Why does anxiety make my stomach hurt?
Anxiety stomach pain happens because fight-or-flight braces your belly muscles, alters how your gut moves and makes the nerves in your digestive tract extra sensitive. The pain is real, and it eases as your body leaves alert mode.
Try the practice nowWhat happens in your gut
Your gut and your brain are wired together, mainly through the vagus nerve. That connection is why worry is felt in the stomach as butterflies, a knot or a sinking feeling.
Alert mode is built for running from a threat, so it drops calm digestion while your body prepares to move. Stress hormones change how the gut moves: it can speed up or slow down. That can feel like cramps, churning or urgent trips to the toilet.
At the same time, the muscles of your belly brace, as if to protect the middle of your body. A stomach held tight for hours aches like any tired muscle, and it pushes your breathing up into your chest.
With anxiety, the gut's own nerves can also become more sensitive. Normal digestion, gas and stretching that you would usually not notice can register as pain.
Why the pain feels alarming
Because the ache or cramping can feel strong, it is easy to worry that something is damaged inside your stomach. Anxiety stomach pain does not damage your stomach or your gut.
Pain draws your attention to your belly, and watching for it makes the signals feel stronger, which raises the alarm again.
Why it shows up for days
After weeks of anxiety, the body can stop switching between rest mode and alert mode and stay in alert mode. Because the body holds that state, symptoms can show up on days you do not feel anxious.
Breathing low into the belly lets the belly muscles soften instead of bracing. Attention on pleasant sensation, like the floor under your belly, is the opposite of a panic spiral. This state is trainable with daily practice.
Try SOS Belly Breathing now
- Lie face down on a firm, comfortable surface with your arms over your head in a relaxed position. Feel the support beneath you and let your body weight release downward. If lying face down hurts or you are pregnant, lie on your back with a hand on your belly.
- Take a full breath in through the nose into your lower belly, below the ribs, and feel your belly press into the floor as it fills.
- Hold for a count of two or three, then let go with a natural sigh.
- Keep going at your own pace, each exhale releasing completely; if thoughts come, bring your attention back to your belly moving against the floor. Roll slowly onto one side to finish.
When to check with a doctor
- It is severe, comes on suddenly or keeps getting worse (call emergency services if it is severe).
- The pain spreads to your chest, arm, jaw or back, or comes with sweating or shortness of breath (call emergency services).
- Your belly is very tender to touch, the pain moves to the lower right side, or you can't pass stool or gas (call emergency services).
- You have blood in your stool, or black, tar-like stool.
- You are vomiting blood or something that looks like coffee grounds.
- You are losing weight without trying, or have a fever.
- It wakes you at night, or a change in your bowel habits lasts more than a few weeks.
- You could be pregnant.
Practice with the Stateshift app
Common questions
Could it be IBS?
Anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often go together. If belly pain, bloating and changes in your bowel habits keep coming back for months, a doctor can check for IBS, which is common and treatable.