Laker36
11-09-2014, 10:24 AM
Hi everyone
I'm very new to this but wanted to talk to and hear from other people who may have had similar experiences. I've always been a worrier but it has never really affected my health, up until this recent summer. I was doing a big internship in London (with a potential job at stake) and so obviously knew I had to impress. On the first day of the internship I was ill with some sort of bug that made me feel really really nauseas. This obviously hugely impacted on my first day (I had to leave the introductory meeting early and couldn't attend the social drinks that evening). I got myself so worked up that I would continue to feel unwell and nauseous - and so, of course, the nausea continued. At the time, before the thought of anxiety even occurred to me, I was convinced it was some sort of virus I had. 4 weeks later when I found out I got the job, my nausea and feeling of being unwell immediately vanished. Therefore, on hindsight I can see that it was myself and my own anxiety about feeling nauseous at work, making the nausea stay! Especially because when I really distracted myself, and first thing in the morning before I started worrying myself about it, I felt absolutely fine.
So all was well up until a couple months ago. I went to the Dr with pain under my right arm and on the right hand side of my chest. I was sent for xrays/blood tests etc to see what it could be, but that all came back clear. I started worrying about what it could be and found that I started to feel a tingling sensation down my right arm. I then, of course, made the classic mistake of googling these new symptoms which of course led me to the likes of ALS, multiple sclerosis etc etc. This then made me panic even more and for about a week I got myself very panicked. I went back to the Dr who told me it was my anxiety causing it. I also started to develop these other symptoms:
- Muscle twitches (worried me the most)
- Tingling in my fingers and feet
- Lightheaded-ness (sometimes)
- Vision Impairment
- Fatigue
- Loss of concentration
- Low mood (sometimes).
- nausea
- 'pinching' feeling in my armpits that lasts a few seconds, every so often.
Over the last couple weeks I have been undergoing CBT, which, coupled with my acceptance of the fact that this is all anxiety related, has really helped me change my mindset and not worry about these physical symptoms. A lot of the symptoms have gone, leaving just:
- Bad nausea
- Muscle twitches
- fatigue.
However, I am really really struggling with my nausea. The fatigue and muscle twitches are really uncommon, and, when they are around, hardly affect me or behaviours. The nausea however is constant - just fluctuating in how bad it is - and is really affecting my quality of life and is something that really worries me. I am really starting to worry that this nausea won't go away (because it is really affecting my way of life - when it is bad I have had to miss lectures, meetings, seminars etc and am already worrying about feeling nauseous in exams and trips in the future).
Just a note: sometimes the nausea is just nausea I feel in the back of my throat, but sometimes it's really bad stomach discomfort, sometimes stomach acid-caused etc. Also, unlike a lot of people where, when they get nauseous, they can't eat at all - mine actually results in me having to eat more, as I find that when I eat it helps to settle my nausea. So I'll eat biscuits, suck on a peppermint etc.
The question that I keep trying to ask myself is:
- Why do I still feel nauseous all the time even though I don't feel anxious?
In the summer, I knew that when my period of stress (the internship) ended, that's when my nausea would end. But there isn't any set stressful period at the moment. It seems my fear is of remaining nauseas and so my mind concentrates on it. However, I don't know how to not think about it, because sometimes it gets so bad that its always on the back of my mind.
As part of my CBT they have advised that I remove my safety behaviours - e.g. stop carrying the medicines that I find help control my nausea (which I always carry on me - Domperidone, gaviscon, omerprazole) and peppermints and biscuits. But, because I have nausea every day and I find that I have to eat biscuits/ suck on a mint to control it (the medicines I only take when the nausea is really bad) that the thought of not having them on me makes me even more worried about being nauseous, which makes me more nauseous!
I understand that there are a variety of things I can do to control nausea (peppermint, ginger, exercise etc), but I don't want to learn just how to treat it, but how to change my mindset and figure out why it is still here and how to get over this nausea.
Taking a step back, it seems that I am worried about being nauseous, which makes me nauseous. I just don't know how to break the chain. Is it my mentality? Because I don't feel anxious about anything else (e.g. not anxious about previous health concerns or about exams etc, my fear is just being nauseous during exams, rather than the exams themselves).
If anyone can offer any advice/ suggestions/ good books to read I would be so so grateful.
Thank you so much in advance.
(Interestingly, when I wake up in the morning, and when I am distracted (e.g. at a social) I don't feel nauseous!)
