Why does my stomach hurt so bad when I'm stressed?

It started quietly.

No panic attacks, no breakdowns. Just this weird feeling sitting in my stomach. I told myself I wasn’t stressed. I was fine. Focused. Motivated. But my body knew better.

They say the gut is the “second brain,” connected to your emotions through the vagus nerve, a literal highway of signals between your stomach and your mind. When your brain senses uncertainty or pressure, your gut doesn’t wait for permission to panic. It reacts. It tightens. It tries to protect you.

During my SAT journey, that connection went into overdrive.I didn’t feel anxious — not in the obvious way. I wasn’t shaking or crying. I was just… nauseous. I’d wake up with my stomach in knots before I even touched a practice test. Some mornings I couldn’t eat, and other days I felt exhausted after studying for no clear reason. My brain was saying, “you’re okay,” but my stomach was screaming, “we’re not.”

That’s when I learned something important: sometimes, anxiety doesn’t shout in your head. It whispers through your body.

So I started trying to overcome it...

I started breathing all the way into my stomach, not just my chest, reminding my body that I was not on survival mode.

I forced myself to eat something nourishing before studying, even when my appetite disappeared. (NOT COFFEE)

I wrote down what I was scared of, even if it sounded silly. Putting it on paper made it smaller.

I moved, walked, stretched, existed outside my desk, so my body could catch up to what my brain knew: the world wasn’t ending!!!

And I stopped pretending I was fine when I wasn’t. Sometimes the calmest people are the ones holding the loudest storms inside.

Anxiety still visits me. But now I recognize it early: that little ache, the tightening in my stomach, and I know it’s not weakness. It’s my body reacting to my first big step in my life.

So if you’re feeling it too, that quiet panic your stomach carries before your mind does, remember this:You’re not overreacting.You’re just human, and your body is trying to understand what's happening. You're not sick, trust me.

How about you? What’s the first place your anxiety shows up, your thoughts, your breath, or your stomach?