General What are they thinking?

[Never_falter2]

What are they thinking questions

1. Well... I am not sure maybe you follow the most healthful diet... but why is it so difficult for a vet to eat well. My guy often feels like he is full, he is bloated, cannot get anything healthful down. Right now he is drinking a lot milkshakes (thanks god typically he eats)
2. Is there anything wrong with certain foods or drinks from a ptsd vet point of view? I am only asking because my vet stresses about certain foods. He said about a certain cheese we have over here that he “was not gonna touch that“ (not touch like eat but touch liketouch when he was asked to pass the plate with cheese). He stresses over my having food stain on my blouse (not that uncommon sight when you have kids). He stresses over spilled milk or juice... again not an uncommon sight in a house with four kids... and I am asking that because I know another Vet who stared at some spilled milk like he had just seen a ghost. Honest and maybe stupid question. Do certain foods trigger you or is it just the dirty civvies like me and their untidy ways that trigger you? I know untidiness and chaos trigger him and am okay with that.

 

[Friday]

Sympathetic Nervous System = Fight Flight
Parasympathetic Nervous System = Rest Digest

When someone’s anxiety or stress is up? The digestive system shuts down.

Step 1 it simply turns off. Your mouth gets dry, your peristaltic action (what squeezes food down your esophagus when you swallow, through your stomach, intestines, and out) stops moving food along. The systems that absorb nutrients from food through your intestinal walls are shut down. ALL that energy? Is shifted into other system. Digestion is the 2nd biggest energy suck (following ratiocination, the act of not laying down limp and boneless). You experience the exact same thing whenever you’re sick (energy shifted to immune system in that case, which is why people are too tired to move, and aren’t hungry), or are very excited/ scared/ angry/ anxious. <<< The difference with PTSD is that unlike the few minutes where the system is shut off in response to excitement/fear/anger/etc., it will stay shut off for hours and days, just like when you’re very sick.

Step 2 it voids. (Puking, shitting, pissing yourself).

Source: Physiology of the Stress Response infographic, American Institute of Stress

 

[NaeNae75]

Sympathetic Nervous System = Fight Flight
Parasympathetic Nervous System = Rest Digest

When someone’s anxiety or stress is up? The digestive system shuts down.

Step 1 it simply turns off. Your mouth gets dry, your peristaltic action (what squeezes food down your espionage’s when you swallow, through your stomach, intestines, and out) stops moving food along. The systems that absorb nutrients from food through your intestinal walls are shut down. ALL that energy? Is shifted into other system. Digestion is the 2nd biggest energy suck (following ratiocination, the act of not laying down limp and boneless). You experience the exact same thing whenever you’re sick (energy shifted to immune system in that case, which is why people are too tired to move, and aren’t hungry), or are very excited/ scared/ angry/ anxious. <<< The difference with PTSD is that unlike the few minutes where the system is shut off in response to excitement/fear/anger/etc., it will stay shut off for hours and days, just like when you’re very sick.

Step 2 it voids. (Puking, shitting, pissing yourself).

This really explains a LOT!

 

[Freida]

He stresses over my having food stain on my blouse

Bloodstains/bleeding/you've been shot

He stresses over spilled milk or juice...

Bloodstains/bleeding out on the floor

My guy often feels like he is full, he is bloated, cannot get anything healthful down. Right now he is drinking a lot milkshakes (thanks god typically he eats)

GERD can come with ptsd -- yours truly included. When it's bad milkshakes/ice cream/smooth cold foods help. Then they backfire because it's too much sugar and actually makes it worse. :banghead:

And @Friday I loved that description!

 

[Never_falter2]

Thanks @Friday. That really explains a lot. Re step 2) Is there a reason that is more true for foods that are good for you than for foods that are bad for you? For example sometimes when he is stressed Vet cannot stop munching crisps or chocolate or cup cakes but if you serve him veggies acts like if you trying to kill him.

Right now vet is stressed by the idea he won‘t be able to eat enough at Christmas dinner. Afraid he needs to puke in fact. Family members of his have sort of a formal dinner and in our culture not eating at a formal dinner is very impolite for everybody involved. Stupid me, I am not sure if it is similar in the US or if I have to explain that it is seen as impolite.
Off topic: I have been told that in the UK and the US it is only impolite to not like it when the homemaker cooked it but when they for example hired a party service it is in fact impolite to say anything nice about the food. Is this true?
However if you are invited in my culture you have to enjoy the food... and if it is rat meat... you have to eat it and pretend to enjoy or everybody will be offended. Puking at the dinner table on the other hand is seen as impolite ? Yeah, I guess that’s cross cultural (otoh...in Ancient Rome...) sorry, not sure why I am being silly now.
However vet is very stressed by the idea of a dinner where he has to eat lots of stuff. We tried to laugh it off by joking how which one of his relatives would react IF he puked on his plate.

