flipping out a bit
#288833 - 11/02/06 03:17 PM
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hawkeye
Reged: 06/16/03
Posts: 705
Loc: NYC
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I'm having a hard time dealing with my ibs this evening. I have the worst d, it started yesterday and got much worse this evening. I feel so fragile when I get like this and also my phobia of throwing up, comes to haunt me. I'm really anxious right now. I'm just scared of it getting worse than it is and feeling so weak. I'm even nervous to take immodiom, because I feel somehow like it will make my stomach cramp up worse. 2 years ago I took an anti-emetic as an attempt to stop freaking out over feeling very nauseous and I had a terrible reaction to it and ended up in the ER. I have xanax for these moments too, but I just can't bring myself to take anything.
I wish I could face this like an adult - I had so many childhood traumas with ibs that it all comes up when I feel like this. My daughter is alost 2 now and has never had stomach trouble or a bug or anything - how am I going to handle it when she's throwing up? I have no idea but I hope I can figure it out fast so I don't pass on this crazyness to her.
Thanks for listening....
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Would it help you to know that I have severe OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and my WORST phobia is throwing up (or my kids for that matter!). I totally understand where you're coming from. The fear is so consuming yet completely illogical. The worst fear, I think is the fear itself. When I've been sick, or my kids, I just deal with it. Yes, I have had a few panic attacks, but I call for help if at all possible, and if not, take some deep breaths. I hate it so much when I don't even want to be near my kids when they're throwing up or are sick in any way. Makes me feel like a bad mother.
Rambling... but anyway, my best advice for you is this:
Distract yourself. If you're stuck on the toilet, try to go nuke a mug of strong peppermint tea and sip on it slowly when you're in the bathroom. Also, some soothing music, or a favourite novel are great for me. Anything to distract myself from the fears. Also, lots of deep breathing, visualization of a beach or something. Focus on something else - repeat a simple phrase like "I am calming down" and count to 10. ANYTHING.
Those are just a few tactics I use.
BTW - they now have quick dissolve imodium so you don't even have to swallow a pill - lactose free. Try it.
Also, ask your DR about Ativan. It is a calming med that I use when I'm in a panic or can't sleep. It does make you drowsy though.
Also, my psych also said that it is natural to retreat into childhood reactions when faced with something that triggers things from the past. The trick is to prepare several NEW coping mechanisms so that you have lots of choices. Even write them down. I call mine my "What works" list.
Hugs, my friend.
A.
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Formerly HanSolo. IBS, OCD, Bipolar, PTSD times 3.
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Well here's a slightly more productive post than just venting. How do you deal with ibs and anxiety? Other than pharmaceutically that is. Right now I'm lying in bed in pjs, with hot pack, mug of hot water, and the laptop and my ipod with the ibs audio program on it.
Still, I have SO much anxiety when I'm sick like this. I'd like to just face it a little better somehow. Not be so afraid of throwing up that I won't even take medicine - I don't want to put anything in me - also for immodium I worry that if my body is truly trying to get rid of some toxin like sometihgn I ate or something that if I take immodium that might encourage the toxins to come up and out rather than down and out! Thanks everyone.
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Yes I'm in the grip of it right now -but not 100% or I wouldn't be typing I'd be curled in a fetal position and crying! I hope I don't get to that point tonight. This definitely drags me back to childhood - I was hospitalized for sev. weeks and out of school for months with what turned out to be ulcers at age 11 and it was a very traumatic experience of loss of control and feeling weak for me-D.
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Hawkeye,
I'm right there with you! I am absolutely phobic about being sick too! I hate to take drugs as well. And I'm having a miserable week to boot!
I've only been sick 1 day (2 times unfortunately) in the last 15 years. Yep, I hold it all in!
I'm even worse about knowing someone else is sick than I am if it is myself - brutally petrified - I start shaking and everything so I really understand what you feel if your daughter were to be sick.
When I get really nauseated I take gravol, drink peppermint tea (if I can swallow it) and go to bed with an ice pack on my head. If my attacks are bad, I'm scared to take immodium too b/c the last thing I want is to get C! I am still doing the audio program, it's helping my stress level. I also meditate and do controlled breathing and counting until the wave of not feeling good passes. I have super high anxiety about anything - even going to work every day to a job I've held over 5 years.
