IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Suffering from IBS? Post your history, experience, comments and/or suggestions
Post Reply
Emily__86
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:36 pm

IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by Emily__86 » Thu Apr 07, 2011 6:05 pm

Hello! I'm new here and am glad to have found this forum. It seems that many are going through the same problems and I'm relieved to find people who may understand. It's been a rough couple of months going through anxiety that I feel has turned into some form of depression and has taken a toll on me physically as well with IBS. Both my doctor and medication (Ativan) have been unhelpful.

I had begun to make a lot of positive changes to my diet and I know that was helping a lot. Then when I became depressed and went back to poor eating habits, the sicker it made me feel with constipation and nausea, the more debilitating it is and has made it impossible for me to leave my home without having a panic attack of mental breakdown.

I know it is mind over matter and that my fears are very illogical, but I feel that a lot of it stems from a fear I have had of vomiting since I was a child. It was always a traumatic thing for me as a kid for some reason when I would be sick. I believe it's been about five years since I have thrown up and I feel that's a blessing from God or some kind of gift because I just am so afraid and unable to handle it. I've read a bit into it and it is a common that people fear this, and often those who do rarely ever throw up which makes it even more bizarre. It is awful though and completely ruining my life. It sends me into frenzy whether in public or at home. I can't do anything when I begin to feel nauseous and sickly and have lost my appetite out of fear of it. Has anyone else suffered this and found any ways to alleviate the worry and sadness that it causes?

With each passing day, I just feel that I am so immensely wasting my life by succumbing to my fears and I know the grief it has caused my family as well. I'm so ready to move forward but am unsure how. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance and I'm sorry for such a long post.

preciousbug
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 1:43 pm

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by preciousbug » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:54 pm

Wow it is finally nice to see someone who is pretty well going through the same issues as I am. Well not nice I guess but maybe a little comforting. I also have IBS or so I have been told. Which had a tendancy to give me a lot of Diareah and nausea. I too am terrified to throw up. It has been maybe 20 years since I have thrown up and all I remember of it was that it was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me as a child. And since then I am the queen of suppressing it. Which probably isn't helpful. Might feel better just to let it out but I am incapable of doing so. I get scared to care for my children when they are sick because I might get it. Thank goodness they dont get sick too often.

My other issue is the diareah and I hate leaving the house now. What if it happens on the way to the mall or in walmart? Then I have to deal with finding a washroom right away. Especially because I live in a very rural area the nearest mall is 1 hour and 25 mins away with no bathrooms along the way. Unless of course I knock on a strangers door and ask to use the washroom which I would rather use the side of the road for fear of embarrasment and my own safety of course. :oops:

I am hoping this program at least helps with the Anxiety which I believe is only happening due to my IBS. I have a fear of IBS hitting me when I leave the house and usually the fear itself brings it on which then spirals into nausea, heart racing, etc. Maybe learning to calm myself before it gets too crazy is the key to it not happening at all. I guess we will see. I hope it works for everyone because living with this sucks!

preciousbug
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 1:43 pm

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by preciousbug » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:47 pm

Oh and I guess one thing I do is keep gravol on me at all times and also ginger. I find its comforting just to know I have some incase the nausea does come for some reason. Maybe that will help you too. Be nice if it just didnt happen tho lol. :)

Emily__86
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:36 pm

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by Emily__86 » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:44 pm

Thank you so much for your response, preciousbug! It's definitely nice to hear from someone who also goes through this. I can honestly say (and some dispute this claim as being ridiculous or impossible), that I remember each time in my life since I was a young child that I have thrown up from when I was as young as five or six. They're vivid memories that have never faded and it's just insane. It's been a lifelong struggle.
With my IBS, I have frequent constipation and nausea, which is strange, but it's very troublesome and the more stress I have, the worst that all becomes. With the throwing up, I think it may even be more than five years for me and I don't know that I've been very close to doing so in all this time. Just times where I let my worry take over and make me feel like it even when I would just have an ordinary stomachache or nausea. If that isn't the case, then I too am a queen at suppressing it which like you say, probably isn't a good thing. Subsequently, if I hear or see someone else vomit, I immediately just shut down in fear. It makes me feel sick and mentally unwell. Or even if I just hear someone else talking about it in most basic terms, it's so scary to me that I will even start to think I feel sick, regardless of whether I was perfectly fine a minute earlier.

Sigh. It's just all in my head and there are a lot of times where I can think/look past it and carry on, but other times, it's so difficult to control and handle in a calm way. It generally ends up with me hiding somewhere like a bathroom stall or my car, just so I can be alone and deal with it. I wish I could convince myself once and for all to stop worrying about it until a day comes where I am legitimately sick to have freakouts about it, because otherwise, it's a complete waste of time, energy, and takes such a toll on my nerves. I had success with that for a long time, but then somehow I let my fear return.

