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What's wrong with me?!

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declan20730
declan20730

Hi guys,

I'm new to this. Apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place - just after some ideas/advice.

Since the beginning of December I've been feeling sick quite regularly, particularly after eating food. This became so severe that over Xmas I was off work for a week, spent the week in bed feeling excessively tired and feeling horribly sick. I barely ate anything and as soon as I did eat then I just felt even worse. I've seen my GP on 3 separate occasions now. She has prescribed Omeprazole 20mg and Metoclopramide 10mg, both of which I've been taking for 2.5 weeks now. GP has asked me to change my diet and is putting my symptoms down to Gastritis. I should add, whilst I don't eat unhealthy food, I do work 12 hour shifts which include nights so the times at which I eat and the food I choose to eat at these times can affect my stomach. Bloods have been taken, but nothing showed up so as far as the GP is concerned there is nothing to worry about. But.....as I'm sure you can appreciate, there is something to worry about because I still don't feel well, and this is six weeks later.

Making the situation a million times worse is I'm Emetophobic (fear of vomit) and so feeling sick stresses me out because I then worry that I might be sick and tend to avoid eating in case I am sick.

No diarrhoea, vomiting or passing of blood accompanies my symptoms. Just the feeling sick and overly tired. Does anyone know what could be causing this and if there is anything I can do to aid recovery?

Many thanks in advance for any help offered,

Dec

4 likes, 146 replies

146 Replies

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  • tee65873
    tee65873 declan20730

    Posted

    i am in the same situation. i too feel sick all the time and have been doing so for a long time now. i've been diagnosed with emetaphobia too, so my therapist and everyone around me seems to think the nausea is 'in my head' and its anxiety that is causing me to feel this way. i dont want to go to the doctors and get prescribed anything incase the side effects are vomiting so im stuck 
    • declan20730
      declan20730 tee65873

      Posted

      Hello Tee65873,

      Comforting to know there are others with Emetophobia, although it would be nicer if it didn't exist! How long have you had it for and how much does it affect you? I've overcome it once before so I'm confident I can do it again. The person I'm seeing now has narrowed it right down and has helped me realise I actually only have a fear of catching stomach bugs....so I don't have the full on Emetophobia. 

      Yes, in some respects feeling sick is in our mind. After all, the vomiting senses originate from the brain. But I know with me I genuinely feel sick and can differentiate between what's psychological and what isn't. Being tired makes me feel sick. For instance, I'm in work today feeling as sick as dog but I know it's because I've had a lot of late nights and early starts recently. 

      I very occasionally take Metoclopramide anti sickness pills. They work by speeding up digestion and pushing your food out of your stomach quicker, so I've learnt that if you haven't eaten because you're feeling sick and take a pill it won't have any effect!

      Ginger tea helps wonderfully, along with a healthy diet and I find physical exercise takes my mind off everything and always feel fine afterwards. 

      Hope I've been of some help! :-)

      Dec

    • tee65873
      tee65873 declan20730

      Posted

      Well ive had it to an extent all my life, it used to just be the fear of actual vomit, so i'd be scared if I was actually sick or if someone around me was actually sick, but in the past year its suddenly got alot worse. I'm now scared to be in places that may involve sickness(restuarants, toilets etc) and I feel sick all the time which stops me eating as im nervous it may make me vomit. 

      Its at the point now where i feel like there no turning back and it won't get sorted, despite my therapist telling me otherwise, 

      I've been told about ginger tea before and peppermint tea but i'm anxious to try them incase they make me sick afterwards.

      When you say you overcame Emetaphobia the first time was it easy and how were you advised to do it?

      Like you've said its good to know i'm not the only one with emetaphobia, it's one of very few phobia's i know of that is able to make someone feel so down and alone, which is such a shame because i've been told its the third common phobia which means there's lots of people out there with it haha!

      Thankyou for the help though, i'll give the ginger tea a try smile

    • declan20730
      declan20730 tee65873

      Posted

      Can you pinpoint anything that has made it worse?

