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anxiety trigger 'bypassing' straight to gut?

Saturn

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.

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  • I had a problem with being given medication for anxiety to alleviate the physical symptoms and not the psychological ones. For me the psychological symptoms were the worst of it and far outweighed any physical symptoms I may have been experiencing because they were at the back of my mind. I wasn’t afraid of something happening to my body but I was petrified of something happening to my mind like going insane or completely losing the plot, this was true terror. Beta blockers may work for those concerned over their bodies during episodes of anxiety but that really isn’t at the core of what I feared. I’ll be honest at times I wanted to be sedated, desperately. During those times I wasn’t scared of a heart attack, I just wanted to keep my sanity. There are strong links between the brain and the gut, you may need to go more urgently when anxious and from what I recall reading it’s due to the body needing to make itself lighter to run from danger. Mostly my experience of IBS is a grinding stomach, bad wind and constipation if that’s not a separate condition.

  • in reply to Autismman

    I feel that my aim is sort of opposite to yours.   I remember years ago at work once I was shaking a lot due to anxiety, and I remember feeling that I just wanted to be able to hide the shaking, and that the anxious thoughts themselves were less of a priority.  The people around me were getting very concerned about me shaking and were making comments about it, and that bothered me a lot more than how much I hated the job, and how I felt about my colleagues that were causing me to shake.
    I feel it is more important to hide the emotions, especially the darkest thoughts, and be able to pretend to be ok just to be able to work and earn an income, but I cannot even do that now.  What happens to my body is worse than what is happening in my mind, because it is my physical symptoms that stop me being able to go anywhere or do anything.

    I have not really felt afraid that I was losing the plot, but then a few months ago a psychiatrist told me I should try an antipsychotic (risperidone), and I tried to argue that I have not lost contact with reality, but that made me think that she thinks maybe I have.  I even told them about hallucinations I have and they told me I am NOT psychotic.  It is hard to make sense of it.

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  • in reply to Autismman

    I feel that my aim is sort of opposite to yours.   I remember years ago at work once I was shaking a lot due to anxiety, and I remember feeling that I just wanted to be able to hide the shaking, and that the anxious thoughts themselves were less of a priority.  The people around me were getting very concerned about me shaking and were making comments about it, and that bothered me a lot more than how much I hated the job, and how I felt about my colleagues that were causing me to shake.
    I feel it is more important to hide the emotions, especially the darkest thoughts, and be able to pretend to be ok just to be able to work and earn an income, but I cannot even do that now.  What happens to my body is worse than what is happening in my mind, because it is my physical symptoms that stop me being able to go anywhere or do anything.

    I have not really felt afraid that I was losing the plot, but then a few months ago a psychiatrist told me I should try an antipsychotic (risperidone), and I tried to argue that I have not lost contact with reality, but that made me think that she thinks maybe I have.  I even told them about hallucinations I have and they told me I am NOT psychotic.  It is hard to make sense of it.

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