Thanks for the tips about those things! Are there any noticeable side effects to Gravol? I tried something I got at Dollar Tree (probably not a great place to buy medicine) called Trav-L-Tabs and they were similar, I think. Some kind of meclizine treatment for nausea. I took it every day for about a week and it really messed me up. I had really bad migraines, dizziness, and it made me feel really lethargic. Just wondering if you've had anything like that.
Ginger is a good idea! I'll try that.

Something I've been trying is called Rescue Remedy, where the kind I got comes as a chewable candy. It's homeopathic and has different herbs and flowers that are supposed to help relieve anxiety and panic. I think they help but it takes awhile to kick in and you can't eat too many of them since they have an artificial sweetener that can act as a laxative. Annoying! So I'd be interested to look into other things.

Thanks again for the reply and for listening! I would be too embarrassed to talk to my family or friends about it and I'm not sure they would have much input anyway unless they secretly have this problem too. Hopefully we can both overcome this somehow. :)

sandypants
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:21 am

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by sandypants » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:18 pm

All this time in my life I have thought I was the only one with these very specific issues. I, too, have IBS and have had a fear of vomiting since childhood as well as the fear of others around me getting sick. I could name time after time in my life that I have either heard someone else throw up, or have almost stepped in it in parking lots, stores, sidewalks, etc. and it seems to just be my fate that I'm going to come in contact with it one way or another. I also get nauseas and panicky if I hear others talking about it. I know when it started...it was when I was in the first grade and a girl in my class had some type of illness that made her throw up all day every day. Back then (40 years ago) teachers just dealt with stuff like that instead of sending the child home. One day when rearranging the classroom, the teacher placed the girl in the row right beside me and she would put newspapers down beside her desk for her to puke on. This went on all day every day for the entire school year. I felt sorry for the girl but when the time came that it splashed on me, my mother had to come and get me! That may have been my very first panic attack. I am shaky and nervous just typing this right now! There was yet one other time before my first grade year that my sister almost threw up on me and that was probably the beginning of this downward spiral.

I am grown and have two grown children. During my first pregnancy I threw up for almost the entire 9 months. What's strange is I wasn't as afraid of throwing up myself until later on (not sure why) but have always been afraid of someone else getting sick around me or smelling it or stepping in it somewhere. I use antibacterial soap and germicide like crazy because I'm terrified of catching a stomach virus. When my children were small, my husband used to have to take care of them if they were "that" kind of sick; otherwise, I could handle the colds, etc. I just couldn't do it. Well, I say I couldn't. Once when he was gone, my daughter got sick and I HAD to do it (she was just two). I coped and got through it and even washed it out of her hair but I was an absolute wreck by the time my husband got home. I was pacing the floor waiting for him and even called my mother-in-law in the middle of the night.

Now for the IBS issue...I work a 40-hour/week job on a floor with many women (that means there are a lot of women utilizing one restroom). I am always petrified that a diarrhea attack is going to hit me while at work and somebody's going to come in while I'm exploding. I know...gross, but it's the truth. It HAS happened to me several times and I have been known to run all over the grounds to other buildings where I work in search of a restroom where I could do my business without someone hearing me. This is insane but I am so afraid of the embarrassment that this is what I do. I get very nauseas, shaky, and sweaty while this is going on and the cramping is sometimes unbelievably bad. I have had to leave work on occasion. I'm so afraid I'm going to puke at my desk or someone will walk in while I'm heaving in the bathroom and I'm going to pass out or something due to the extreme anxiety.

Bottom line...I am sick of living this way, too. It was while in the middle of an IBS attack in the middle of the night that I was flipping channels when I ran across the infomercial for this program. I flipped a little more then turned back and heard some of the testimonies. I felt then and there that this program was an answer to prayer just as the preacher stated on the second CD. I have never thought I was depressed but boy, I'm over the top on anxiety when it comes to IBS, nausea, and fear of throwing up. It has gotten to the point where I think about it every night before going to bed because it seems in times past, when I've gotten sick it has always been in the middle of the night (besides when I was pregnant). I suppress it and I don't talk about it to anyone but I truly feel this has got to be part of why I am so anxious all the time because it's constantly in the back of my mind.

I feel like a hypocrite at times because I have a very strong faith and feel this is just insane that I can be a Christian and yet have this type of phobia going on. I'm ready for CD #3 and will start it tomorrow. I do feel better already about how I deal with anxiety and the breathing and relaxation techniques are helping me. I want to be cured of all of this! Thanks for your posts - it has allowed me to share something I have never felt comfortable sharing before. I have just one problem though - when I heard Lucinda say that facing our fears is how we get healed of them, I wanted to run because I don't want to have to throw up to get over the fear. Sound crazy?

