Stomach and Digestive Problems, Distress

Treatment

When other factors cause or aggravate stomach upset, addressing the specific cause can reduce and eliminate this symptom.

When an active stress response causes stomach and digestive problems and symptoms, ending the active stress response will cause this acute anxiety symptom to subside.

Keep in mind that it can take up to 20 minutes or more for the body to recover from a major stress response. But this is normal and needn’t be a cause for concern.

When hyperstimulation (chronic stress) causes stomach and digestive problems, eliminating hyperstimulation will end this anxiety symptom.

You can eliminate hyperstimulation by:

• Reducing stress.
• Containing anxious behavior (since anxiety creates stress).
• Regular deep relaxation.
• Avoiding stimulants.
• Regular light to moderate exercise.
• Eating a healthy diet of whole and natural foods.
• Passively accepting your symptoms until they subside.
• Being patient as your body recovers.

Visit our “60 Natural Ways To Reduce Stress” article for more ways to reduce stress.

Recovery Support members can view chapters 5, 6, 7, 14 and more for more detailed information about recovering from hyperstimulation and anxiety disorder.

As the body recovers from hyperstimulation, it stops sending symptoms, including this one.

Symptoms of chronic stress subside as the body regains its normal, non-hyperstimulated health.

However, eliminating hyperstimulation can take much longer than most people think, causing symptoms to linger longer than expected.

As long as the body is even slightly hyperstimulated, it can present symptoms of any type, number, intensity, duration, frequency, and at any time, including this one.

Since worrying and becoming upset about anxiety symptoms stress the body, these behaviors can interfere with recovery.

Passively accepting your symptoms – allowing them to persist without reacting to, resisting, worrying about, or fighting them – while doing your recovery work will cause their cessation in time.

Acceptance, practice, and patience are key to recovery.

Keep in mind that it can take a long time for the body to recover from hyperstimulation. It's best to faithfully work at your recovery despite the lack of apparent progress.

However, if you persevere with your recovery work, you will succeed.

When you do the right work, the body has to recover!

Short-term strategies

Even though eliminating hyperstimulation will eliminate chronic anxiety symptoms, including stomach and digestive symptoms, some people have found the following strategies helpful.

However, keep in mind that each person can have a unique symptom experience since each person is somewhat physically, chemically, psychologically, and emotionally unique. What might work for one person might not for another.

• Take an over-the-counter antacid: Some people have found taking an over-the-counter antacid reduces their stomach distress. I took Gaviscon frequently to help manage my stomach upsetness. It seemed to have worked, for the most part, in settling my stomach.
• Drink plenty of fluids: Some people have found drinking plenty of fluids to help reduce stomach and digestion irritation.
• Eat smaller more frequent meals: It seemed the more I ate, the more problems I had. Eating smaller, more frequent meals made things easier. I also found that when I waited four or more hours before I ate, while I felt better initially after eating, my stomach problems were worse about an hour later. Then, they persisted much longer than usual. Eating smaller, more frequent meals reduced the severity of this symptom for me.
• Avoid high-sugar, high-fat, and highly processed foods. Since these foods are harder to digest, avoiding them can reduce stomach and digestive problems.
• Pay attention to food combining. Eating healthy foods in the correct combinations can also reduce this symptom. Since not all foods digest at the same time and in the same way, eating the right combination of foods can also make a difference.
• Pay attention to the activities you undertake after eating. Digestion requires energy. If you’ve eaten a big meal and then go out and undertake a rigorous activity, that could take away from the digestion process. Conserving your energy after you eat can aid in healthy indigestion.
• Avoid stimulants.
• Avoid foods high in salt. Salt stresses the body and can aggravate hyperstimulation-caused symptoms, including stomach and digestive symptoms.
• Avoid foods high in MSG. MSG is a neural exciter, which can stimulate the nervous system and aggravate stomach and digestive problems.
• Avoid processed fruit juices. Many of the fruit juices we buy today contain high levels of glucose and fructose, which can rapidly boost blood sugar and cause the “spike then plunge” phenomenon.
• Avoid alcohol. Alcohol adversely affects blood sugar as well as punishes the nervous system. Either of these effects can exacerbate hyperstimulation and its symptoms, including stomach and digestive symptoms.

To name a few.

For more information, including information about your specific situation and circumstances, it's best to work with a Nutrition Science Practitioner, such as Liliana Tosic.

Therapy

Unidentified and unaddressed underlying factors cause issues with anxiety. As such, they are the primary reason why anxiety symptoms persist.

Addressing your underlying factors (Level Two recovery) is most important if you want lasting success.

Addressing Level Two recovery can help you:

• Contain anxious behavior.
• Become unafraid of anxiety symptoms and the strong feelings of anxiety.
• End anxiety symptoms.
• Successfully address the underlying factors that so often cause issues with anxiety.
• End what can feel like out-of-control worry.

All our recommended anxiety therapists have had anxiety disorder and overcame it. Their personal experience with anxiety disorder and their Master's Degree and above professional training give them insight other therapists don't have.

If you want to achieve lasting success over anxiety disorder, any one of our recommended therapists would be a good choice.

Working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to treat anxiety disorder, especially if you have persistent symptoms and difficulty containing anxious behavior, such as worry [11][12][13].

In many cases, working with an experienced therapist is the only way to overcome stubborn anxiety.

Research has shown that therapy is the most effective treatment for anxiety disorder, and distance therapy (via phone or the Internet) is equally, if not more effective, than face-to-face in-person therapy [14][15][16].