When you get nervous or anxious, and get the ‘butterfly’s’ in your stomach feeling, what is that?
In: Biology
When you get really scared or nervous, your brain tells your body to get prepared for attack, like from an animal. Our brains still act like caveman brains when we get scared, so our bodies prepare for attack even if all we’re doing is talking to someone cute or saying a speech.
When our brain tells our bodies to prepare, we get ready to run away or fight. This means all of the busy stuff our tummy is doing needs to pause so other parts of our body (like the muscles in our legs) can do their job. Our stomach starts to use less blood to work on what we ate for breakfast, letting our muscles use blood for movement instead. When the blood goes away from our stomach so suddenly, it feels funny and tingly, a lot like butterflies!
Adrenaline. It’s the same feeling you would get just before skydiving, or when confronted by a wild bear. It gets your heart pumping faster, increase sensitivity in your extremities, displacement of blood, extra utilization of oxygen for increased brain function, etc. Adrenaline.
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