Nausea

Nausea is a horrible feeling. Believe me, I know. That intense feeling of sickness, sometimes coupled with a torturous headache or migraine and horrendous projectile vomiting. Everyone gets it once in a while, some people have it more frequently than other people and some people get it with a more intense feeling than other people. Sometimes it’s nausea or sometimes it can be more.

One of my best friends has suffered with nausea and she suffered really badly. I asked her about her
experience and she told me this:
I’ve been dealing with it since year 6. I never went to the doctor about it because it was a psychological thing, me getting nervous. I would wake up already feeling sick, and at one point my
body was waking me up at around 5am feeling sick and I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep because I felt so sick. I’ve tried many things to cure it, including drinking some milk while I got ready
before breakfast, having certain teas that are supposed to relieve nausea and they didn’t work. I
remember once I felt really ill, and I still went to school but because I felt so ill with a genuine
diagnosis I didn’t feel sick at all which was a bit weird, like my brain was too busy worrying about me actually being ill to make me feel sick. I thought I had cured myself when I went on Duke of
Edinburgh, because after the first couple of days I didn’t feel sick when I woke up for the first time in
ages and I didn’t feel sick in the morning for a long time after that, until I started Post 16 again. The
triggers for it are literally just going to Post 16 or if on a day we’re not at Post 16 if I’m doing something that day that I’m a bit nervous about.. I’ve also been sick for the past 2 years running,
including this year, on my birthday. It doesn’t happen every morning now thankfully, I’m getting
better. It’s just the anxiety that my brain has is expressed in physical symptoms, predominantly
nausea. I’ve developed coping mechanisms that usually help me and I can usually get through a
morning, mainly because I have to.’

As you can see, her nausea affected her a lot and impacted her life in more ways than one. With
some people, nausea is just nausea and with other people, it indicates that something is wrong.
Despite her symptoms being physical, the cause was psychological which no one would expect.
Constant nausea isn’t normal. Everyone gets nausea but having it constantly for prolonged amounts of time isn’t normal and could be something wrong. There’s every possibility that it could be psychological like my dear friend. It could be mental and that could be due to stress or anxiety. But it could also be a physical medical illness. So if you experience any of the following, including constant vomiting for over 48 hours as well as frequent episodes of nausea then you should go to the doctor:
 Extreme weight loss
 Extreme dehydration
 Unable to keep any fluids down
 Green vomit/bile
It could be more serious so go to the hospital immediately if you have:
 Severe sudden stomach pain, particularly on the lower right hand side
 Blood in your vomit
 Sudden severe chest pains
 Ingested something poisonous
Don’t let this worry you though. Usually nausea is completely normal nothing to worry about.
However, there is a difference between nausea and illness and you need to know the difference so
that you can get the help you need if and when you need it.

Kenzie