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lonelypsychonaut
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Anyone Else Get Nausea With Their Anxiety?
#23766727 - 10/24/16 12:45 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hey everyone,
So, its been a rough 2 days for me. I haven't been able to shake my anxiety (until now), and because of that I've had really bad nausea for 2 days. For me, ever since I first started having anxiety, I noticed that I would get nauseous whenever the anxiety came. Eventually I developed a very nasty habit of getting anxious about being nauseous in general. As time has passed, the two have become VERY strongly linked for me.
2 nights ago, me and friend has this HUGE fight via text over basically nothing, but it got my heart racing to the point that I started getting anxious, and therefore, nauseous. The fight went on for a while, like 2 hours. By the end of it, the nausea was pretty bad, and the vicious circle began.
I managed to fall asleep somehow, but I woke up the next day still super nauseous. I tried drinking ginger ale and eating granola bars throughout my shift at work to make it stop. I guess it helped a bit, but not enough. The vicious circle continued to take a hold of me. I felt nauseous, so I got anxious about it, which made me more nauseous, which made me more anxious, and so on. By the end of the day I went to bad, I noticed that the nausea was just too much and I knew I wasn't gonna be able to sleep. I chilled in the bathroom for about an hour and a half fighting with myself. I told myself I'd be down to puke (not really though) if my body wants to do that, but there was no way I was gonna stick my finger down my throat to make it happen. Eventually I burped it up, and I thought it would make me feel better ... it really didn't.
I took an anti-nauseant pill (should've taken 2) and I somehow managed to fall asleep again. I woke up a couple of hours later because my mom walked in my room to check on me, she knew I was in the bathroom for a while during the night. I still felt nauseous the second I woke up, and the anxiety set in again, and I was thrown into the vicious circle again. Eventually I puked again because I was so worried about it and I felt powerless cause I couldn't stop it no matter how much I tried to calm down. I stayed up for another 8 hours, taking 2 pills 4 hours in between, and they cause drowsiness so I was able to fall asleep again.
I woke up later feeling better, and I ate some mashed potatoes and rice because I needed to eat and I could only eat bland foods. Then, midnight came around and my anxiety got triggered again! It started happening all over again, so I quickly took 2 more pills. These things take about 45 minutes to set in though, so I knew I had to focus and calm myself down, try to find something to completely distract myself. My xbox and call of duty saved my life, and for the rest of the night I felt minor nausea and and a lot less anxiety, it was manageable. I fell asleep again around 8am this morning. I woke up an hour ago, still nauseous, but this time I knew it was because of the lack of food I've had in the past 2 days. I ate a piece of bread, and now I'm eating crackers feeling better with each one. I'm so fucking glad this is finally over, its been an excruciating 48 hours.
I'm wondering, does anyone else struggle with this? Does anyone else have a strong nausea/anxiety connection? Some of my friends and people I've known in the past few years have suffered with anxiety as well, but upon asking, none of them seem to have the same struggle as me. None of them seem to have bad nausea with anxiety like I do. I do have a terrible history/phobia of puking, so I bet that plays a huge role for me personally. But I am truly wondering if I'm alone on this, and if I'm not, I'm wondering if anyone's been able to find a way to cure themselves of this. I honestly wouldn't hesitate to say that nausea has ruined my life.
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Tortoisemuncher
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Registered: 10/24/16
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I get mildly anxiety often, to the point where it's not interupting my daily life. But when I get panic attacks, which is basically just severe anxiety and an inability to think straight, I also get nausea.
You might find your body has somehow trained itself to associate one another. Google a psychology concept called Pavlov's dog for more information on that.
But for me, unfortunately nausea doesn't usually accompany my anxiety. Good luck!
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Rollin.n.Strollin



Registered: 07/25/16
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Loc: Australia
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Re: Anyone Else Get Nausea With Their Anxiety? [Re: Tortoisemuncher]
#23767152 - 10/24/16 03:12 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Same thing happens with me, I used to get up in the morning and the first thing I'd do is have a purge, it was painful because my stomach acids would come up and burn my throat, but I think that's more related to my acid reflux.
