Anxiety and sickness

[Blackandwhitehorse]

Just looking for some support and advice.

I have had overwhelming nausea when I have anxiety since a child. Usually if it’s a big event, new job, school etc. it doesn’t always occur and I can’t always predict when it will flair up.

Ive never taken medication.

I have a new job this week and it’s all quite uncertain at the moment and had been in my last role a long time.

However each morning I am waking at 4am and just have overwhelming sickness (luckily nothing much to puke as not eating much in the day)

Not sure how much longer I can do the job if I feel this way.

Does anyone have any advice?

Hello Op. sorry to hear you're feeling like this. Yes, waking at 4am is a classic thing that happens during a period of heightened anxiety. Also the nausea.

What do you find has worked previously to support yourself in these periods?

Btw, much of anxiety is often anticipatory, and fear of the unknown, so it hopefully should start to reduce once your become more familiar with your new job. In the meantime, you need strategies to help you tend your anxiety. It won't go away, you need to accept it is there and work with it.

Try having a read around this site:

conscious-transitions.com/blog/

Nothing much other than time has helped in the past, just continuing as best I can really.

Seems a bit more extreme this time so was thinking maybe this is where meds come in.

Have you ever had any help with this? I’d be chatting if your GP. As the previous poster says, early morning waking is common with anxiety and depression. There is support out there.

Thanks @juniperjump yes I’m hoping it resolves itself quickly as the sickness is really difficult to manage.

@PurpleDaisies no I’ve never had any support- I might see how I feel end of this week and make an app with my GP.

Sertraline is an AD that can be very effective for anxiety. It takes about 3 weeks to kick in, and symptoms can worsen during those first 3 weeks so you sometimes have to really hold on, but then once they kick in they can be life changing.

I’ve never had any support- I might see how I feel end of this week and make an app with my GP.

Don’t wait to make that appointment. You’ll talk yourself out of it. You’ve felt like this for years. It doesn’t have to be medication. It could be help with coping strategies for periods of your life when you feel like this.

Have you tried hand breathing?

Use index finger of one hand to trace on the palm of your other hand. Start at bottom of thumb, breathe in slowly as you trace up to the finger tip, breathe out fully as you trace down. Repeat for all 5 fingers.

Deepening your breathing activates your body's calming system (can't remember the proper name!)

Also self bear hugs:

Wrap your arms around yourself and hug yourself tightly around the chest/back. Hold for count of 5, whilst breathing deeply.

When you release, then shake your hands and arms vigorously in turn to shift some of the tense energy.

Thank you I will give the breathing technique a go.

Anxiety is such a sneaky one, I’ve felt ok for a while (a few years with occasional flare ups) and you think you’re ok, then a new situation comes up and just completely flips it again.

Had to reply because you're the first person who has ever articulated what I feel when I'm anxious. The nausea is debilitating and I am sometimes physically sick with it. I've had it since childhood and only in the last 5 years been to my GP. It took a friend pointing out to me that it was a ridiculous way to live before I did something. I now take sertraline and also accessed some talking therapies through the NHS. The sertraline helped take the edge off it and the therapy helped me to see how disordered my thinking was (for example I defined myself as either "fine" or "anxious" - I didn't have anything in between these 2 states, was never just a bit nervous).
Go to your GP and self refer for some therapy is my advice!

I have this problem too, and it's happening at the moment with break-up grief. I have found guided meditation helpful for the 4am wake ups. CBD oil in a vape is useful overall. Sometimes you need to move your body to ground it more; I might get out the yoga mat. They're more preventative measures though rather than handling the nausea when you're in the throes of it. Hits me like a punch in the guts. Controlled deep breathing and short sharp pain (nothing sinister; hold an ice cube say) can help it a bit.

@Frustratedmummy79 so sorry you’ve been through this too!

Can I ask did the sertaline stop the sickness? Or more just the anxious thoughts? Did you experience any side affects?

As mine is usually related to specific situations it usually resolves itself in time, which is why I’ve never gone down the medication route.