What you are doing is about what I do - except the hot pack. Hang in there!! Go back to you SF for a couple days, maybe it will help get you back on track.
HUGS!!
Cassandra
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Cassandra
Live like there's no tomorrow. Love like you've never loved before.
IBS A 20+ years, Chronic Migraines, Chiari Malformation (decompressed June 22, 2010), Brachial Neuritis, and ??? the list just keeps growing, but I'm still shiny side up! 
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I've heard it mentioned a few times on the boards. Unfortunately I've been sick more than twice in 15 years, but truly not that many times compared to some. I do all I can to avoid it - though not in how I make a living (I teach in a school so I"m around sick kids all the time).
Tonight, I resolved myself to face it and after a serious wave of panic/crying shortness of breath, nausea I pulled myself off the toilet and went and read my daughter her bedtime stories and am trying to not keep getting stuck in my anxiety pattern. For about 30 min. i felt really strong and resolved and didn't take the xanax I felt I might need. now, its creeping back - the panic. I hope I can face this.
I've been thinking of trying bio-feedback for years, it helped my dad and he always pushed me to try it. Maybe I finally will for the anxiety/phobia. Thats great that you meditate. I had about a 6 month stretch when I tried insight medititation but I lost track of it. ITs hard to be disciplined - its a busy llfe!
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Gravol is an over the counter stomach medicine that helps nausea.. It's great for the stomach flu, car sickness, and just the general feeling of wanting to throw up.. Not sure if it's good for ibs people and admittedly I haven't used the stuff since I was given it to me as a kid...
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Re: what's gravol?
#288854 - 11/02/06 05:13 PM
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Toady
Reged: 04/06/06
Posts: 1299
Loc: A small city, Northwestern Ontario, Canada
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Dajara's right - it is an anti nauseant. I buy the generic drug store brand dimenhydrinate. It also makes me sleepy, hence the ice pack and off to bed. But it does help the sick feeling. It actually dehydrates you too, so extra liquids when you start to feel better. I've never had a problem taking it. It helps me through the worst, especially when I get migraines and nausea from them.
Cassandra
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Cassandra
Live like there's no tomorrow. Love like you've never loved before.
IBS A 20+ years, Chronic Migraines, Chiari Malformation (decompressed June 22, 2010), Brachial Neuritis, and ??? the list just keeps growing, but I'm still shiny side up!
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Dramamine is the United States.
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Amy
IBS-A
Stable and thankful!
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I like to think of myself as a rough & tough old country boy. I'm not, but that's the image I have in my head. And I have a terrible time with throwing up, or anyone else throwing up where I can see it or even hear it. I can handle blood, spit, & baby's nastiest bms, but throwing up is like an instant on switch for me and it only takes me a fraction of a second to join in the regurgitating party.
When my oldest son was 5 (he's now 24) his stomach was upset late one night so he came into our bedroom. He passed the bathroom outside his room, passed the kitchen sink, and missed the bathroom that was next to our bedroom. He even missed the front door which would have lead him into the wonderful open range of Wyoming. Anyway, he stood beside my bed and I finally got the light on as he said, "I'm sick." And then he proceeded to barf all over me in bed!
Instantly I joined him in the regurgitating party! My dear wife has always had to deal with he kids throwing up … when they do I am just plain done…
A few months later my son came back into our bedroom and my wife woke up, shook me awake and warned me that he was there. I flew down the hallway into the Wyoming night and was saved from another regurgitating party!
Hope you start to feel better soon!!
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 Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow”. Mary Anne Radmacher
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I'm exactly the same, have been terrified of being sick since I was 5yrs old and has just got worse over the years, I've tried hypnotherapy, NLP, cognitive behavioural therapy all to no avail.
I'd love to have children but I'm scared that I wouldn't be able to cope. If my child was unexpectedly sick my first reaction would be to get as far away from them as possible, which ofcourse would make me a horrific mother, but not only that, I'd want to keep away from them for a good 5 days to make sure they're no longer contagious. Could you imagine!!!! Lol
Some people say that with your own its different but I'm scared it wouldn't be, if any of my family are sick I act like they've got the plague for 3 days and wont even sit in the same room as them, my mum says she doesn't know who to feel more sorry for, me for being so petrified or the person being ill and the way I make them feel!