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lonelypsychonaut
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Re: Anyone Else Get Nausea With Their Anxiety? [Re: Tortoisemuncher]
#23767204 - 10/24/16 03:28 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Tortoisemuncher said: I get mildly anxiety often, to the point where it's not interupting my daily life. But when I get panic attacks, which is basically just severe anxiety and an inability to think straight, I also get nausea.
You might find your body has somehow trained itself to associate one another. Google a psychology concept called Pavlov's dog for more information on that.
But for me, unfortunately nausea doesn't usually accompany my anxiety. Good luck!
lucky you ...
I'm actually a psychology student! I know all about Pavlov and conditioning. I've had a phobia of throwing up ever since 3rd grade when I got the flu for the very first time, I guess it scarred me for life. Ever since then, I've always felt slightly nauseous (not always, but I never go a day without thinking about puking or nausea, it always comes across my mind at some point). Then when anxiety came into the picture, it only made my problem worse.
So, after 11 years of having this problem (6 years with anxiety), do you think the psychological connection between these two will never go away? Is thinking about nausea so deeply rooted in my brain that I'll never be free from it? I mean, puking is horrible, but I fear these questions the most. I don't wanna be stuck like this forever.
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Rollin.n.Strollin



Registered: 07/25/16
Posts: 814
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Quote:
lonelypsychonaut said:
Quote:
Tortoisemuncher said: I get mildly anxiety often, to the point where it's not interupting my daily life. But when I get panic attacks, which is basically just severe anxiety and an inability to think straight, I also get nausea.
You might find your body has somehow trained itself to associate one another. Google a psychology concept called Pavlov's dog for more information on that.
But for me, unfortunately nausea doesn't usually accompany my anxiety. Good luck!
lucky you ...
I'm actually a psychology student! I know all about Pavlov and conditioning. I've had a phobia of throwing up ever since 3rd grade when I got the flu for the very first time, I guess it scarred me for life. Ever since then, I've always felt slightly nauseous (not always, but I never go a day without thinking about puking or nausea, it always comes across my mind at some point). Then when anxiety came into the picture, it only made my problem worse.
So, after 11 years of having this problem (6 years with anxiety), do you think the psychological connection between these two will never go away? Is thinking about nausea so deeply rooted in my brain that I'll never be free from it? I mean, puking is horrible, but I fear these questions the most. I don't wanna be stuck like this forever.
I honestly don't think so IMO. It's most likely Just a bad unwilling thing that you've become accustomed to. I I'd like to say it'll subside.
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lonelypsychonaut
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Quote:
Rollin.n.Strollin said:
I honestly don't think so IMO. It's most likely Just a bad unwilling thing that you've become accustomed to. I I'd like to say it'll subside.
Its weird. All throughout August and most of July and September, I was fine. It was the least nauseous I've ever felt in a long time. I wouldn't feel nausea at all for days, even weeks.
I think my problem is I have health anxiety and I am WAY too focused on my body. I'm always conscious of how my body is feeling all the time. If something in/on my body starts to look/feel different, my full attention goes towards whatever it is and I can't get my mind off it, especially with this nausea thing. I'm always conscious of how my throat feels. The only time I'm not thinking about my body and how its feeling is when my FULL attention is focused on something else or a range of other things. But when I'm alone and there's nothing to do/think about, my thoughts go right back to assessing my physical state. It's really annoying.
I also jump to fucked conclusions that scare the shit out of me. Sometimes I'll be off weed and I'll get heart pains, and I'll fully convince myself I might be having a heart attack, or I have a major heart problem. Just this last week, I was feeling really constipated and bloated and wasn't pooping properly. I was convinced that there was something blocking my intestines, which I assumed to be a cancerous tumor lol. I'm only 20, idk why when these small things turn up in my body, my first thought it is always "fuck I'm dying".
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Rollin.n.Strollin



Registered: 07/25/16
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Actually I can have input on the overly conscious part, every time it would happen I'd think about it which would just make it ten times worse.
