Shitting Myself

[illusionist]

I've just been through a panic attack where I thought of losing someone in my past..I've never really thought about it so intensely, and has brought on vomiting and my arse stuck to the loo with the normal panic attack symptoms. Is this normal to have this reaction? It is normal for me to eventually have stomach turmoil due to stress but not due to memories, at least not so instantly.

 

[Gadgie]

Stress can have so many different effects on different people, so it's impossible to narrow that down to one symptom?

I quite often throw up when I have a really bad panic attack, it normally starts with my heart rate increasing, sweating, agitation, shaking, then if I lose control, I throw up and that's the worst part, especially if I'm out in public?

I once had an attack in ASDA, just because I felt trapped in an isle, as suddenly both ends were blocked with people and trolleys. I managed to control until I got outside, but then I was sick in the car park.

Not ideal, but better than doing that inside the store?

 

[shimmerz]

Is this normal to have this reaction?

Not normal per se, but it does happen to me. I find that when it does I am seriously purging stuff (old emotions etc) that are core things. I have recognized for myself that I have worked through them after the purge. I hope that is the case for you as well @illusionist. So many hugs to you.

 

[Friday]

It's a totally normal reaction to extreme stress, PTSD or not. Piss-scared, or so scared I shit myself... Aren't just sayings.

Sympathetic Nervous System = Fight/Flight
Parasympathetic Nervous System = Rest & Digest
(Clearly oversimplified for both)

When the sympathetic nervous system turns on? The parasympathetic shuts off. It's not exactly binary, but it's close. When your digestive system shuts off? It can "just" shut off, or it can shut off & void. Voila. Say goodbye to your lunch.

 

[hodge]

Yes, I've thrown up after feeling really badly. Not panic attacks, but total anxiety. It happens a few times a week lately.

 

[jaccat]

Yep, happens to me pretty frequently (like before every therapy session, among other things).

 

[Anarchy]

Welcome to the work of the vagal nerve...
It runs from your lower brain to your innards,

It combines sympathetic and a few parasympathetic functions. It is the vagal nerve that fires off your adrenal glands, tightens your chest and stomach and relaxes your sphincters.

For critters that ate early humans, we must have been pretty disgusting things to catch, as bowels,bladder and stomach emptied.

A couple of times when I was about 12, and was getting flung around rooms by enraged school prefects, my bladder let go, my bowels did in my later teens when I literally got the crap kicked out of me. My parasympathetic system must have excelled in its freeze response that time, because it took about 10 minutes before I realised.

There's no reason why a flashback can't do pretty much the same as the actual trauma

I know that when I'm really triggered, or in love! I can't eat, sometimes for several days.

 

[Weemie]

yup. been there. it's normal. hell, it's evolutionary.