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View Full Version : terrible nausea ... very afraid



zembla3
03-07-2006, 07:45 AM
Hi everyone. Sorry in advance for the long post. I'm feeling tremendous anxiety right now and just need to hear some encouraging words. To give you some background, I've had anxiety since around the age of 12 but it only starting becoming unbearable during my first year of college. I was having trouble adjusting socially and was becoming very worried. One day after Christmas, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I became convinced that I had stomach cancer or something of the sort. I had a panic attack, during which time I thought I would die at any second, and for the next two weeks, I could barely hold any food down. I had chills and pins and needles running up and down my arms. I would wake up in the middle of the night in a panic. I made my parents take my to the emergency room twice. The doctors said it was just anxiety and prescribed Zoloft.
Then it came time to go back to school. I still thought I had terminal cancer, but I realized I needed to at least try to think positively and make my mental anguish go away. As I tried to think positively, I noticed I could eat a little bit and my chills went away. I finally realized that it *was* only anxiety. This was a tremendous relief. For two weeks, I felt fine. But then I started thinking, what if I have those anxious thoughts again and I can't control them? What if I get sick to my stomach again and can't eat properly? And of course, all my symptoms returned with a vengeance. It was a struggle to eat anything. I stuck to bland foods and managed to get by, but I was terrified I would die of malnutrition.
After I few months, I realized I wasn't going to starve myself and eating became easier. But I have struggled on and off with this problem for the past few years. A couple of weeks ago, I started to become very anxious about something non-food-related (I read an article about a man who killed himself and I worried that I had incurable depression) and my physical symptoms (loss of appetite, dry mouth, nausea) came back. For a while I was more concerned about the possibility of being incurably mentally ill than I was about my eating problems. But now I've become completely obsessed with my food issues. I have tremendous anticipatory anxiety before a meal, wondering, "will I be able to eat it? Will I throw up? Will I die of malnutrition?" I've been restricting myself to bland foods and eating less than I normally do (though I do try to have a "normal" lunch and dinner). I only feel relief after dinner, when I don't have to worry about food anymore. I've been having diarrhea twice a day and I'm scared that I'll develop dehydration or on electrolyte imbalance. Sometimes just the thought of eating makes me sick to my stomach ... the other night I went out to dinner w/ my dad and I could barely eat my Chinese food. I almost threw up. I'm so frightened because I'm naturally underweight to begin with. I look at myself in the mirror and wonder if I'm wasting away. Last night I spent several hours visiting Web sites about anorexia, frightening myself and wondering if I would end up dead or in the hospital with a feeding tube. I'm *not* trying to lose weight -- I hate being skinny and I just want to eat normally and feel well again. But I'm terrified that I won't be able to control my anxiety. Has anyone else ever felt this way, or am I the only one? I am taking Effexor XR - it was 56 mg, but two and a half weeks ago my doc increased it to 75 because of my anxiety.

leftie15
03-07-2006, 01:48 PM
hey welcome sorry to hear bout those problems i suffer from similiar symptoms but i love to eat so no problem there i think what your doing is good tryng meds.do you go to any therapy or anything like that it really helps also try and do some self talking i mean if you have an anxious thought say wait is that rwally me i mean i like to eat you not going to die over this i mean anxiety makes you feel like what if i die but that not what anxiety does i have that same problem have the worst thoughts and think oh no this is it and when it all comes through i'm still here i hope you can really start to get a hold on this i'm rooting for ya and keep posting and eat a slice of pizza or sumthing itb won't bite its yummy lol :yum: have a good day and keep your head of this curable

scatmantom
03-07-2006, 03:04 PM
Hey

I get the food thing totally. Any time Im anxious thats 1 of my major problems. When I am getting myself back together, its meal times that i suffer most. I dread eating when Im amxious in case it "makes" me sick. Its all in my head obviously...but this is shit i told myself and convinced myself was true when i was about 11 years old and its difficult to adapt even tho my conscious mind realises its a stupid state to be in.

I can relate to your situation and I hope you find some much needed and deserved rest from this anxiety!

Tom

kevin
03-10-2006, 04:44 PM
i get this too, but after i eat i feel like i WANT to puke

i sometimes feel like eating causes my anxiety, and when i feel my stomach growl it actually feels good, and i have gone for a whole day and even more without eating because of it.

i would say eat small small amounts at a time, that might help.