As discussed in Can'tExplains post named " a mother shaped hole" we were discussing what that void physically feels like to each person and got some great descriptions, so i thought i'd start a new post that people could add to because up until recently i never realised other people had felt this thing i've had since i was really little. I think it's a failure to attach securely to your mother as a child that causes it and is hugely damaging.

The descriptions so far have been great.

"For me it usually hits me kind of in my solar plexus and radiates up into my heart, it feels like a dull all encompassing aching pain that literally takes my breath away for a few seconds." By me

"I also feel it in my chest area. Sometimes it feeling crushing and not really a void like thing at all. I do feel suffocated at times when it happens. Mostly though what I feel is like I am falling into the void, just dropping without any safety net. It is vertiginous." By Archipelago

"This "feeling" overcomes me most when there is something or someone that I feel fills in the void (I guess). When whoever that is or whatever that is, is out of reach (almost always)....well, it's a devastating hit for me. I have to agree with everyone. For me it's like every frightening feeling hits all at once. I feel every scary sensation at the same time, starting right in the center of my chest and radiating out to my heart. It's like an explosion at the same time you feel crushed and smothered. It's like feeling your heart skip a beat and then race. I'm numb and oversensitive. I feel like I'll never be happy again but I can remember what it tastes like and every thought or memory is an "arrow to the heart" kind of sensation and everything starts over, AGAIN." By Shrinkpatient

"Physically it is like a churning pit in my stomach. Not pain necessarily but more of that dullness that you describe. It radiates from my stomach into my chest. I was so used to it at one point that I thought that was the only way there was to feel." By Amee200

Anyone want to add how it feels to them?