My mother is experiencing extreme nausea

jennyr · ‎27-11-2013

My mother has had depression and anxiety for the past year. With this she is experiencing extreme nausea. I would like to know of others who have also had nausea with their depression and anxiety and what steps they did to overcome this. At present my mother sits in her chair at home and has no light at the end of the tunnel. She is on depressant medication but it does not seem to help with this. I , her daughter, don't know what I can do to help or direct her in a direction that will provide some quality to her life and help her through this.

jennyr · ‎06-03-2014

The problem we have with mum is we try and include her in outings or grandkids activities, thinking of her interests and suggesting to get back into craft or even just coming over to my place for afternoon tea to see the grandkids. But her response always is that she doesn't feel well. We do find that when she is distracted she does start interacting more. Mum holds herself back from her negative thoughts and unwilling to leave the house unless she has too. All the doctors that she has seen believe that if she starts to move around and starts going out and moving more the nausea will start to improve but mum doesn't seem to accept this and that the nausea is a lot more going on inside her. Mum has had numerous tests over and over again with nothing abnormal showing. Mum is on an anti-depressant medication but this isn't providing her with any relief at present. Mum is expecting a quick fix and not pushing herself to improve. Sorry if it sounds insensitive but I find it hard to understand why she isn't trying to fight this more.

JFC101 · ‎11-03-2014

G'day Jennyr

Nausea is a wonderful symptom of anxiety.

If when I wake I start thinking about my life, my problems, the things I'm going to do, I start the day with bouts of dry retching and/or vomiting. Nausea is simply a given.

When I do things out of my 'comfort zone', my amygdala/emotion goes gangbusters and nausea/dry retching/vomiting are de rigueur. Going to a new job was three hours of nausea, dry retching and vomiting before I left for the job. Not entirely confidence building when I'm dry retching on the way to the car.

Joining a gym involved dry retching before attending for the first time and vomiting the moment I walked out of the doors. Vomiting the moment I got home from visiting the psychologist after tackling a panic attack to attend. Having a panic attack at friend's renewals of the vows and vomiting on the road outside their house when I bolted. Vomiting the night before I'd organised to do certain things the next day.

It's a classic fear response. The amygdala is seeing all things outside your comfort zone as a threat and causes nausea and expelling.

Do you know the thing that helps most, and empowers me as it gives me a sense of control - meditation. Focusing on my breath has immediate results in reducing the nausea and rising anxiety. Cannot recommend a medication course over medication enough. I'm far from new age, and I know how controlling your breathing affects the physiology associated with fear-anxiety. Meditation can be for 30 sec, 1 minute, etc and it does affect the physiological reaction associated with fear-anxiety.

Best of luck.

kowari · ‎12-03-2014

Hi jennyr,

I am a 50 year old guy who has a lot of experience with anxiety and nausea. I will briefly give me story and my treatment.: I went on a long trip to Europe in 2005 and during that time developed intermittent nausea. I also had some panic attacks in which I freaked out in crowded trains, and had heart arrhythmia. I did not join the dots, but instead flew home half way through the trip, leaving my poor partner to continue alone. Back in Melbourne, I got tested for everything - all normal. Till finally a friend suggested anxiety 6 months later. I then went to see a psychiatrist. Anxiety was diagnosed and I since learned all about it. Did meditation, exercise etc. Most symptoms faded - expect the nausea. It was worst in morning, bearable in arvo and night. Finally, I tried a mild class of anti-depressant in July 2006 - it seems silly to me that I am forbidden for mentioning this on this forum. (I mean, medications are a key part of the discussion). By late 2006 (several weeks later) the nausea faded away. It stayed away for several years and I stayed on that medication during that time. It only popped up when I traveled overseas - which I love doing but it takes me from my comfort zone - but if I take a benzodiazapine daily, it utterly blocks the nausea, and I'm fine, then I stop the drug when I return home. However, now, in 2014, I have had recurring bouts of nausea despite the daily anti-depressant (not the benzo). Also, my nausea is accompanied by loss of appetite. I have found that the following helps block or relieve the nausea: (1) taking a medication that treats constipation and gets gut moving for a week or so, (2) at work, focusing on what I am doing, eg., giving a talk or attending one, and it fades. (3) meditation or swimming helps me.

Kowari

jennyr · ‎13-03-2014

Thankyou for responding to me. Your symptoms sound just like my mothers. I applaud you for finding ways to help you deal with the situation. Unfortunately my mother is letting the nausea control her and as the doctors at the hospital told her (when she was diagnosed with anxiety/depression) the more you think about the nausea the more you feed it and then it increases. So finding ways to keep your mind from focusing totally on the nausea you need to find things that you enjoy doing and exercise is one of the most important things to do. At present she is trying out a new anti-depressant medication so that can take a few weeks before signs of improvement are shown plus she isn't sleeping well at night.

Thankyou again and good luck to you.

Jennyr

Nervous_Girl · ‎13-03-2014

Hi Jennyr,

It really does sound like your mum isnt getting any relief from her anxiety. I would definately agree with having her medications reviewed and you may want to make sure you are there at the appointment to push the fact they are not assisting enough with her anxiety.

The problem with anxiety is that it can make medical issues seem like they are impossible to overcome. When anxiety is really bad it can make us fearful of leaving the house or even moving. The nausea will likely come under control once the anxiety is treated appropriately, or at least it did with me.

My biggest piece of advice for you is to not expect her to be too involved with family outings. Spending time one on one just talking about how she is feeling and offering her a different perspective will help her greatly. Applaud every little step forward she takes, nomatter how small it is because confidence is a huge factor in this.

I wish you all the very best

Chloekat84 · ‎11-08-2014

I found that when i had bad neasea that i would eat a cracker like if i was pregnant. But if it persists you ned to o to your doctor who can give u anti neusea medication that can help a lot. I was on that when i was in and out of hospital. Hope this info helps. Take care x