Queensland Health posted a montage of colourful Lisa Frank images of dolphins, rainbows and unicorns to the song ‘Symphony’ by Neick Sanders, with the words “It’s okay to poo at work.”
The post garnered more than 24,000 likes and thousands of comments and responses.
“Consistently ignoring your need to poo can lead to stool getting stuck in your colon, haemorrhoids and other serious issues. So, it’s better to let it out than hold it in,” the caption read.
“If you find it extremely difficult to poo around other people, you might have parcopresis,” the post continued.
“Sometimes called ‘poo paranoia’, people with this condition have an overwhelming fear of being judged by others because of the sounds or smells associated with pooing.
“As a result, they may experience symptoms like increased heart rate, sweating or nausea.”
The state health department offered tips for those suffering from parcopresis, reminding people that everyone poops.
“Visualise someone famous on the toilet (like Taylor Swift),” the post read.
They also suggested bringing a small fragranced spray in the toilet with you, avoiding food or drink that might trigger your bowels and breathing deeply and doing a short meditation exercise.
“Did the government just put an image of Taylor Swift pooping in my brain?” one person commented.
View this post on Instagram
Queensland Health posted a status on Facebook that also gained a lot of attention, with the prompt, “Pooing at work. Discuss.”
More than 3,600 people commented on the post, commending the state health department on their post.
“Really well done team. Just when I think it can’t get any better,” one person commented.
“QLD do sensational health updates!” another wrote.