I'm very new to this but wanted to talk to and hear from other people who may have had similar experiences. I've always been a worrier but it has never really affected my health, up until this recent summer. I was doing a big internship in London (with a potential job at stake) and so obviously knew I had to impress. On the first day of the internship I was ill with some sort of bug that made me feel really really nauseas. This obviously hugely impacted on my first day (I had to leave the introductory meeting early and couldn't attend the social drinks that evening). I got myself so worked up that I would continue to feel unwell and nauseous - and so, of course, the nausea continued. At the time, before the thought of anxiety even occurred to me, I was convinced it was some sort of virus I had. 4 weeks later when I found out I got the job, my nausea and feeling of being unwell immediately vanished. Therefore, on hindsight I can see that it was myself and my own anxiety about feeling nauseous at work, making the nausea stay! Especially because when I really distracted myself, and first thing in the morning before I started worrying myself about it, I felt absolutely fine.
So all was well up until a couple months ago. I went to the Dr with pain under my right arm and on the right hand side of my chest. I was sent for xrays/blood tests etc to see what it could be, but that all came back clear. I started worrying about what it could be and found that I started to feel a tingling sensation down my right arm. I then, of course, made the classic mistake of googling these new symptoms which of course led me to the likes of ALS, multiple sclerosis etc etc. This then made me panic even more and for about a week I got myself very panicked. I went back to the Dr who told me it was my anxiety causing it. I also started to develop these other symptoms:
- Muscle twitches (worried me the most)
- Tingling in my fingers and feet
- Lightheaded-ness (sometimes)
- Vision Impairment
- Fatigue
- Loss of concentration
- Low mood (sometimes).
- nausea
- 'pinching' feeling in my armpits that lasts a few seconds, every so often.
Over the last couple weeks I have been undergoing CBT, which, coupled with my acceptance of the fact that this is all anxiety related, has really helped me change my mindset and not worry about these physical symptoms. A lot of the symptoms have gone, leaving just:
- Bad nausea
- Muscle twitches
- fatigue.
However, I am really really struggling with my nausea. The fatigue and muscle twitches are really uncommon, and, when they are around, hardly affect me or behaviours. The nausea however is constant - just fluctuating in how bad it is - and is really affecting my quality of life and is something that really worries me. I am really starting to worry that this nausea won't go away (because it is really affecting my way of life - when it is bad I have had to miss lectures, meetings, seminars etc and am already worrying about feeling nauseous in exams and trips in the future).
Just a note: sometimes the nausea is just nausea I feel in the back of my throat, but sometimes it's really bad stomach discomfort, sometimes stomach acid-caused etc. Also, unlike a lot of people where, when they get nauseous, they can't eat at all - mine actually results in me having to eat more, as I find that when I eat it helps to settle my nausea. So I'll eat biscuits, suck on a peppermint etc.
The question that I keep trying to ask myself is:
- Why do I still feel nauseous all the time even though I don't feel anxious?
In the summer, I knew that when my period of stress (the internship) ended, that's when my nausea would end. But there isn't any set stressful period at the moment. It seems my fear is of remaining nauseas and so my mind concentrates on it. However, I don't know how to not think about it, because sometimes it gets so bad that its always on the back of my mind.
As part of my CBT they have advised that I remove my safety behaviours - e.g. stop carrying the medicines that I find help control my nausea (which I always carry on me - Domperidone, gaviscon, omerprazole) and peppermints and biscuits. But, because I have nausea every day and I find that I have to eat biscuits/ suck on a mint to control it (the medicines I only take when the nausea is really bad) that the thought of not having them on me makes me even more worried about being nauseous, which makes me more nauseous!
I understand that there are a variety of things I can do to control nausea (peppermint, ginger, exercise etc), but I don't want to learn just how to treat it, but how to change my mindset and figure out why it is still here and how to get over this nausea.
Taking a step back, it seems that I am worried about being nauseous, which makes me nauseous. I just don't know how to break the chain. Is it my mentality? Because I don't feel anxious about anything else (e.g. not anxious about previous health concerns or about exams etc, my fear is just being nauseous during exams, rather than the exams themselves).
If anyone can offer any advice/ suggestions/ good books to read I would be so so grateful.
Thank you so much in advance.
(Interestingly, when I wake up in the morning, and when I am distracted (e.g. at a social) I don't feel nauseous!)