My girlfriend throws up from anxiety! What should be done?

Posted , 4 users are following.

So for almost as long as she can remember she vomits whenever she gets anxiety. It has to be a strong anxiety but the process is as such: she will have something anxiety-inducing come up; she will worry about it, then worry about vomitting (because in her mind she always does); then create more anxiety with the idea that she will vomit; finally, she vomits and usually feels like she got it 'out of her system'

She seems to have conditioned herself over the years that the way to get rid of the anxiety is to throw up, and that is not healthy for her and I want to help. Is there some kind of way I should go about dealing with this as a boyfriend and/or what should she do to help herself?

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • Posted

    Be calm always. Be there for him/her.

    Comfort, treat this as normal and go with it.

    Don't make a big issue of it.

    She will show you the way.

    Encourage her in life x

  • Posted

    First of all, it's really sweet that you care so much about her that you came up on anxiety forum to ask for help.

    Secondly, that happens to me sometimes. Whenever I get really anxious, I instantly feel nauseous and sometimes (not too often) , I feel the urge to throw up so bad , so i do it. If she does it everytime she gets anxious,then no this isnt healthy. You should try and tak to her a lot,try to be there for her and even recommend her a counselling session. Be patient and calm with her! Best of luck! Keep us updated of how it goes!

    • Posted

      Thank you for your input, but i was hoping i could hear someone's personal experience in detail.

      I have an idea of how to help her. This is all about habit breaking. I was going to try to break her habit of throwing up by putting something else in its place. At the moment, the only way she relieves her anxiety is throwing up, but i feel like if i talked her through her anxiety and allowed her to feel comfortable she'd replace the throw up with me.

    • Posted

      dont try to act like a therapist for your girlfirend, im sure your intention is good but theres a reason people need to be qualified to do it - a lot of unintentional damage can be done, best leave it for a professional to deal with
  • Posted

    everyone reacts differently to anxiety, being sick is a pretty common one.  therapy would help her as it seems theres deep routed habits and conditioning in place, meds cant help undo that, but therapy can
  • Posted

    Thanks for the support everyone. I will recommend her a therapist, i just had this idea that I should be the one to help her out of it. I mean, I do have a deep understanding of psychology and am currently taking classes for psychology as a major.

    I would like to do something with whatever power i have over the situation.

    • Posted

      The best thing you can do for her is be supportive while she gets the help she needs, she'll appreciate that more than anything else. Having a partner be dependent on you to "fix" her is one of the worst things to try and do, a co-dependent relationship is what it would become, and that's a terribly imbalanced way to set things up

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