Can you talk yourself into feeling sick

[huggy]

Woke up fine, beautiful sunny day couldn't feel better, no nausea no stomach problems felt wonderful.

Went and had lunch starting thinking why am I not feeling nauseous today well guess what happens, it then all begins.

I can't believe that you can talk yourself into feeling sick, wondering can you also talk yourself out of feeling this way.

Anyone ever talked themselves to feel this way before?

[TheSweetThinker]

Yep, that's what the experts call "psychosomatic"....if you think about feeling sick for a long while, then eventually your mind will activate your sympathetic nervous system to produce somatic "symptoms" (like nausea, shakiness, clamminess, rapid heartbeat, etc), which often pose as symptoms of illness.

If you can talk yourself into it, then I'm sure you can talk yourself out of it....only the latter is more difficult sometimes! It's almost the same thing as getting stuck in something; it's easy to get your head or foot stuck in something, but it's not as easy to get it unstuck. With your mind, all it takes is willpower; remind yourself firmly that your own brain caused the nauseous feeling, and in doing so you'll realize that you've complete control of the situation (and every emet likes the feeling of being in control, don't we?).

[olschesky]

i used to do it all the time.......now i'm getting really good at talking myself out of being sick

[Curves]

Yes absolutely you can talk yourself into feeling sick, I'm really good at it too!

The mnd/body connection is a very powerful thing. Think of a lemon, really focus on it, imagine cutting it in half and squeezing it.... focus on it.... I bet you can smell lemon and your mouth starts watering.... yet there's no lemon in front of you.

[mama]

Interesting post! I seem to get ill when I have to go somewhere. Like, to the cinema or a meal.....

[andee]

Totally!!! And our wonderful friend anxiety will add to it all too. I am better but it still happens to me too.

[sunnyskies]

Definitely! That has been my major problem. It has gone to some of those most ridiculous extremes. Like my back will start to be sore and I immediately jump to, "Oh no! Am I going to be sick?!" and then the worry kicks in and I do start to feel sick, even though I know that I'm not. LOL.

I try to think about the timespan of several years and consider how many times I have really been sick like that (stomach issues), and it would really be zero over the past eight years. So judging by that, it seems as if it is unlikely that I will just start getting sick suddenly. I don't know if that's helpful or not, but it has helped me a bit to try to rationalize it to some degree.