming as much fibre as i possibly can, it's helped me tremendously with gut health in general. It basically just makes things behave conveniently and sensibly.