Nausea or queasiness is one of the major symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety nausea can occur when a person is confronted by the feeling of fear. The sensation of fear can be so intense that the mind automatically activates the mechanism of flight. When a person is nervous, his stomach contracts, as if purging itself of its contents so that the person can run faster. With this is the feeling of wanting to urinate, cry or faint.
This unsettled feeling in the pit of the stomach is a regular occurrence for people with anxiety disorders. Nausea is not a part of the disorder, but a symptom of a more serious mental imbalance. Persistent nausea may be related with continual exposure to a source of stress. Or, in the case of anxiety patients, queasiness can be linked to the constant worry that something bad is about to happen.
Anxiety nausea becomes a concern when it occurs regularly, under a certain environment. This could mean that something in the daily life of a person is making him anxious. The feeling of nausea can vary according to the degree of anxiety the person feels. The concern about vomiting in public places uncontrollably could damage a person’s confidence and shake him up so much that he may never venture out of the house again, even for work.
How to treat anxiety nausea? Since nausea in this case is caused by mental reactions to stimuli, the first order of business is to settle the mind so that it doesn’t react even when the same stimuli crop up.
Some people go for medication, usually an antidepressant, which may have its benefits and disadvantages. On one hand, the medication can suppress the ‘flight’ reactions of a person in response to stimuli. On the other hand, the drugs often used for the purpose of anxiety treatment may cause dependence, which could lead to another set of disorders that need treatment. Nevertheless, the drugs are prescribed by doctors and as long as the person sticks to the stringent rules of his physician, he can easily use the drugs to cure anxiety.
Psychotherapy is one option for those that dread every second for fear of triggering a relapse. Cognitive behaviour therapy is one of the best methods for doing this. This involves exposure to different sources of fear, which could range from simple shopping with a friend to being left in the company of strangers.
The goal of therapy is to make the person realize that his fears may be unfounded. For example, let’s take the case of a socially anxious individual. When he starts therapy, he may be asked to act awkward around people and perform social boo-boos like forgetting someone’s name immediately after introduction. The premise is that the person may have imagined a scenario that’s different from what could really happen. When the source of fear is dealt with, a person can expect less incidences of nausea during the day.
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