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lonelypsychonaut
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Quote:
Rollin.n.Strollin said: Actually I can have input on the overly conscious part, every time it would happen I'd think about it which would just make it ten times worse.
Recently I read somewhere that we actually have a "vomit centre" in our brain. I wish I could harmlessly get it removed lol
There's a concept called "brain placticity". Basically, it means your brain is constantly reshaping, the parts of the brain you use more get bigger while the parts you use less get smaller. Maybe my "vomit centre" has gotten bigger over time, constantly thinking about it and feeling it.
Honestly though, its a real mystery, but I think its mostly all in my head. Last year I had "major stomach problems". I felt pains and weird feelings every day, eventually I threw up from it so I went to the ER, they completely misdiagnosed me, IV'd me with Gravol or something, then sent me home. Within the next couple of weeks, I got an ultrasound on my abdomen, and an upper endoscopy as well. Both came up completely clear, no problems. Turns out for months I thought there was something wrong with my stomach, when really there was absolutely nothing wrong. It's fucking scary how powerful the human brain can be when its working against you ...
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Lucis
Nutritional Yeast

Registered: 03/28/15
Posts: 15,622
Last seen: 1 month, 30 days
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I have never had stomach pains from anxiety, sorry you feel this way that must suck.
But one thing I have felt that have helped my stomach before when I have experienced nausea, is sitting up straight and breathing deeply for several repetitions.
4-7-8 breathing technique has helped me with nausea, as well as trying to sleep. This vid mentions it being for sleep, but really anytime you get stressed it can help. It's not a cure all, but might help you overcome your bout of tummy funk.
-------------------- ©️
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Love_spirit
Circle Of Power



Registered: 07/18/15
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Your certainly not alone in that. I wake up with nightmares often involving food and I'm immediately hit with an inseparable combination of fear and nausea. It quickly fades away. just this morning I woke up from a dream where I was having fun going to eat with friend and as we entered the diner I felt the nausea/fear. After we where going to eat we where going to see Doom play at a concert.. In my mind food == doom. My issues with food and sleep nausea/fear have been a constant thing thats been going on for years. Obviously I cant stop eating and I cant stop sleeping so the weird challenge continues.
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They
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Re: Anyone Else Get Nausea With Their Anxiety? [Re: Love_spirit]
#23772220 - 10/26/16 03:12 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Notice how you carefully formulate things so as to look like anxiety is not something that you are doing, but it's something external, that just "happens to you", it basically, does itself.
Quote:
So, its been a rough 2 days for me. I haven't been able to shake my anxiety (until now), and because of that I've had really bad nausea for 2 days. For me, ever since I first started having anxiety, I noticed that I would get nauseous whenever the anxiety came. Eventually I developed a very nasty habit of getting anxious about being nauseous in general. As time has passed, the two have become VERY strongly linked for me.
2 nights ago, me and friend has this HUGE fight via text over basically nothing, but it got my heart racing to the point that I started getting anxious, and therefore, nauseous. The fight went on for a while, like 2 hours. By the end of it, the nausea was pretty bad, and the vicious circle began.
Quote:
Then, midnight came around and my anxiety got triggered again! It started happening all over again, so I quickly took 2 more pills.
Notice how in your story, all this just happens upon you, descends upon you like Persian arrows 
Well, there are very clear anatomical reasons why your emotional state would affect your gut. We have a gut brain, we FEEL in our gut, both the butterflies of falling in love or being infatuated, AND the nasty effects of an argument, or excessive worry in the head. They DO affect digestion, and also the other way around, eating bad stuff affects moods as well.
WHat you have there is a breathing and focus problem, not a gut problem.
Please learn to meditate, that is to sit down, close eyes, and follow breath. Feel it in the nose AND hear it, make sure you are breathing, not in-the-head thinking. As a gamer, you will likely be fidgety as fuck when you begin, especially if you also take in a lot of coffee or sugar. Your brain is basically, stuck in 5th gear for most of the day. This is normal. Persist and your fidgeting around level WILL go down as you put in more practice.
