Stomach Drop Feeling: Why Does Your Stomach “Drop” When You’re Anxious?

When we experience anxiety, our sympathetic nervous system is activated and initiates the fight-or-flight response. This response is a host of physiological changes that prepare us to either fight or flee. One of the effects of the fight-or-flight response is that blood is redirected away from the stomach to the muscles. This can cause the stomach to feel like it is “dropping.” These responses in humans have probably evolved to cope with the threats that prehistoric humans faced. Hunting dangerous animals and surviving in the untamed wilderness a few hundred thousand years ago was not an easy task; constant vigilance was needed. It was also vital to run fast and fight hard. Our fight-or-flight response likely developed over thousands of generations of natural selection, wherein those who had better fight-or-flight behaviors had better fitness and were, therefore, more likely to pass on their genes.