@Blackbirdblue30 sorry to hear that.

Agree it’s hard to control it when you’re in the throes of nausea, the only thing that temporarily helps me is being sick, not ideal.

I am trying to work out if anxiety is causing my sickness. But I didn't realise I was anxious.
I am hopefully seeing a doctor to rule other things out.

I have had periods of overwhelming nausea, with vomiting and sometimes shaking etc.

I feel completely useless and totally disabled when it happens.
But I still think it could be an illness.

Can last a couple of days.

So I don't really know, but anxiety also makes sense.

I don't want to hijack your thread, but I know how horrible it is.

I have anxiety and sickness with it, I don't know which comes first!

I take Stugeron travel sickness tablets which reduces the sickness and helps me bring the anxiety back under control.

Yes it’s like an evil chicken and egg situation! The sickness makes me more anxious!

I have had it where my mind was (lying) telling me I was fine then I wake up at 4am with thoughts racing and the sickness and feeling tearful. Almost like my bodies is like fuck you brain you can’t trick me!

No worries nausea is awful whatever the cause. I hope yours gets sorted. If it’s anxiety for me, I can trace it back to me being worried about a particular thing.

This is my daughter. When she gets anxious she feels sick and has actually been sick and she wakes up in the night worried she will feel sick before anything new or challenging!!

We went to the gp and he prescribed propranolol and he was so helpful. She now takes one tablet at night and 1 in the morning before a big event and it stops the shaking which is the rise in adrenaline which makes her feel sick.

She sometimes starts worrying 2 days before something new or different and she isn't necessarily worrying about the event it is worrying about feeling or being sick.

So definitely worth a visit to the gp.

I have had this also since I was a young child and it manifests mostly in social situations involving food.

I self managed it poorly, by digging my nails into my skin to try to distract my brain from feeling sick.

Before getting married I saw a GP as I was worried about having to be sick on my wedding day. I was prescribed Buccastem which seemed to help - only 8 tablets to take as necessary.

I also try guided meditation and breathing techniques in the run up to an event to try to keep it at bay and remind myself that it is impossible for the body to be relaxed and stressed at the same time.

I'm interested to hear what has helped other people, as it is obviously difficult to eat and keep the urge to vomit at bay and avoidance of those situations is difficult and does not help.

I have had and still have anxiety. My username indicates a horrendous life changing event I lived through. I do not take medication now, I have and it has its place I am not anti meds but it made me feel nothing and I didn’t like it. I also had therapy which really helped. Plus I read up a lot on the responses and chemical changes in our bodies when under stress, understanding the reason I felt like that physically helped somewhat.

I do not really drink alcohol anymore that absolutely affects mood which is why people drink it but there is always a post alcohol issue for me. I also exercise I have walked for at least an hour a day for years now and I also have routine.

The only alcohol that doesn’t affect me negatively is Pimms, no idea why. If actual anxiety starts to creep up I exercise to burn off the adrenaline.

Waking up at 4am? I know that feeling I get out of bed go downstairs and do star jumps or run on the spot to burn off the adrenaline. Laying doing nothing is the worst thing you could ever do. You need to change position and distract, even if it’s walking to the kitchen, in to the garden or down the corridor at work.

I think the sertraline just brought me back onto a more even keel so I could then address my thinking around the events that would trigger my anxiety. I wasn't generally anxious about everything, mostly about specific events

@shellstarbarley I'm just wondering how old your daughter was to receive that script we are really struggling with my 13yr old and almost constant nausea during term time.

I went through a phase of this in my mid teens. It was mostly centred around going to a particular friend’s house - I’d start off OK, then begin to feel queasy as the afternoon progressed, and finally have to lie down with dizziness.

Looking back, it wasn’t a very happy friendship. I adored her and desperately looked forward to meeting up at her house or mine. But she was overbearing and manipulative, and keeping up with her was an exhausting process. I also wonder if I have always found other people’s houses and families and customs a bit complicated to get my head around.