Re step 2) is there also a medical explanation for the opposite being the case? He actually has a lot of problems with constipation but it gets better when he uses a hot water bag on his stomach before he goes to the lavatory, drinks something warm and so on. By the way it was a tip from this boards. Thanks a lot... cannot remember who said but thanks a lot it helps so much.
So it gets better when he does things to relax.

@Freida Really? ???

 

[Friday]

Re step 2) is there also a medical explanation for the opposite being the case

That’s actually part of step 1... no peristaltic action = no movement = constipation.

Vomiting & Diarrhea follows, in part, because your body can’t have food & waste just sitting there rotting.

That’s why a liquid diet works so much better when people are sick/injured/stressed. 90% of the work of digestion, breaking things down into the smaller components (to be broken down chemically into simple proteins, lipids, sugars) is already done. Especially with cooked foods like soup. So the digestive chemicals & enzymes bust apart the large molecules, and the liquid is absorbed. No fuss, no muss. Sugar, is especially easy to break down, as amylase secretes in your saliva and absorbs through your mouth. As your brain runs on glucose (purest and simplest form of sugar), and glucose alone, it’s the single most important nutrient we take in. Everything else can deal with deficits for moderately long periods of time, but sugar intake is just as important as water (which follow air. Air, water/sugar, food.). It’s also why people crave sugar when sick/injured/stressed. The brain is working really hard, and demands fuel in order to keep sparking and sending orders and using neurotransmitters and generally attempting to run things.

 

[Never_falter2]

Is this a stupid question: Is there something one can do to relax the sympathetic nerve system?

 

[LuckiLee]

Thanks for the info @Friday.

 

[Freida]

Right now vet is stressed by the idea he won‘t be able to eat enough at Christmas dinner. Afraid he needs to puke in fact

owever vet is very stressed by the idea of a dinner where he has to eat lots of stuff.

Oh hell no! If I was so stressed about an event for whatever reason I was afraid I was going to puke? I. WOULD. NOT. GO. Period.
And God help the person who tried to talk or bully me into it.
Just reading that made me want to bail. I can't imagine living it. :(

Want to be a good supporter? Help him find a way out of this nightmare. Because that kind of pressure would send me running...if not before then right after.

@Freida Really? ???

Yep. First things I thought of...

 

[Friday]

Bloodstains/bleeding out on the floor

Yep. And scenes. People are always in the middle of ordinary life when shit goes sideways. Earthquakes, bombs, firefights. Clearing houses, crunching breakfast cereal under your boots, milk container knocked over and spilled. Flies. Blood. Grey matter. Predation. Spent shell casings. Whoops, that has nothing to do with spilled milk, except it’s maybe 9 different images of what’s next to the spilled milk that started spinning out in my head. And then there’s that thing where body fluids -any fluids- get that coating of dust over them. Not dust dust, dirt dust, dry climate, but instead of being soaked up it does that weird raised pool thing covered in dust... so the color is wrong, just dust colors / red grey yellow/ same as everything else but wet, and you don’t know what you’ve stepped in or crawled through until you smell it or it smears on you. Or on someone else. Or something else. And then there’s the movement. Fresh and impossibly slick. Dried and sticky. What’s left. What happened to leave it to be left. Bad juju.

Snort. I have just this moment traced my absolute hatred of grit -of any kind- on the floor. I’m not a neat freak. (Would that I were! Life would be easier!) But I used to wash my floors every single morning, and sweep up / dust mop a couple times a day. Bare feet and wicked clean floors spell sanctuary.

 

[Never_falter2]

@Freida I do not think that there is anything wrong with the event. It is just that my guy is stressed because it is Christmas time and frustrated because we had to cancel trips to the Christmas market... where he wants to go as often as possible for patriotic reasons to show terrorist we are not going to change our way of life... not sure if you know there have been a number of terrorist attacks on European christmas markets in the last years, but they have a good security concept with concrete blocks and armed police and are generally safe.
It is family members of his who invited us for dinner and he really wants to go. I do not make him. However it is gonna be a big event because we have another concept of family than you might have. We consider second and third cousins family and he is from a big family.
However what stresses him the most is the idea he needs to eat (and cannot choose what) and eats lots of things or it will be impolite.

 

[somerandomguy]

@Never_falter2 ... You have a choice. Support him, or don't support him. Pretty simple, really.