I am 53 and was diagnosed as autistic 4 months ago. I have had mental illnesses (depression and anxiety) for a very long time, at least as far back as my teens. I also suffer very badly with IBS, and all of these issues have become much more severe in the last few years, meaning that I have not gone out to work for about a year, and rarely leave the house anyway.
I was explaining to my current psychotherapist that a psychiatrist told me to try diazepam when I am particularly anxious, but to me it feels like often when I experience a trigger, I do not really feel that my breathing nor heart rate are increasing, though I may start sweating a bit, but what I really notice is that straight away I feel pain in my lower abdomen, leading to an episode of awful IBS (without wanting to explain it too graphically). I feel that somehow the worry goes straight to my gut, 'bypassing' the 'normal' symptoms of anxiety involving faster breathing and heart rate. It is as if the IBS starts very very quickly, but the lungs and heart are not really involved.
The psychotherapist has admitted that he is not an expert on autism nor IBS, but he told me that he has heard of other autistic people experiencing this 'bypass' of symptoms of anxiety. I had never heard of this before, though I have researched the area quite a lot. So is he correct? Is this really a common autistic experience of an anxiety-inducing trigger? Has anyone else felt that this happens to them?
Many thanks in advance.
