I have a form of anxiety that manifests itself as a painful nasty knot that resides in the area in my abdomen below my rib cage (solar plexus).

The first time I was aware of this sensation was around age 16 when I was stood up by a boy I liked (this was the first date we had planned). The pain began when he didn't arrive at the arranged time and continued for two hours until I accepted that he wasn't coming. I felt really let down, disappointed, and hurt. I wrote in my diary that I never wanted to go through what I did that day ever again.

I remember feeling fine the next day, but since then when I get the sense that a man that I've recently met is rejecting me (this doesn't happen when a relationship is firmly established) rather than just giving me a 'heads up' that he probably isn't the right man for me, the anxiety of rejection is triggered and the same nasty knot appears - for days and sometimes a week or more. It's gotten significantly worse in the last few years (I am 44) and I want it to stop, please!