Everyone knows that feeling right? You have a sinking, nasty feeling in your gut when something emotionally bad happens. Your girlfriend says ‘we need to talk’ or you see your crush with someone else. What is happening and why does your body decide you need to feel super uncomfortable for hours and hours after something happens. Is it fight or flight?
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I’m pretty sure this feeling is caused by blood flow being rapidly diverted from organs to extremities. When you get a wave of anxiety, like when your girlfriend says “we need to talk”, your body doesn’t understand that this threat is any different from being chased by a wild beast, except the shock in these cases may be far more extreme than a typical scare. So your body prepares for flight or fight, rapidly diverting blood to your limbs that you’d use to fight or flee. First of all, you can probably feel that change itself—at the very least, you probably feel your heart rate spike. But that also means your digestive system is not getting as much blood, causing nausea or vomiting in relatively extreme cases. This is what creates that feeling.
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