Closing eyes and focusing on breath reduces external stimuli, calms the gut-brain down and while you may have to deal with some weird memories and mind-wandering initially (all normal in meditation practice) it WILL give you a more stable state in the face of emotionally disturbing external situations from then on. The weird memories that come up, once you breathe through them and re-process them in this way, WILL leave you alone long term, giving you more calm and energy to live life in peace and with full energy.
Notice that gaming is a Dopamine-release based activity, where these Dopamine spikes come easier than in real life. Less training and patience required per task, less failing to overcome, before you get the points and coins and kills. This is fun to do, as an activity, but also trains an overly stimulated brain, more impatient and lazy, that requires high levels of external visual stimulation and quicker easier rewards, and when it doesn't have it, it quickly craves sugar, cigs, some kind of stuff, and you'll find yourself fidgety. Fingers and legs trembling. This for the most part ensures that you'll have a shitty time with the ladies, as the guy with the most stable gut-brain, more calm and peaceful and smooth, tends to be more fun to be around.
Please realize you are DOING anxiety (specifically by over-thinking under-breathing about the situation, watch yourself you ARE doing this, all anxiety is is overthinking and forgetting to breathe) and there you have it. It doesn't "happen to you". Maybe you let it happen. Maybe for good reason, like it brought you here reading this.
As for the anxiety pills, same as with sugar or cigs, if I'm a dude and we're in the same room going for the same job interview, girl, whatever the task is, and I can breathe my breaths and handle my reality with just food air water, and you start trembling without video games and anxiety pills, then observe you're basically being a mess. Relying on external crutches, to just help you not fall apart. They are not helping you long term, these anxiety pills. Comfy in the short run, trains you to break down early and basically be a pussy, on the long run. So for your own good I am advising you to observe your gut sensations more, if things get argumentative and you get that bzzzzz in the abdomen LEAVE, don't keep arguing for 2 hours.
There's a longer explanation with what happens with our abdomen in arguments, but this post is already long enough. Long story short the more aware you are of your internals (gut feeling, breath and heart rate, as well as fidgeting level of arms and fingers) the better you can steer clear of the shit of life, not delve all the way face-first in it 
Oh and finally, one food issue that deeply affects anxiety is your Omega 3 to Omega 6 balance. The Standard American Diet often has 1:15 or 1:20 ratios between these, when in fact they should be more like 1:1 or 2:1 in favor of Omega 3. Research this, reduce grains and bread and pasta in your diet, increase greens, spinach, spirulina, fish oil, switch from sunflower oil to raps or olive, some kind of plant, not seed-based oil. Plenty you can do, to either control anxiety or let it control you
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Rollin.n.Strollin



Registered: 07/25/16
Posts: 814
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Quote:
lonelypsychonaut said:
Quote:
Rollin.n.Strollin said: Actually I can have input on the overly conscious part, every time it would happen I'd think about it which would just make it ten times worse.
Recently I read somewhere that we actually have a "vomit centre" in our brain. I wish I could harmlessly get it removed lol
There's a concept called "brain placticity". Basically, it means your brain is constantly reshaping, the parts of the brain you use more get bigger while the parts you use less get smaller. Maybe my "vomit centre" has gotten bigger over time, constantly thinking about it and feeling it.
Honestly though, its a real mystery, but I think its mostly all in my head. Last year I had "major stomach problems". I felt pains and weird feelings every day, eventually I threw up from it so I went to the ER, they completely misdiagnosed me, IV'd me with Gravol or something, then sent me home. Within the next couple of weeks, I got an ultrasound on my abdomen, and an upper endoscopy as well. Both came up completely clear, no problems. Turns out for months I thought there was something wrong with my stomach, when really there was absolutely nothing wrong. It's fucking scary how powerful the human brain can be when its working against you ...
Your on the right track, the idea of long term potentiation of certain neurological pathways can increase the activity of those neurons, very interesting stuff.
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