#bubble guts

This has many different answers, so I am going to break them up into categories:

Cramps require heat- I have a stuffed animal that can be heated in the microwave that I lay across my belly sometimes. If my belly gets crampy (usually with lactose), I will apply heat and lay in bed. When the heated stuffie is off of my belly for the rest times, rubbing the cramps out sometimes helps.

Lower belly upset can be handled in a number of ways- I am never one to admit that I'm not feeling well unless it's going to start impacting other people (like I have to sit, find a bathroom, going to be sick, etc), so I normally try to go on as normal as I can until I inevitably have to find some kind of bathroom to at least loosen my pants or rub my stomach a little. Drinking water sometimes helps, but most of the time this one just has to play itself out. With some friends, though, we're close enough that the other person just knows when I'm not feeling good. That's when we'll joke about being fat, "acknowledging our mistakes" after eating as much as we did, etc.

upper belly upset is a little scary for me. I am very emetophobic, so when 1) someone around me feels like they're going to vomit or 2) when I start feeling like I'm going to vomit, I absolutely panic and have to remove myself from anyone I'm around to hyperventilate and try to get myself out of the "danger zone". So this one is complicated- I avoid as much as humanely possible that has the potential to upset my tummy in this way, but when it happens, I try to sleep, rub my belly a lot, and watch shitty reality television.

general upset belly so so fun- no action to be had, just a pure, uncomfortable gut rolling and bubbling with no end in sight. I lay down either flat or on my side (however I can get comfortable) and rub my belly where it feels the worst. It really helps sometimes, but other times I just have to wait it out. A lot of these categories require some level of sleeping off the icky belly.

The common signs I've experienced/have witnessed in others has been some pretty significant lower belly distress. The feeling that your lower stomach is being squeezed and bubbling like crazy alongside the weight that settles at the bottom of your belly is pretty unpleasant. There have been times where a previous partner of mine would get the bubble guts after a big meal they ate much too fast, and the bubbles would span the whole length of their belly. I mean, you could feel it through their skin in their sides, on the top of their belly, and the more intense, painful ones could be felt from the outside at the bottom. Poor thing didn't get sick often, but when they did, they got really sick. It was the worst the time they had to get a colonoscopy done- they'd been having some belly issues (bloating, acid reflux, gas pain, the works) and the doctor wanted a closer look, so they set up the date and gave them the prep to go home with that day. The whole day before the procedure they complained about their belly being empty, and they ended up getting so hungry they got a little nauseous. Then when they started the prep, they were complaining their belly was upset for the opposite reason. I never told them about this side of me, so I very subtly rubbed their belly when I could, but hearing them complain and rub their own belly while they ran back and forth between rooms holding their stomach every few minutes was really hot.