Anxiety and nausea

[thebatman]

Hi, I'm 21 years old and I've suffered from anxiety from the around the age of eight. During this time my anxiety continues to change my symptoms, as my resilience builds against current symptoms. Because of this, each time I'm faced with the question - is this anxiety, or am I actually ill this time? As of the past month or so I've been feeling extremely nauseous from time to time, and I've also been light headed and feeling panicked. I made the mistake of googling 'what causes nausea?', and this has now increased my nausea and vertigo severely because of the possible illnesses that could be the root of my symptoms. I was previously unaware that anxiety could actually cause nausea or vertigo, so I suppose a large portion of me is worried that I am suffering an actual illness. It seems when I start to feel nauseous, it gets worse, because it consumes my each and every thought. It has now gotten to the stage where I don't want to leave my bed, and I'm struggling to eat anything at all, in fear it will make me sick. My question is: has anybody else experienced this? and if so, how did you get over the nausea or the feeling as though you're about to faint?

Thank you.

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[redcentre]

I have been searching for this exact thread.

I have been on medication with success in the past and am into my third week of reintroducing it. I feel so ill. And was thinking that it was the medication, but it did previously work... feeling ill is not uncommon for me. I used to tell myself that I cant be dying because if I was I would be dead by now!

I have an appointment with my pysch tomorrow and my thinking has shifted from"this medication is making me ill" to..."i am feeling ill because of this anxiety and until I ground myself with additional supports and strategies, I may need more medication ..not less" 

Some deep breaths and I will get up!! 

[redcentre]

Hi

Enjoyed your post. And happy for you that you are feeling better...I have been on lots of medication in the past and then decided to try other ways...and fell down.. now know the other ways are fantastic but only in conjunction with the medication...not in lieu of ...I dont feel like I am totally back at square one but I do have a long way to go...and am going to enjoy the journey of getting well..

Take care... 

[NYC223]

I too respect your story and think it is great that medication has helped you so much, however to make a some-what comparison to cancer i think is highly inappropriate. I will justify my statement for any confusion. When I stated that I believed in just dealing with it, I mean that, anxiety is a mental disorder and it is a fact that the powerhouse behind it is the brain. Our minds have the potential to break us just as much as they can make us feel amazing. Obviously it depends on your personal condition and the extent to which your anxiety is impacting your life, but I am a believer in altering my mindset. When I feel myself start to get the symptoms of anxiety, I close my eyes and start to remind myself that nothing is wrong with me and that I am fine as a way to try and calm myself and therefore divert my mind from convincing me that I am sick. I have used medication, both natural and prescribed. I have used a strong sleeping medication to knock me out to calm down, but my personal goal is to try and live with my anxiety as best as I can by training myself.

Again, it does depend on everyone's level of anxiety and how it is impacting their life but that is what I meant by my previous statement.

I hope you continue to feel great and can go in living life to the fullest! 

x

[NYC223]

I am so glad to hear this. I believe that the first step in helping yourself deal with anxiety and hopefully defeating it, is recognising that it is all in your mind. The mind is such an incredible structure when you think about it. So when you say that you have changed your mindset into telling you that you are ill because of anxiety, it is a very positive step of progression!

I would like to share an example of just how powerful the mind is. I had read an article online a few months back about this woman who was pregnant however when she went into labor, she delivered nothing. It turns out that the woman was not pregnant at all but she had convinced herself that she was pregnant and in turn felt all the stages of pregnancy- she grew a belly, had morning sickness and contractions.

I feel like this just emphasises the incredible pull that the mind has over us, but by training out mind, we can change our thought patterns and therefore help ourselves in dealing and defeating our anxiety.

 All the best

x

[Schnapps]

Hi Beltane,

I am really hoping that you can help me. I have been diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune illness meaning that eventually I will end up paraplegic. I thought that I had come to accept this condition but obviously not as I suffer severe anxiety coupled with an unliveable level of anxiety. I have tried many treatments and nothing has worked. I have even tried the nausea tablets which I used to take when I had cancer in 2006. Things are now becoming desperate.

The description of your nausea sounds horrific but by the sounds of things all is much more bearable. You mentioned that you take a low dose antipsychotic that has  made a massive difference. I might need to pursue this with my GP.

Desperate for any help.

Best Regards 

[Beltane]

I'm so sorry to hear about this awful diagnosis you;ve received Schnapps. I'm not sure why my antipsychotic medication fixed my nausea- i tend to think it was because my anxiety was very severe and causing the nausea.

I hope you have discussed with your doctors the very strong nausea tablets (by the sounds you might already have tried some that you used for your cancer, but another kind might work differently.

I read a really interesting article the other day about a man who had unexplained nausea- terrible terrible nausea, he lost a lot of weight and vomited often, he could barely eat without vomiting. Noone could ever figure out what was wrong with him, and he tried every nausea drug on the planet. According to this article, he went onto a low dose antipsychotic and his nausea was relieved. The whole article was about how this antipsychotic (it didnt mention which one, and i cant mention the name of the one i'm on here but it is one of the most commonly prescribed ones), how this antipsychotic had helped him. He was a bit of a mediacl mystery in that noone knew what had caused the nausea, but apparently the antipsychotic "tricked" hsi brain out of the nausea".