Has anyone actually managed to overcome this, if so how did you do it?
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There's actually a ginger Gravol. It only uses ginger oil and no other medications, so that would be benificial to IBS. My mom found it when she was looking for a non-drowsy motion sickness pill (we both get car sick, but don't always want to fall asleep).
Not sure what is available in the States though.
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Kat
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Oh my god I am setting in total aww of this post. I have the same fear of throwing up it totaly scares me to death. I thought i was the only one in this world that had this fear! Wow was i surprised when i saw this post! I have thought about posting it for some help but never did. I can handle a cold and so on just not that. I have a 22 month old and i am not looking forward to the day she gets sick like that. I just about drove myself crazy with the whole stomach flu thing last year (husband to) I didn't want to go to alot of place in fear of getting it, or her or him. and if i knew someone had it I ould freak out. I even started going to counciling about it and had to stop cause we couldn't afford it. I am scared to see winter come because of it.  But the one thing that has help me has been a quote from this site from sweet michele "ONE DAY AT A TIME" I just hope were healthy this winter. It has even scared me about getting prego but i can't let it stop me. I guess I just wanted to say thanks for posting this and for letting me know i'm not alone! God bless ~Sheila
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me again just wanted to say I thank god for this site everyday! GOD BLESS YOU ALL! HUGS ~ SHEILA
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I have been the same way forever, this innate fear of throwing up or catching the stomch flu or getting food poisoning leading to throwing up. I tried hypnotherapy to no avail and found that my fear got all consuming when i went off AD's for a year and tried al things natural as my nausea and ibs came back full force and since off the AD's i was not able to deal with it rationally, so i became a recluse feared going out in case i felt sick, feared foods, etc, it got really bad. I am now back on the AD's and am much better, got all my foods and courage to be out an about back, but also did a treatment called EMDR that I believed really helped me a lot. I still fear throwing up, but i no longer think about it everyday and no longer get myself incredibly riled up when i feel a bit nauseous, i am now able to put it into the back of my mind and go on with my day. As opposed to when everyone in my BF's family systematically got the stomach flu and i was a neurotic mess, i had to listen to him all night in the bathroom and then i was taking double probiotics and colloidal silver to avoid getting it and was counting the days from when he got it from his sister in law to what day i could finally relax as it may have passed me by. It was an insane 2 weeks, not fun.
so all in all for me if i am a bit nauseous i will chew candied ginger or drink ginger tea, if that doesn't work i will take a homeopathic for nausea, if that doesn't work or i am getting to wound up i will take gravol and go to sleep as it knocks me out good.
Look into the emdr, i urge anyone, it was weird and seemed like it couldn't do anything, but seems to have made me so much more calm about the concept, it didn't take away my fear, but has helped me to be able to deal with the thoughts and situations where it is involved.
I also fear being pregnant and having morning sickness, but will never let that stop me from having kids. Also when i was with my friend in montreal when i was younger and she got alcohol poisoning i was somehow able to just deal with it and sit with her and hold her hair and rub her back.
The good news is that my fear of thorwing up has kept me from doing many of the things that kids normally do like drinking too much, drugs, cigarettes, etc, i have been too afraid of what it would do to my stomach, also i just never really wanted to anyway.
wow, its great to know that i am not alone with this crazy fear, i am just glad i managed to get beyond having nausea as one of my main ibs symptoms, pain i can handle, nausea i can't.
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Wow! I'm surprised at all the response my post has gotten. Not because I thought I was the only one, but because I've posted just about the same message on about 20 other panicked occasions! Thank you everyone for sharing such honest repsonses. I believe my own fears stem from childhood hospitalization for severe ibs/ulcers. I did emdr as well and was able to remember a traumatic event that occurred in the hospistal much more clearly than I had remembered it before. Yet I didn't feel helped by it I never figured out how to not become my 11 year old self each time I get naueous. Still I did okay last night. I was able to break the pattern, though it took me longer than I'd like. Also I didn't throw up, so as I felt a little better that made it a lot easier to stop freaking out. Sometimes I beat myself up over it and wonder if I weren't living the relatively comfortable life here in the states, if I were in some place where I was faced with bigger problems, if I'd have time for this kind of worry. Yet this is where I am, and i have to deal with my own reality....
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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