Nerves in the Stomach

I wear a HRV monitor and track sympathetic & parasympathetic activity. When I first got really sick I had a H Pylori infection which made my stomach very sensitive after the infection got eradicated. Whenever I now eat I notice severe tightness in my abdomen and a stress response to my HRV. This makes breathing harder as if I'm breathing through mud. I don't have the usual symptoms of gastritis but I believe the nerves in my stomach are now overly sensitised and when food is passed to the stomach a stress response is triggered. This feels very much psychological in nature and I believe it's TMS. Has anyone experienced similar i.e. sensitised nerves in the stomach making it harder to breath? Did you find a way to resolve the symptoms as part of TMS work? I think what I'm experiencing is visceral hypersensitivity. I understand Amitriptaline is very good for hypersensitive visceral nerves but I don't respond well to psychiatric drugs and their withdrawals are horrendous. Has anyone experienced anything similar? What did you do to heal?

 

Good morning, Mike!

I’m sorry you’re breathing through mud —that must feel really scary! I have to remind you that it doesn’t really matter if you find someone who had exactly what you have who got better. It’s all the same process for all of us. You’re not a special case. You’re hypersensitized. That’s all it is. But you are letting it scare you. And that fear is making it so much worse.

Here’s a quote for you from Claire Weekes that might help:

“Masterly Inactivity means to give up the struggle, to stop holding so tensely onto yourself by trying to control your fear, trying to do something about it while subjecting yourself to constant self analysis. It means to cease trying to navigate your way out of illness by meeting each obstacle as if it were a challenge that must be met if recovery is possible. It means to bypass the struggle, to float and let time pass. The average person tenses with the battle; they never will do this floating.

They feel they must stand on guard, "keep control" and hold themselves together all the while this is giving more power to the problem.”

 

That’s really insightful, thanks, Diana. I think I will buy the kindle version of Claire’s book. I listened to the audio version but I don’t think I absorb audio books as well as I do written content. You know, I’m such an analytical person, I always thought it’s a great strength of mine but when it comes to TMS it is a liability. I need to learn to let go, stop controlling and let time pass. It’s hard for my brain to do that as be always been in control of everything. I must learn to untether myself and let go! It’s so hard to do

 

Yay!!!!! Please!!! I hope you buy the book! I promise you a million times over it will help you! I’m so excited for you to read it!

I share your pain here. It’s very very hard to undo this habit. But I think it got us where we are today.