Please HELP!! Constant nausea

[HypochondriaQueen]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this board but since doctors can't figure out what's wrong, I figure I have to fix myself.

I'm a 25 yr old female and I've struggled with anxiety since I was a little kid. As a kid, I was very shy and anxious; dealing with social anxiety as I went into high school. when I got my first job at 18, I was working overnights full time and also in college. My first few years were great. I made tons of friends and I'd say had the best few years of my life. When I was 21, I developed nausea that was constant. During the same time I had my first panic attack completely out of the blue. During that year I struggled with severe nausea, anxiety and panic attacks. During this time I was also very stressed at work. Summer came and I was happy as a clam and the nausea went away.

Winter came and just as fast as the nausea left, it came back. I started eliminating foods but found there was nothing actually wrong with my stomach. On and off now for the past 4 years I've dealt on and off with nausea, this year being very bad. My doctor at one point prescried zoloft for my nausea, thonking it was frim anxiety. Well my nausea DID go away but I felt like I was losing my mind. I was borderline suicidal. So I went off that and was prescried xanax. What I've discovered from the nausea is that it is really anxiety causing it because it goes away completely with alcohol and also relatively fast with xanax. My question is, why do I have this nausea with literally no other physical symptoms of anxiety? Also, some times I'll go weeks of feeling great, then weeks of being so nauseous I don't want to even get out of bed. I'm so confused and frustrated with this!!! Its not normal to feel like this all the time. I can't even imagine life without nausea. I'll take any suggestions!!

 

[Summers]

Anxiety can cause a ton of different side effects. Nausea is not something I felt, but it's definitely a symptom people feel. I've heard that complaint about Zoloft, the suicidal thoughts. That definitely means to stop taking it. Xanax is only temporary relief, kind of like the alcohol is. The doctor didn't want you to try any other anti-depressants? Or give you anything for the nausea?

 

[Kaynil]

Hi, HypochondriaQueen. Sorry you are going through this.
The thing with anxiety is that it manifests differently to different people. Although you don't display other symptoms commonly associated with anxiety, from what you have been saying, you have pinpointed your nausea to be related to it and I think you're probably right about that.

I don't suffer from nausea often as a symptom of anxiety so I can't really be of much help. I haven't been prescribed medication before. Glad they changed your prescription, too bad the last one had that horrible effect. I hope this one is working better.

This might be an odd thing for me to ask, but during your nausea times do you feel anger or a strong emotion that wants to erupt but you force yourself to keep inside? I am possibly completely off the rails but in my case, since I was little my nausea tended to come because of the bile reflux coming out of intense feelings of frustration of bottling up my anger.

 

[HypochondriaQueen]

Kaynil, no im a pretty laid back person. I tend to bottle up my emotions though because I hate conflict or confrontation. After trying zoloft and it's horrific side effects, I told myself I'd never try another one. I have tried birth control in the past andcould never stay onthem because i couldnt tolerate the side effects. I think my body doesnt do well with synthetic hormones. I bought a saliva test that I have to do next week and send in to see if maybe some of my hormones are off. I want to find out the real issue. All the meds with these horrid side effects are just band aids over a real issue.
The weird thing is though, is that sometimes, yet very rarely, the nausea goes away for a month or two. Then one day the nausea will appear out of nowhere again and last quite a while. I guess I should add that I'm TERRIFIED of throwing up. When I was 5, I remember frequently going to the nurse complaining of feeling sick, and my mom would come pick me up. But it was anxiety. I was totally fine when I got home.

I forgot to mention, when all this nausea and panic attacks first started when I was 21, my younger brother who was 18 at the time, was throwing up every single morning. He went to the doctors and they gave him zoloft and he immediately quit vomiting. It's anxiety and I know it runs in the family. I ran out of my trial prescription of xanax. I'm currently trying 300 mg of cbd oil under my tongue. Haven't noticed it being much help though but I think i need a stronger one. Last year when this was going on I had convinced myself that I was bipolar. I'd have weeks of just dread followed by days where I felt so good it was almost euphoric and I remember thinking why can't I feel like this all the time. I know my job is not helping my situation. I've been in the same place for 7 years and it has slowly been killing me. Recently I switches to a new supervisor position and I'm stressed to hell.

I really appreciate any feedback. It makes me feel less alone!