Anxiety can cause a lot of physical reactions in the body. You might experience an increased heart rate, you might experience sweating, trembling or shortness of breath. You may also experience nausea when anxious.
I have a friend who experiences terrible nausea with her anxiety. It prevents her from doing a lot of things because she simply cannot leave the house until the nausea subsides. It has a massive impact on her quality of life.
It’s not a pleasant experience, and unfortunately it can be a common physical side effect of anxiety.
What Causes Anxiety Nausea?
When you are in an anxious state, your body goes into a fight or flight mode. When this happens, many changes occur. The sympathetic nervous system activates and your body takes blood from places like the gut and sends it to where it is needed in order to fight or run away (flight). Digestion is inhibited during fight or flight mode, which will have an impact on how you process food. I know for me personally when I am feeling particularly anxious I simply cannot eat, and the thought of it makes me nauseous.
Stress and anxiety can also cause muscle tension. The tension may have a negative impact by squeezing your stomach to the point that it causes nausea.
How To Get Rid Of Nausea From Anxiety
There are two ways to get rid of nausea from anxiety. They are to treat the nausea, and to treat the anxiety. If the anxiety is the root cause of the nausea, then it is best to focus on treating the anxiety. After all, if the anxiety doesn’t come up then neither does the nausea.
I’ve spent plenty of years relying on medication to treat my anxiety. The problem is, the medication may help to settle the anxiety, but the anxiety keeps returning because I am only treating the symptoms of it. And there is a limit to how much valium I should be taking. Things didn’t turn around for me until I started addressing the anxiety by changing things in my life so that the anxiety was greatly reduced. This meant that the anxiety would occur less frequently, and the physical symptoms of it would happen less often and with less intensity when they did happen.
My solution was a product called Panic Away. It doesn’t use medication at all and was able to treat my panic attacks and also reduce my overall general anxiety. It was a life changer for me and it didn’t cost too much to buy, or take too much effort to implement. You can read my full review on the product by clicking here, or you can go straight to the product page by clicking here.
Other than that, there are ways you can treat your anxiety and ways to treat nausea, which I will detail below.
Treating The Nausea
It is important that you speak to your doctor about your anxiety nausea. They may prescribe you anti nausea medication or anxiety medication to help with the symptoms.
If you are feeling nauseous, try to drink water in small sips, only eat small amounts of something dry, like crackers or bread, and avoid clothing that restricts the stomach. Instead opt for looser fitting clothes. It’s also a good idea to rest and avoid doing any physical activity until the symptoms pass.
Other things you can do to prevent nausea is to avoid exercising after eating. You should also be avoiding fried and greasy foods and also excessive sweet foods.
Treating The Anxiety
There are lots of ways to treat anxiety, many of which have been outlined on this website.
One strategy is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. This is great for treating the anxiety as it happens. What you do is use the 5 senses which are sight, sound, touch, taste and smell). Look at your surroundings and name 5 things that you can see, 4 things that you can touch, 3 things that you can hear, 2 things that you can smell and 1 thing that you can taste. You should say each thing out loud and by the time you have finished you will notice that the worst of the anxiety has passed. You can read more about it here.
Treating Anxiety Long Term
Reduce or completely avoid alcohol. Drinking is a terrible way to treat an anxiety attack, and excessive alcohol is no good for anxiety in general.
You should also reduce your caffeine intake if you are having too much coffee or energy drinks. Excessive amounts of caffeine are not good for anxiety levels.
Speak to your doctor. They are the medical professional so they know best. They will be able to advise you on different strategies for reducing your anxiety and for coping with it when it seems to all come at once.
Regular exercise is also great for reducing stress and anxiety and great for your fitness and health too. There’s no need to go too hardcore with it, a brisk walk every day can make a huge difference for you and your anxiety.
Write down what you are feeling. You can do this at any time of the day and it is a proven way (backed by studies ) to reduce stress and anxiety. What you write does not have to make a whole lot of sense, simply transferring your feelings from your mind and body to paper is an effective method. The good thing is nobody is going to judge you on what you write, because they are your thoughts and feelings that only you will see.
Mindfulness – this is a big one. Using mindfulness to treat anxiety has been proven to give many benefits in all areas of your life. Mindfulness involves being in the present and being aware of everything that is going on around you and inside of you. You can read more about mindfulness and mindful meditation on my blog by clicking here.
Deep breathing exercises are another way to control anxiety and reduce stress. It is a great relaxation technique that you can do anywhere at any time. I personally use the 4 second technique as it is the easiest to remember. It simply involves breathing in deeply for 4 seconds, holding it for 4 seconds, breathing out slowly for 4 seconds, holding it for 4 seconds, and then starting the process again. You can do this for only a few minutes and it can make a big difference to how calm you feel.
Your diet will also play a role. Eating healthier foods will have you feeling better overall and more inclined to do things like exercise. Having a stomach full of greasy or fatty foods is not going to do much for you if you suffer from nausea due to anxiety.
Summary
Nausea is a real issue when it comes to anxiety. It is a common side effect and sometimes just trying to treat the nausea can be useless, as you are not treating the anxiety that is causing it. I’m a firm believer in treating the underlying cause, which in this case means treating the anxiety. As mentioned above, my preferred resource for this is a program called Panic Away. It comes with a 60 day money back guarantee so there is nothing to lose by giving it a try. It definitely helped me and hopefully it can help you just as much.
Please note – the product links on this page are affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission if you make a purchase through that link. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me to keep the website running.