      I developed my phobia when I was about 7 and had a nasty tummy bug. The phobia was then reinforced a year or so later when someone vomited all over me. It affected my schooling drastically cos I was always worried the same thing was going to happen again....it never did. When I left Sixth Form I got a volunteer post as a Community First Responder with the Welsh Ambulance Service. I ended up responding to emergencies alone and treating patients for a long time before back up arrived...and many a time my patients were vomiting. I had no choice but to deal with it. I just got used to it. Then I was unwell myself, was physically sick and realised it wasn't as bad as I remembered - I felt better immediately and it's over in seconds.  Then in December when I had this other problem that I came on this forum for I started thinking the old way again, worrying about sick and I am now responsible for making the phobia worse....even though I've experienced first hand that vomit is nothing bad!

      You obviously suffer much more than I do with the problem. The only person that can make you get over it is yourself. Some very good techniques available to help....CBT, NLP, etc. We have a capacity to continually learn, so one good thing to do is learn how to deal with vomit. If you imagine yourself vividly in situations that are horrible but imagine that you can deal with it and stay in control, you create new neurological pathways. Do it often enough, you're one step closer to success! 

      Ginger tea tea won't make you sick. It will help the nausea subside. Easier said than done, but you need to change the way you think about food and drink. If you keep thinking it might make you ill, it will. Whereas, if you keep telling yourself you'll be fine then you will. The brain acts on what we think so we have to have positive thinking all the time. 

      Hope I'm of help. :-)

      Dec

    • MrCat
      MrCat tee65873

      Posted

      I had emetaphobia, really really bad, and now its not so bad anymore, i used to control it with candy , butterscotch or what is the name, it became worse and now its almost gone, but i think there might be a conection between this condition and feeling bloated on left side under ribs, because i have it too, and gradually i stoped beeing so scarred like i was at first . The diference between your simptoms and mine, is that when i try to sleep i feel a poulsating sensation in my body that scares me so bad, and i wake up, i have to be really exausted in order to sleep.. But anyway, so i went to my gp, they made an urine test, blood test, nothing. I went to emergency , they took my blood pressure , sugar levels and that thing for the heart, ekg or how its called, nothing, everything ok they said. Today i went to a private hospital to have an ultrasound to my abdomen, and they said pancreas liver kidneys ok. And i dont know what to think anymore. I do work split shifts, 15 hours per day in total, and i have days when i am so exausted that i barely stay on my feet and i feel naouseus all the time.I dont know what tests to order from my go since she is the one asking me what do i think is wrong with me . I will probably ask for a full body scan since i have my private insurrance but she said she has to have good reasons in order to do that.i am not glad that other people had experienced what i feel, and i dont wish this even to my greatest enemy. If i rule out the pancreas 100% and an anevrysm in my brain, i will probably sleep more relaxed, feeling a little bit more safe. 
  • MrCat
    MrCat declan20730

    Posted

    Have you ever checked you adrenal glands ? I found most of the simotpms relate to problems with adrenal glands , i will call a private hospital tomorow to speak with a private gp and make an apointment since my nhs gp keeps making apointments 2 weeks distance and i dont have time for this ....
  • Dml
    Dml declan20730

    Posted

    I feel the same way going on two weeks now. Plus headaches 24/7

    no appetite because as soon as I eat a few bites I feel worse. How can that happen so fast. Bad enough being sick but haven't lost a lb. maybe because not as busy as usual. 

  • izzy98465
    izzy98465 declan20730

    Posted

    Hi Dec

    I've just stumbled across this forum in search of my own answers and I have to say it's scary how close your symptoms seem to when I first fell ill 6 years ago ..... Yes it's been going on for 6 years sad.

    It all started when every time I ate I would get horrible pain in my stomach and back and would become very nosiaus anyway like yourself I went to the docs and they told me to change my diet and that I had chronic gastritis ..... Well let me tell you it wasn't gastritis and in fact was a twisted bowel that went undiagnosed for 8 months ,and because it was left untreated for so long my stomach had fused to my bowel and become one and as you could imagine the pain would make me pass out, I had 3 of every scan and both scopes but they were unable to find this ... Until a friend of mine drove me to a hospital outside of London where all they did was request records from the other hospital and upon viewing they discovered that I had a kink in my bowel which was visible from all my scans and when they scanned again they noticed how bad it got... I was operated on the next day , spent a week in hospital and I thought everything was fine until now , I now get the same symptoms every time I eat anything and am feeling very sick all the time , I now have panic attacks and have no faith in doctors around me , the only advice that I can give is that doctors do misdiagnose and there are times when you should be prepaird to challenge them and or seek medical advice elsewhere it worked for me then and hopefully will work again when I revisit.

