Panic attacks and digestion

[worlddreamer]

Hi everyone, I'm having increasing panic attacks and they come with diarrhea, hearing my heart beating in my ears and they become more and more intense. I'm mid-processing, has anyone experience of these physical symptoms (especially diarrhea and intense stomach cramping) dissipating with processing? I'm scared it's going to be like this forever and it's getting in the way of all aspects of my life as I'm constantly on alert waiting for it to happen again.

 

[Roland]

Yes, I've experienced this as well as vomiting. It's not fun. It'll pass, but until then, damn.

 

[arfie]

yupper, yupper, three bags full, for my entire 70 years. while my 10 siblings have been making the medical doctor rounds, i started treating it like a psych symptom in my 20's during my early psychotherapy. today i am grateful to report that my morning bm was smooth and intact. i still experience a great deal of digestive distress, but i am much quicker to recognize and address the early symptoms. often i can catch and address the symptoms before they reach my digestive tract. the psychotherapy tools work when i work them.

 

[Friday]

The sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight) works in opposition to the parasympathetic nervous system (rest/digest). It’s not quite binary like a light switch (except in the most extreme examples), more like a dimmer switch. More light/less dark. More dark/less light.

So as your SNS SYMPATHETIC (fight/flight) kicks ON, and your PNS PARASYMPATHETIC (rest/digest) shuts OFF here’s a cliff notes version of what happens:

- Digestion stops (at the highest level, also voids; puking/pissing/shitting yourself. At lesser levels there is “just” increased need to pee, diaharea, feeling nauseated or like there’s a cold lump in your belly, dry mouth).

- Immune System shuts off

- Pupils Dilate

- Blood gets yanked to your core (at the highest levels, you won’t even bleed from shallow cuts your arms/legs…lesser levels you’ll just have “cold hands warm heart”… you’ll feel cold/unable to warm up OR too hot/feverish/flushed; your face turns deathly white or ashen, or beet red; etc.) This both protects you from minor injuries, as well as bringing your blood close to your heart to oxygenate faster, and deliver to vital organs.

- Heart rate increases & Breaths quicken/shallow (to start super-oxygenating your blood)

- Muscles start shivering (not from being cold, but micro-spasms, to disperse oxygen quickly, almost feathering across, and prepare you to MOVE MOVE NOW!)

- The bones in your ears pull as close together as they can (increasing your ability to hear even the smallest sounds, the whooshing of your own heart beat a)

I'm mid-processing, has anyone experience of these physical symptoms (especially diarrhea and intense stomach cramping) dissipating with processing? I'm scared it's going to be like this forever

So… NOPE! Not gonna be like this, forever. It’s “just” heightened right now due to the tremendous stress bringing on anxiety attacks & panic attacks… and your body doing exactly what it should be doing.

 

[MrMoonlight]

It's helpful to know whether you're anxiety panic attacks are coming from the cortex or the amygdala. That way you can better treat the issue. It sounds like yours is initially coming from the amygdala. The amygdala is like the alarm system for the body. It kicks things off from a trigger in your environment. Try to think back to the situation and things around you in order to find the trigger within the amygdala. Then you can use exposure therapy to lessen that alarm. I was just talking about this the other day with my therapist. My plan is to get an outside fire pit to use against my alarms. I'm going to try to lesson my negative reaction to fire...that's my trauma.

During your trauma you could have linked a song that was playing or the weather outside or a smell. All sneaky little triggers that we can easily miss.