Letting go of my fears and worries makes me extremely bloated!?

[Jumanji]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I am writing with what I consider to be a strange issue! I don't know why my body responds this way and I am quite annoyed by it. I will try to explain the best I can and hope somebody has experienced something similar or can guide me to possible remedies:

So I have suffered with general anxiety disorder for some years now. You can say that I have found my peace with it, but still I have tried to find ways to solve my anxiety issues. For some time I have tried to let go of my fears and worries and thus try a desensitization strategy. I simply observe whenever a worrying thought pops up in my head or if I experience a panic attack. I actually respond really well to this and feel that this is they way forward for me, but I have one big issue! My stomach bloats up to the extreme whenever I completely let go of my feelings! On the other hand if I "control" my fears and worries, reason over them and think about them I don't get bloated. When the bloating occurs it's to the extent where I have difficulties breathing properly.

I know this might sound crazy, but I hope someone can help me figuring out why this occurs and how I can handle this?

[unknownme]

Maybe because you're not breathing properly? Have you tried breathing exercises?

[Jumanji]

Maybe because you're not breathing properly? Have you tried breathing exercises?

Yes I have tried several. At the moment I start every morning with "progressive muscle relaxation" for 15 min.

As I also mention the bloating becomes so bad that I am unable to breathe properly (I have to breathe shallow). That is because my stomach is bulging like crazy and completely out of sync.