Ever Wondered why we feel weird in the stomach when anxious?

I'm sure everyone one of us at some point have got anxious about any forthcoming future events. It may be because of a test you are going to take up, or maybe you have a stage performance coming up or when you are about to show your report card to your parents and so on. The one common thing all of us feel when we are anxious is that weird whirlpool effect in our stomach that also feels very empty suddenly. Depending on the level of anxiety we are having which is based on the scale of the event that we are about to face, we tend to face a few add-on peculiarities. One very common feature is excessive sweating. Our hands get so greasy that anything we try to grab is slippery. As the anxiety scale keeps going higher restlessness, higher heart rates, heavy breathing, panicking, losing focus, gastrointestinal problems aka urge to go to the restroom even though you just got out, shaking or shivering, and even to the extent of fainting. But have you ever wondered how this all happens?

To understand this first of all, what is anxiety? Anxiety is the natural response of our body to stress. Stress in this case is the nervousness and fear that we are facing. You might have heard of "fight or flight" response before during panic or sudden situations. This response is regulated by the adrenal gland housed in the kidney. When we are under stress or a panic situation the hypothalamus region of the brain sets off an alarm and this signals the adrenal gland to produce adrenaline and cortisol which are essentially hormones. Adrenaline is famously known for giving a sudden surge of energy along with increasing the heart rate and blood pressure. This is what is responsible for restlessness, sweating, increased heart rate side of anxiety. Now cortisol on the other hand is also known as the stress hormone. What cortisol does is increase sugars in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose, and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Now, this causes weakness sometimes even fainting. Cortisol also plays a role in the effect of gastrointestinal discomfort. This is part of the “fight-or-flight” response, which causes stress hormones to signal the stomach to slow down so that more blood can pump to the heart, lungs, and muscles which is what makes us feel the emptiness in our stomach. Now once you have handled or done with the situation, cortisol and adrenaline levels automatically fall to normal bringing you back to your original state. 

Now to talk about ways to come over anxiety, there's not much to do because it's very natural for people to feel stressed whilst getting ready for something they are not comfortable doing but a few small things to mildly reduce the effect of anxiety are to sip water now and then, take up deep relaxed breathing and also trying to distract yourself by doing any activity you like, listening to music for example.

So next time you feel the whirlpool, try to stay cool:)