Physical signs of sadness/anger?

[twilightki]

Im not depressed, so dont take this the wrong way. I was just wondering what that knot, or hole in your chest actually is? You get it when you're angry and sad, or missing someone. What exactly is it? What happens in your body when this happens? I looked everywhere and I can't find out why.

If someone knows what happens in your body, as this happens, I'd like to know really bad.

 

[sorry_mozart]

Interesting question - I think it's to do with the "fight-or-flight" response mediated by the autonomic nervous system. Basically, when an animal perceives a threat, all the functions not essential to dealing with the immediate problem shut down, and that includes digestion. So I think that feeling that you get is related to the cessation of non-essential functions when you are under stress. I could be wrong though, and I don't have time to look this up as I really have to go now.

 

[twilightki]

Interesting idea. Ive been looking this up and I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. Just stuff about how to deal with anger and sadness come up. Not the physical study of it.

 

[MrDepressed]

The only thought I seam able to come to on this is that there must be some effect that anger and/or sadness has directly on the heart, maybe it is like an isolation excercise to the heart and brain, where when you are angry these are the main organs affected so the feeling is possibly more prominent than say if you were running... so to me anger and sadness is like running without actually running as far as the heart is concerned.. which than could give the feeling of a knot in the chest or something like that...