All i know is i havent had nausea since ive been on this medication, unless theres been a darn good reason- eg i had a bout of food poisoning. Also i've got a couple of food intolerances, if i eat those foods i'll get sick but again, thats a good reason and i accept that nausea (and take better care to avoid the food)

It would be interesting to see what your doctor thinks about a low dose of a common antipsychotic to see it helps at all. Worth a try, you can always come off them again if it doesnt help.

There is also an antidepressant medication commonly used in cancer patients that is notorious for helping with insomnia and nausea. 

I really hope that you find some relief (or total relief) from this nausea, boy do i know how awful it can be. i lived with it for years

[Fionac]

I too use an anti-psychotic, in a low dose to help with the Anxiety and Nausea but unfortunately for me it hasn't been a miracle cure. It is BETTER but not gone completely, it also helps me sleep. I take it once at night. I am sure it is the same one you are talking about as it is the most commonly used one. I do have better days but have not had too many where I don't feel any nausea at all. I find the best thing is being occupied. I went away on the weekend to a course and hardly even felt nauseous because of was preoccupied. I have decided to start looking for work after a big break, I am hoping being engrossed in work will help me. The nausea ends up being your point of focus and as such causes Anxiety which causes nausea, big circle. I wish everyone the best and can honestly say I have come a long way since the black hole I was in 18 months ago but still have a long way to go, good luck to all. Keep plugging away.

[Schnapps]

Hi Beltane,

Thank you so much for your post. It is greatly appreciated.

Thank you also for talking a little bit more about the low dose antipsychotic and I am so glad that it has worked wonders for you given the level of suffering you have had to go thru.

I have googed "commonly prescribed antipsychotics" and I get a PDF titled " commonly prescribed antipsychotics medications". There are unfortunately quite a number of typical antipsychotics that come up though.

The biggest problem I have at the moment is that no one is sure as to why I have this nausea when I have been taking medications to ease my anxiety and therefore my nausea.

It has really got me beat and I have to be determined as this is not the way to live.

Best Regards & Thanks

[Beltane]

But I had exactly what you are going through.

nausea nausea nausea everyday. It was really severe; I used to get hysterical in the doctors offices because all their nausea stuff- and I mean the really powerful anti nausea stuff that they use on cancer patients- didn't even help at all.

i had CT scans, barium X-rays, 2 gastroscopies, countless abdominal ultrasounds, and a colonscopy. Then I tried all the special diets- you know, gluten free, fructose free, lactose free, avoid beans, greasy/ spicy foods. I tried everytthing

it got to a point, and you might understand this, where I *wanted* to hear bad news. I mean I didn't really of course but I was so SICK of feeling SICK. I couldn't hold down a full time job and could only work in the afternoons (I felt slighter better in afternoons, mornings were literally spent close to a toilet, just in case). I wanted them to find what was wrong with me.

it really truly was anxiety, all along. I know I know, I bet I know what you're thinkkng "there's no way my brain is doing this". It is and it isn't. It is your brain but that doesn't mean you can just stop the nausea by telling your brain to stop. 3 years of intense theraoy only taught me how to live with the nausea (if you can really call that "living") but it didn't reduce it or get rid of it. 

Its also that the chemicals that are thought to play a past in anxiety abd Depression (serotonin, dopamine etc) are ALSO lining your gut.

I bet you get even sicker when you're under stress right? If someone were to call you up with terrible news right now, the first thing you'd do would be to throw up (or at least feel like it) right?

and maybe it gets better when you're life is super peaceful and quiet (which with anxiety, it never actually is).

you may need a psychiatrist appointment. Talk to your dictir about the psych crisis teams- they may be able to get you an appointment sooner rather than later. while GP's can handle simple mental illness, a psych really knows their stuff. usually antidepressants are the first line treatment, they work for the most people and carry less side effects. Anti psychotics seem to be used when antideiressants fail- I failed 7 before I got onto this. They do carry more potential side effects, but I don't have a single one. 

i just woke up the morning after my first dose feeling well and I've never felt sick for no reason since.

[Schnapps]

Hi Beltane,

Sorry its taken me so long to respond but I certainly appreciated your advice and am acting on some of this as things get really tough.

Unfortunately my GP has not been proactive or helpful at all and I have passed on some of the things that you have said to my neurologist. She should be by GP as well as she is doing a better job of this as well.

Anyway, I'm on my way to see a psychologist with an evaluation completed and appointment time set.

My neurologist has also put me on an antidepressant being the one you suggested that begins with 'm' as per your previous post. I suggested this to her and she thought it an excellent idea. She was surprised that my GP had not already put me on an antidepressant given my nausea worry and anxiety over the last 12 months.

I have also booked in for stomach check with an Endoscopy clinic.

I did suggest to my neurologist a common low dose antipsychotic one but she had said at this stage lets try the antidepressant before we mix things up.

Anyway its a start and I am going to find a new GP who can help me better.

Take Care & Best Regards