What Is Anxiety Nausea And How Do You Cope?

Anxiety is often discussed as a mental health disorder, but it can have physical symptoms as well. Some people with anxiety become so anxious that they become physically ill with nausea. This article will examine the symptoms of anxiety nausea (sometimes known as gut anxiety) as well as its various causes, treatments, and therapy options.

Identifying anxiety-induced nausea

Many people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) experience various symptoms, both mental and physical, due to the stress of anxiety. If you’ve been living with an anxiety disorder for a while, you may be familiar with the feeling of a panic attack. Still, you may not realize that chronic anxiety can cause other physical responses that may be mistaken for other illnesses.

Nausea can be caused by many different illnesses and conditions, making it difficult to identify where your stomach issues are stemming from. Anxiety and nausea can go hand in hand, though. Perhaps the best method for recognizing gut anxiety is looking for additional symptoms of anxiety. Recognizing these symptoms can assist you in making an assessment based on symptom quantity and consistency, which can ultimately help you determine the cause of your nausea.

Some common symptoms of anxiety include:

• Inability to relax or unwind
• Unrealistic or excessive worry
• Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
• Rapid pulse or pounding, skipping, racing heart 
• Chest pain or pressure
• Feeling a “lump in the throat”
• Dry mouth
• Irregular breathing not caused by physical exertion
• Feelings of dread, apprehension, or losing control
• Trembling or shaking
• Sweating or chills
• Fainting or dizziness
• Feelings of detachment or disassociation
• Intrusive thoughts that cause distress or impairment

If you are experiencing nausea in addition to multiple other anxiety symptoms, you may be suffering from anxiety-induced nausea.

How does anxiety cause nausea?

To understand how anxiety causes nausea, we must first look at what nausea is. Nausea is a physical response in your body caused by illness, mental distress or disorder, or other issues. Effectively, it is your body telling you something isn’t right.

It may be that your body is telling you that you’ve eaten something it doesn’t think is safe or that you have contracted a stomach virus. However, in the case of anxiety-induced nausea, your body responds to the other symptoms of anxiety, which can cause you to take on a high level of physical strain. Severe anxiety is often a cause of nausea, and if you feel that your anxiety is inducing physical illness, it may be time for you to consider seeking treatment.

Treatments to ease anxiety nausea

You may worry that if you can’t get rid of anxiety, you might not be able to get rid of anxiety nausea, either. However, proper treatment of anxiety can greatly reduce or eliminate nausea.

The treatments for anxiety nausea are basically the same as treatments for anxiety in general. However, the intensity of your treatment may vary depending on how severely your symptoms affect your life.

Anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses may respond well to meditation, therapy, and other treatment options. Let’s look at what each of these treatments for anxiety includes.

Meditation

Anxiety and stress are two distinct problems, but stress can be a trigger for anxiety. Meditation is a popular treatment option because it can treat anxiety, stress, and symptoms caused by both.

Meditation is the practice of calming and redirecting your thoughts to overcome stress, intrusive thoughts, and other issues closely related to anxiety. Some people who practice meditation even claim that it can overcome physical pain.

There are various places where you can learn meditation. Many spas include yoga and meditation classes, and some specialize in meditation for anxiety and stress. You can even master meditation at home with the help of freely available resources online.

Therapy

Therapy can be useful for disorders that cause mental strain. Anxiety may be caused by certain triggers and behaviors that can be redirected, understood, and overcome with the help of a therapist.

The type of nausea that starts in your gut – anxiety-induced nausea – can impact your life. Though you can get medicine to treat anxiety nausea, treating anxiety symptoms in isolation can feel tedious and futile for many patients. Many feel that using therapy to address the root cause of anxiety is vital for overall quality of life.

Supplementing with nausea remedies

Treating or even curing anxiety is a process. Overcoming the disorder comes with patience and perseverance, and it can be frustrating to deal with anxiety symptoms as you look for a treatment that works for you. For this reason, some people may choose to supplement their anxiety treatments with homeopathic or over-the-counter nausea treatments. Many of these treatments are the same ones used by pregnant women suffering from hormone-induced nausea:

• Ginger: Many nausea sufferers swear by the therapeutic effects of ginger. Whether you consume it through candy form, as ginger ale, or by adding a little to your favorite tea, you might see relief from active nausea.
• Peppermint: Others claim to find relief from nausea by drinking peppermint tea or sucking on a peppermint candy. The important thing is that the item is very fragrant because it is supposedly the smell of peppermint that curbs nausea. If you prefer the taste of peppermint to ginger, this might be a good choice for you.
• Other Spices for Nausea: Other spices claimed to heal nausea through consumption are fennel powder, cinnamon, and cumin.

Can chronic anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder be cured?

While anxiety can sometimes be cured, persistent anxiety could indicate an anxiety disorder. These disorders may be lifelong issues. Still, research has uncovered many useful, long-term coping mechanisms for those who experience chronic anxiety disorders.

Perhaps the key to long-term coping for those with anxiety, stress, and symptoms like nausea is reducing triggers and addressing episodes as they arise.

That may seem complicated, but discussing your anxiety with a therapist can help. They can do more than just get to the root of your mental illness. They can also recommend the best supplemental treatments for your specific needs such as medicine, meditation, exercise, diet changes, and more. With the help of a mental health professional, you may find an effective way to keep your anxiety-induced nausea under control.

Talk therapy and overcoming stress and anxiety from home

Often, those who suffer from anxiety find it difficult to initiate therapy. This may be because they find discomfort in public settings, meeting new people, driving, or a slew of other things. However, the modern digital era has created a new way to achieve therapeutic relief from your home. Online talk therapy can be a feasible way to assess and treat your anxiety. It can also be more convenient since appointments are available outside of normal office hours. 

This type of remote therapy has also been researched extensively and proven legitimate. A recent study found that online interventions such as therapy are effective in treating general anxiety. This meta-analysis reviewed more than a dozen different studies in the field, including nearly 10,000 participants. 

Takeaway

You don’t need to go far to find a licensed and compassionate tele-therapist. Regain has a large selection of talk therapists as well as additional resources to help you better understand your anxiety and its symptoms. This means you can work on yourself without leaving your couch or your pajamas. Get started today.