Anxiety causing nausea even when not anxious.

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!)

Hey there,

I don't know much about this but I was reading recently about how our gut is connected to our brain, hence the term "gut reaction". It's almost like there's another brain in our gut. So it stands to reason that anxiety causes nausea. I've also read that probiotics are good for mental health because they keep the gut healthy.

I get nausea most days but it doesn't last very long, so I've never worried about it much. But maybe you could research the link between the brain and the gut.

All the best,
Gypsy

Gypsy's spot on - I'm afraid we are really just a large and lumbering mobile gastrointestinal tract with a brain stuck on the end to help navigate it in the direction of food.

Our human conscious brain only cropped up 100k years ago, 200k years at most. In evolutionary terms that's, like, yesterday. The fight-or-flight reflex that causes anxiety is the oldest and most basic reflex there is. If you're a sea-squirt it'll affect your digestion even without a brain to worry about it.

LOL. Can I use that as an excuse the next time my brain navigates me in the direction of chocolate and makes me eat it all? :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gypsylee

LOL. Can I use that as an excuse the next time my brain navigates me in the direction of chocolate and makes me eat it all? :P

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Absolutely. It'll not only navigate you there, it'll also generate some excuses so you don't question its judgement. The old brain is devious and cunning.

The stomach is easily affected by our nerves. Even if you don't feel anxious - that doesn't mean you won't feel symptoms. You can feel symptoms without anxiety for many months after you start to take a hold of your anxiety disorder. Look to your diet, medication (if required), therapy. Look to take up exercise, new hobbies and getting your life where you want it to be. Distraction is a good means to lessen anxiety symptoms.

Remember - anxiety doesn't control us, we control anxiety.

Ed

Hi :)
Thought I would post to tell you a bit about what I'm experiencing (almost identical to your experiences!) and how I'm now feeling better.

About six weeks ago I went on holiday to Egypt, and got some kind of bug that left me feeling really ill. Since returning home I have had nausea that literally could stop me in my tracks. I constantly felt like that horrible feeling when you've drunk too much! Along with this I had chest pain, arm pain, stomach pain, neck pain and general feelings of unwell. I have seen four doctors (one at the hospital, because one night I couldn't bear it anymore) and all my tests have come back clear. No virus, no infection, no cancer, nothing. Sometimes I had these symptoms without any panic at all, I just felt ILL and the only anxiety I got was from just being fed up. I left my part time job because of this...I'm really happy at the moment, nothing is stressing me out so I couldn't believe it was anxiety.

Like you, when I'm at uni or the moment I have a beer in my hand I feel better! Almost normal! It got to the point where I had forgotten what it's like to live without feeling nauseas.
Sometimes I got so ill I could barely lift my head up, and had to sleep with a bucket next to my bed but no vomit. I was shaking and I felt like my body was sometimes moving involuntarily. All very scary!

This IS anxiety as you know. My doctor told me there's one part of the brain that sends these signals because something (a small trigger) makes it think you're ill. And you panic and make your symptoms worse. So basically my body recovered from the virus I got in Egypt but my brain hasn't. My doctor told me that if they put me in an MRI scanner it would show this part of the brain over reacting. Being nauseas and then getting stressed over it obviously is gonna then make you tired, and fatigued and you could start experiencing a whole load of symptoms.

Make sure you go to the doctors and get checked for eeeeverything. That for a start will put your mind at rest. Then it's up to you! Tell yourself you're healthy and well. Go out of the house and do things despite the nausea, maybe try some different things and just try to be happy. It's hard to give advice but I'm telling you this won't last forever. Get up, eat healthy and do exercise. Trick your body into realizing that you're okay and there's no need to be nauseas - healthy body, healthy mind. If you put walls up ie not eating you're brain will start relating that to the nausea and it's a viscious circle.

Go see you're doctor and double check with them you're fine. Everytime you get the nausea remind yourself you havent been sick yet, so why would you now? Kick you're brains ass and don't let it take over your life.

Best wishes!!