KAMO
Posts: 146
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:41 am

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by KAMO » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:31 pm

From everything I've read and Lucinda's CD's depression is not uncommon with anxiety. I suffer from anxiety attacks, but don't think the depression has come yet. I pray it doesn't because an anxiety attack is bad enough as it is. I do get an upset stomach whenever I have an anxiety attack, but it goes away as soon as the attack stops.

CHamilton
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:37 pm

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by CHamilton » Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:16 pm

Wow. I am shocked there are people out there just like me. I too, am TERRIFIED of throwing up and I have IBS. Ever since I can remember, I have been so scared of throwing up. I can count on my hand how many times I have and It has been 12 years since I have thrown up because I will truly fight it till the end. While I was pregnant with my daughter I was so nauseated for 5 months. After I had her, a month in a half later I was very sick. I went to the emergency room 4 times before they figured out it was my gall bladder. I was sick with that for almost 2 months. Why me? Why someone who is terrified of getting sick going through stomach issues?? It is so annoying. I live everyday in fear of getting sick with the stomach flu or something in my body go out and make me sick again. I go to sleep worrying and I wake up worrying about it. I'm so scared my baby is going to get it and I'm worried I won't be able to take care of her. This is not healthy. For her or I. I need help. After my gall bladder was taken out I didn't think I was better. I got so many test done on me. The Doctor finally told me that it was panic and anxiety attacks. They put me on paxil but it doesn't seem to be helping at all. I found this program and I pray it helps. I just don't know what to do. If anyone knows how to help me get over this fear and be able to live life without worry and fear, please help! I would so much appreciate it.

jovigirl21
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:34 am

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by jovigirl21 » Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:24 pm

my anxiety for the last four years has been thinking i might embarrass myself in front of people. It's weird, but the only times I have panic attacks is right before i go on vacation or as my last panic attack which was 2 weeks ago the fear of throwing up. It's always a week before vacation i get this sudden fear of getting sick on vacation where I vomit and/or cannot control by bowel movements. It happened to me back in 2008 where i got a case of the runs on vacation. It was on the second to last day. Ever since then I get such a panic attack to where I can't sleep, eat very little and get the runs because I am so nervous about what could happen. This past October we went to Mexico and my panic attack happened two weeks before we were to go. It was so bad that i wanted to cancel the trip, but thought I'm not going to let this ruined my vacation. I think I also get these panic attacks because i think of the worst whether it's the plane is going to crash, i'm going to have an attack on the plane or once we get to our destination is when i'm going to get sick. Of course, once we get to our destination I am perfectly fine for the time we are there, but it's always in the back of my mind. I always carry an extra pair of underwear and pants in my car just in case. I finally went to my doctor and she suggested to talk to a counselor. One thing that really struck me is she said it sounds that once you are out of your comfort zone it when you have these feelings. So true. my safe place is my home. I do not want to go on medication and have been seeing a counselor. It's been helping, but i have seen StressCenter informercial and decided i cannot lose by trying this. I always felt alone thinking I was a crazy person, but listening to the tapes and having an online chat I am not alone. In fact, at my work there are quite a few people that also have anxiety. It's only my first week and a lot of things that Lucinda says is true. I'm praying this will work and I can enjoy my vacation next time.

trippyscc
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:34 am

Re: IBS + fear of vomiting = help?

Post by trippyscc » Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:46 pm

How great it is to see a thread that is so specific to what I am dealing with too. I guess it's just like the tapes say, our fears are never totally unique. Somebody else is going through the same thing. Well, I have this fear of vomiting as well. But mine is only in public situations. I can't really pinpoint what started it either. I've always been a little anxious when having to like speak in front of people. But it was never a really big deal until a few years ago. I had a panic attack before having to give a presentation in a class and ever since then I've always worried about having to vomit when I'm in front of people. It's a very debilitating feeling because I always feel like I need to leave the room. But then I think "no, it's just the anxiety. I'm not actually going to vomit." And yet it sure feels like it's just about to come right up and go all over the poor person sitting next to me.
I have not found a miracle cure for this yet. My strategy has been to try my best to rely on God to watch over me. I mean, I know there are no guarantees in the Bible about not vomiting on someone in a meeting but there is the promise that He won't give you anything that you can't get through. So that's something. And I also just keep telling myself "it's only thoughts. Just anxiety. There's no actual problem." And I've made it through every situation so far. I started working this new job about 6 months ago and was just deathly afraid of going to meetings or any situations where I'd have to be up in front of people or talking to them. And I swear I have like a meeting a week. So I've had so many practive opportunities. I still get panicky feelings but I have sat through each meeting and nothing has happened. I do usually carry like a big cup with me so just in case it were to happen I would at least have a target to shoot at. But nothing so far.
Is it even possible to throw up just because you're worried about throwing up? It seems like if it were, it would have happened to me by now because I have worried about soooo much.

Post Reply

Return to “Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)”