real nausea or anxiety?

hey guys...i have a question...i am so so so anxious about the norovirus now that it is everywhere i turn....i am literally nauseous every single night, but seems to turn out to be anxiety every time ...each night i get closer and closer to taking a compazine and then i dont because i dont want to 1) waste them on anxiety and 2) take unnecessary meds....im afraid if i dont take one though, one of these nights im going to wake up and be sick and itll be too late for compazine...how do you guys differentiate between real nausea and anxiety nausea?

and what are your opinions of compazine in general because ive never had a time where i had real severe nausea and took a compazine, so i dont have any idea if it works?? i have the pills and the suppositories...any input??

and does anyone know of any sanitizers or disinfectants besides bleach that i can use daily?? bleach is obviously not ideal for hands and it stains and stuff, but i dont know of anything else that will surely kill the noro.....

thanks for the help!!!

Hi there!
When I'm just anxious it is very hard for me to differentiate between anxiety nausea and real nausea. However when I am actually nauseous because of illness or something else I KNOW for a fact that it is real nausea. So when I'm anxious, just the mere fact that I'm wondering if it's real nausea or not helps tip me off that it is in fact, just anxiety. I hope that makes sense. You'll know if you're really nauseous.

I haven't taken compazine personally, I don't think. I have a prescription for Promethazine though and it works wonders, although it makes me very sleepy. Most antiemetics work because the body usually doesn't need to v* to purge itself of harmful materials. It's just a matter of when you take them. I have taken both pills and suppositories. The suppositories work faster but, as you know, are less pleasant to use. I have never thrown up after taking an antiemetic, as long as I took it in time. I even took Promethazine while I had a stomach bug. I'm sure Compazine is similar. I usually take a pill when I feel n* and then a suppository if I'm actually v*ing, although that has only happened once.

I don't know of any hand sanitizers or disinfectants that work. I have heard Wet Ones Wipes are effective against Norovirus but I am not sure if that is true or not. I wonder if someone can answer that here? Your best bet is to wash your hands because it can wash the germs off. Using bleach on your hands is a bad idea because it can make them dry and crack, which leaves you more vulnerable to pick up germs.

Hope I helped!

thanks so much...i feel the exact same way about nausea...i say that to myself all the time..."if you have to wonder, its not real",,...and the last time i had the noro i even said to myself..."ok taylor, never forget that this is real nausea and there is no doubt about it...all those other times were anxiety" but i just had to ask because its been so long i cant be sure i remember accurately.. thanks soo much!!

Like I say in my Vomiting FAQ (see the link below), ask yourself if you feel like eating one of your favorite foods. If yes, then you are NOT nauseated! If no, then maybe you are. I always check my temperature since I am not sure what nausea feels like but the last time I was close to vomiting (didn't!) I was over 102. My mom could always tell when we were about to puke by our temperature.

Doug

Hi.

In response to classycar01... Or to anyone who can answer this.... Is it safe to take antiemetics when you have a bug or food poisoning for example? Surely if your body is trying to get rid of bacteria (by vomiting), then taking an antiemetic will get in the way of this? Also, did you find the drug successfully stopped you from vomiting when you had the tummy bug?

Thanks for your help.

Alex

Usually when I feel nauseous and I want to figure out if it's anxiety or not I think about food. If the thought makes me feel even more ill, then I know I'm truly nauseous. If the thought makes me go "Eh" then I know I'm just anxious.

I have had anti-emetics only a few times, but every time it kept me from vomiting except once. Well I didn't actually vomit but I knew that if I didn't stop drinking the liquid they had me drinking I would vomit. I find that they work rather well. I've had them administered before having to drink things like contrast or barium (I have A LOT of stomach problems)

I agree with the favourite food thing, i do that a lot too. When I was sick yesterday though I was reading my magazine and it made me feel sick. I read really trashy uk magazines and there was this girl whose fingers were black with blood poisoning. They always show gross things like that and I'm usually fine but omg it turned my stomach and I guessed then it was more than anxiety nausea lol

I didn't take any anti emetics through the whole thing. I have some that I have had for a few years back when I did need them but I didn't think I'd keep them down so i ust decided to ride it out instead.

I also like Gumdropper's idea of thinking of your favorite food. That always worked for me. But then again, even if the thought of it made me feel disgusting I didn't necessarily vomit. Anxiety is a tricky bedfellow.

To the poster who asked about killing norovirus...the best thing in the world is plain soap and water for your hands. And you don't need to wash them constantly - only after you go to the bathroom and before you eat. Then don't put your hands in your mouth in between and you'll be fine. Hand-wipes that contain .013% benzalkonium chloride kill viruses. Never use bleach on your hands...the skin will become dry and raw, thus holding the viral particles more.

As for the food poisoning question, if you have a lot of the poisonous food in your stomach I suppose it's best to get it out, but the same doesn't hold true for noroviruses. They're actually breeding and growing in your intestinal tract, so vomiting doesn't do a damn thing to "get them out" - you have to just live through their natural 24-hour cycle until your immune system kills them off. So stopping vomiting and diarrhea are a good idea in that case. Most food poisoning is actually caused by food contaminated with norovirus from the food prepper's unwashed hands.