    Other things that your doctor should look for are IBS and early chrons or chrons disease.

  • amber34608
    amber34608 declan20730

    Posted

    I to have been feeling sick several months now, have been to the doctor and have had tests with no results of anything...

    Only thing with me is that I have been an on off paleo eater, mainly salad, vegtebles and fruit and have always been back and forth every six months or so....

    Never any problems though, This time coming off paleo has been awful, can't seem to get out of bed and also this constant sick feeling, esp after bread or coffee (that i badly miss) it seems heaps better when I eat salad or veg again, but seems every few days theres just a bit of a constant sick feeling....

    Maybe i have food intolerances like another suggested or a bug thats got in to me need antibiotics or something.... W yuck

     Something's definitily up 

  • Daisy135
    Daisy135 declan20730

    Posted

    I have the exact same feelings and aslo the fear if sick!!i struggle to sleep at all in the night and have had to run to the toilet on numerous occasions but then the feeling would just pass.i also have head aches under my eyes and constant pain in my upper stomach i have difficulty swallowing and sore throats.Ive been like this for 5 months and the situation is just getting worse. i have also lost a lot of weight over these few months and lost my appitite.

        It started off with a simple sickness bug which lasted two days.i then had an allergic reaction and all my lips were swollen.i went to my local gp and they give me treatment for my mouth and antibiotics because of a chest infection.a week later my whole throat was swollen and i had tonslitis so on top of the antibiotics i was now taking ibuprofen and paracetamol.i went back to school two weeks later for 2 days and was sent home.my mother then took me to hospitial where we waited 7 hours but then gave up.a couple of nights later i had a stroke and was taken in hospital again,the doctor said i was taking to much medication and thats why it happened ever since then these symptoms have started.

    I went to see a consultant who has arranged for me to have an endoscopy at the end if the month.ive also had 6 blood test which have all come back clear.

    My pain in my stomach and the feeling of nausea usually gets worse as the day goes on but some days im awful all day!i cant seem to do anything and all i do is lie down.

    I hope they find out whats causing it so it can stop!!its awful. 

  • rachelchucker
    rachelchucker declan20730

    Posted

    Hi everyone

    i did write a great essay on here but my iPad froze so just re doing a short one, I've had all the same symptoms for just over 2 years, doctors and medicines never worked, I lost 2 stone in weight and couldn't eat anything, try mastic gum been taking 4 capsules before bed for. 3 weeks and my symptoms have gone out of the 7 days I have 1 bad day, you can buy theses capsules from Holland and Barrett £21.99 I have gained my weight back and can now eat 3 meals a day with no problems, not saying it's a cure but it has helped me hope this helps, and I hope you are better or on the road to recovery 

  • sarah97443
    sarah97443 declan20730

    Posted

    I have been doing the smae but Im only 14 and I dont know what to do only one of my freinds know and she said If I did nothing about it she would but I have been sleeping and eating it just after I eat
  • angela192
    angela192 declan20730

    Posted

    Hello

    I really sympathise with you on this.  Feeling sick is one of the worst things I think. One thing that helps I find (you can get this on prescription) as well as over the counter is "Domperidone" also called Motillium.   I have Motillium instants in my handbag which dissolve on the tongue.  Another good anti-sickness tablet which you can only get prescribed is "Cyclizine" which works a treat.   Ask your GP for them if you can.    Also pressure bands which you put on your wrists on pressure points and is used for sea-sickness.  Let me know how you get on.

  • Worrychick
    Worrychick declan20730

    Posted

    Have you considered food intollerance? X have they tested stools? I had a rare infection inu hit which left me with good intollerance x 
  • L4UR3NXx15
    L4UR3NXx15 declan20730

    Posted

    Hi declan i have the exact same problem but im too worried to go to the doctors i just keep telling myself im fine and that i just have to keep myself cool cause it worsens if i get too hot i should go to the docs but im justy too worried 
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