Anxiety and throwing up- other ways to manage?

[beach_lover]

Hi there, I am new to this forum and have been struggling with anxiety for a long time alone. I have always found my own way to cope but find myself repeating mistakes or just avoiding and blocking things which are slowly catching up to me and making it worse.

I know there are many symptoms associated with anxiety but I find that when I throw up it calms me down and goes away and I was wondering if anybody else has experienced something similar?

I went through the same thing in high school 10 years ago- I would throw up to control my anxiety and make it stop but I had no appetite most days. I ended up losing a lot of weight to the point where my parents were in denial and my extended family thought I had an eating disorder.

I am just worried this is happening/going to happen to me again as I had an episode about half an hour ago.

I know the triggers are things in my personal life but I never have been on medication or seen or spoken to anyone about it and I really don't know if I feel comfortable to start now because I feel like they can't fix it so there isn't much point.

Anyone with positive advice or whose been in a similar position- I would really appreciate hearing from you 🙂

[smallwolf]

From your description, I would have a similar reaction as a result of an extreme high stress situation. Luckily it did not happen very often. And yes, afterwards you do feel calmer. That is one symptom. What else do you notice? For example, I also had a racing heart, tightness in chest, lump in throat, and sadness I could not remove, a feeling if utter helplessness. So a trip to the GP was made.

f something truly does not feel right, a trip to GP can be the both the easiest and hardest thing to do. A GP can provide some clarity to the situation and set you onto the right path, hopefully.

SM

[BballJ]

Hi beach_lover,

Firstly, welcome to the forums.

As someone who has dealt with anxiety for so many years I know there are many coping mechanisms people have to deal with it. Throwing up is one I haven't seen much of in the fact where you were making yourself throw up to make yourself feel better. You said you had an episode half an hour ago, is there anything in particular that triggers your anxiety? You do not have to go into it if you don't want too, just trying to gauge so we can offer the best advice to you.

You said you have also never seen or spoken to anyone about this, I cannot recommend highly enough speaking to your doctor about how you are feeling and also a psychologist, what they do is listen and understand and try to work out the root cause of why the anxiety happens and give you alternate ways to cope. It is different for everyone but you owe it to yourself to find out. It took me 10 years before I reached out for professional help but just talking and working out where my anxiety stems from helped me so much. You can get through this.

Please, post back as much as you like, we are always happy to talk.

My best for you,

Jay

[blondguy]

Hello Beach_Lover

Welcome to the forums and good on you for having the courage to post too!

I used to have bad anxiety during the 80's and 90's and as you mentioned there are many symptoms associated with anxiety disorder.

I know two friends that also vomited prior to or during an anxiety attack. Its very common for the digestive system to be the most sympathetic to anxiety disorder....whether its indigestion...nausea...Irritable bowel syndrome or throwing up...

Blocking thoughts/situations is also very common too for people that have had anxiety for just a few years...or many years too!

I hope you can book a double appointment with your GP (so you can have a really good vent) as soon as you have the time beach_lover. I still see my GP for a 'fine tune' every 4 weeks after having anxiety/depression.

You are an intelligent and strong person. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by making that appointment 🙂

You are always more than welcome to post as many times as you wish beach_lover. I hope you can stick around the forums and let us know how you go

My Kind thoughts

Paul

[smallwolf]

Just to followup on what blondguy said... a double appointment is a must. At the place where I go to, they recommend anything related to anxiety and depressions requires a double appointment... not so much because you want to [have a double appointment], but so the GP can go through everything they need to relating to your situation.

[Dr_Kim]

Hi Beachlover, thanks for your post and your honesty. My concern was heightened by a phrase in the post where you alluded to how 10 years ago you would “ throw up to control my anxiety” and that you think this might be happening again. That made me take a different possible view of what is going on here.

There are some people who throw up as a response to the adrenaline etc that is released into one's body during a panic attack. It is one of many physiological responses people can have, like dry mouth, diarrhoea, dizziness, palpitations, tightness in the chest. Some people have an extreme response in one particular system . For example, some people just feel lightheaded or dizzy , but others faint . Some just feel nauseous , but others actually throw up.

However I think you might be alluding to a different sort of vomiting response, one that is not there as a response to anxiety , but there as a release from anxiety.

This sort of bodily behaviour might be coming from a different place and need different treatment. You are right to worry that it might come back as there is the possibility of relapse and my advice to get in early and get treatment as it ABSOLUTELY CAN BE TREATED!

There has been much work done over the years in this area and almost everyone can get relief from these troubling symptoms , especially if you get in early and break the cycle.

So get your GP with that double appointment and be honest and up front about what is happening to you. They will likely know a therapist who specialises in this area who can help you feel so much better about things and gain control over the triggers in your personal life in a more healthy way.