Anxiety versus Real Symptoms

[Arkham_Patient]

I was wondering how you guys might differ between the feelings we might get from anxiety like nausea or dizziness and the symptoms one might get from an actual illness? I always have a hard time distinguishing what is real and what is just my anxiety. I'm not sure if I know what real nausea feels like. I always feel slightly off in my stomach which I equate to nausea but not sure if it really is. I definitely get extremely dizzy when I'm anxious and that usually makes me panic more. Anyone else get like that? And when you are experiencing anxiety or having a panic attack, what kinds of things do you do to calm yourself down? Usually I have a panic attack because my anxiety is making me feel sick then I start to freak out and think I'm actually sick, etc.

[Cynna]

Most panic posts are about this topic.

[Sarah429]

Yeah this is like my biggest problem. I have no idea what true nausea is. And the sucky thing is that nobody can tell you because i think it's different for every person. My stomach nver actually feels "good" so I deal with this problem daily and I totally get where you are coming from. The best thing (and hardest) to do is to just try and distract yourself. Worrying about how your stomach feels will do absolutely nothing but make it worse and worrying is not going to prevent anything from happening so it really serves no purpose (even thought we feel it does sometimes). Just try your very best to get comfy and relax or if youre feeling up to it go out with some friends and try and forget about it. The best thing to do as an emetaphobe is to do what you would do if you werent worried about your stomach. Don't let this fear limit you. Good luck!

[stopthissong]

I think this is one of the biggest problems with overcoming Emetophobia. Most symptoms of anxiety are SO similar to what we fear. So like the ability to digest food becomes more difficult, therefore giving that off feeling, the shaking and the sweatiness is also something most of us associate with both anxiety and v*. I try my best to distinguish the two but it's pretty difficult for me. I know someone said on this site that if they thought about a cheeseburger and didn't feel absolutely horrid about it then they put it down to anxiety. If that works for you then go for it lol. Sorry, I'm not much help but yeah I think half the problem is that if I didn't have anxiety, I would think I'm in danger almost every day. Pretty annoying so I just try to do the things that people recommend when they have anxiety: eating right, exercising regularly, taking time out for yourself, getting enough sleep, getting involved in daily activities etc. Hope I helped in some way.

[KentuckyLivin']

This was one of those questions I really wrestled with for the longest time and sometimes I still really have to question myself. First I think it's important to be clear that sometimes the n* that comes along with anxiety is "real nausea". I've definitely experienced that before... but at the same time, it's totally different than the feeling you get with an illness. It's so hard to explain, but here's a small try... when I was sick a couple years ago, I KNEW I was sick. The thought of food made me ill and there was this EXTREME n* that simply cannot be explained. And the thing is, when it got to that point, I didn't care about v*ing... honestly. And seriously it's hard for even me to admit that, but no really... at that exact point when I knew it was inevitable I all but forced it, because that's how extreme the feeling was and how badly I wanted it to end. So even though the n* that often comes with anxiety is "real", it's not the same.

And there are other types of n* too. I mean there was last April when I got sick from my antibiotics. The n* was just as extreme, but totally different... like I could feel it in my head and deep down in my bones. It was a totally different experience because I knew I wasn't really "sick" and I felt that if my body could get rid of the medicine I would be okay, and clearly my body thought the same thing because my mind and my body fought like hell *trust me on that* to get rid of it -- it was only the second time in my whole life I prayed to v*, but that time there was nothing there because again, it wasn't an illness, totally different... and because it was already in my system at that point there wasn't anything that could be done. Thankfully after about an hour I was able to drive to walgreens and get some emetrol, and the whole time all I wanted was Dr. Pepper... so between the two I finally felt better!

But yeah... so I think the point I guess is you will know! I've had plenty of times where thinking about food made me feel queasy and absolutely nothing was wrong with me... so I don't even think that always works. I think it's anxiety A LOT...