Nausea - Symptoms Of Stress, Part 6

This is Part 6 of 9 Part Series - Nausea

Wow, nausea! I so remember this and am moving past a lot of this in my life. One of the quickest things I always noticed when I was under stress was how it affected my stomach. Often I would be nauseated or sometimes actually vomit and there were far too many times when my stomach would seem so jittery.

In fact, most of us often talk about how some situation makes us feel in our stomach. It is a common thing and if there is one connection made between stress and trauma with the body, it is the stomach. However, too many times people attribute it to what they eat or some unknown flu bug that they think they have. Much of the time, stress and trauma play a major role in it. Sometimes a result of stress leads to migraine headaches and one of the results is that people feel nauseated or actually vomit.

According to the article on yahoo.healthy.com, 9 Surprising Symptoms Of Stress, nausea is a direct result of worrying, stress and anxiety, according to the author of “Addicted To Stress”. "Stress can upset the stomach, and nausea can be a byproduct of worry," says Mandel.

If your anxiety is causing nausea, try this trick that Mandel swears by: Let tepid water run over your fingers; it's believed to keep nausea at bay.

Of course the more we try to stop these uncomfortable feelings and physical sensations, the more we are adding to them. If we stop and acknowledge them, then work to alleviate what is causing them, our bodies will be much better in the long run and so will our minds. Putting a bandaid over a gushing wound may slow bleeding down, but most likely we will keep bleeding.

Please see my article on vomiting and anger which deals with the stress and trauma as it affects the body. It can be found at: Can Anger Make You Vomit?


Symptoms Of Stress: (9 Part Series)
1. Tweaked and Tense Muscles
2. Eye Twitching
3. Ragged Cuticles
4. Cavities
5. Rashes & Itching
6. Nausea
7. Sleep
8. Forgetfulness
9. Confusion



*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Keeping It In Perspective

Sometimes life can throw them at you hard and fast and if you don't duck quickly enough, you get slammed in the face! Really, it can! I know - many of you probably already know that. Sometimes though, it just feels like a tidal wave or a hurricane has slammed ashore in your life.

In the past week, I've been hit several times with some major stressors and each one stung a lot. All of the situations were out of my control but yet they impacted me directly and with gusto! Different people, different frameworks and different situations lined up and attacked at once it seemed. Believe me, at one point I was ready to run for cover, yet there was no place to run to.

I tried to deal with each situation as best as I could but the accumulation affect began to make the little things grow into much bigger things. One event hit me so hard that it really made me extremely angry. The minute I felt the anger, I was feeling the need to literally vomit my guts out. A headache raged on and my abdomen was so bloated that moving around or sitting was excruciating. For the rest of the night and into much of the next day, I physically didn't think I was going to make it. And of all days, I had a task to perform that went almost 15 hours from beginning to end. So now, I'm not only dealing with the anger and physical ills but I'm feeling exhausted, stressed, tired, etc.

Yet, I am listening to my body and hearing it say to me that I need to stop, regroup and hit that reset button. So here's what I'm doing.

1) The things that I can take care of and do what I need to do, I'm working on. If it is beyond my control, I'm just trying to say, it isn't my concern for now and I have to trust the system in place.

2) The things that needed immediate attention for me to stand up and be accounted, I had conversations with the person stating to them that their way of doing business was a very bad practice. After all, I lost a serious amount of business income because of a decision they made that strongly impacted me. While they didn't like me confronting them and it may impact further income, I had no choice really because they would have just walked all over me in the future.

3) The things that were just too consuming and toxic at the moment had to be put off. After all, I can only do and deal adequately with so many things at one time. I've learned that I don't have to solve everything with others at one moment. Sometimes we need to regroup and reassemble in order to move forward. That's what I'm doing.

4) I'm trying to take time off and just rest and give myself some downtime. While I can't just run off and get away from phones, email and other responsibilities, I can limit myself for a day or two. My body is screaming for the rest and is hitting the reset button whether I like it or not. So I've got to follow what my body wants or there will be hell to pay!

5) I plan on getting the creative side of me out and just allowing myself to bask into the calmness and groundedness and centeredness of it all. Allow myself to go in to that place that is peaceful, calming and soothing and to connect with the higher side of myself.

Sometimes perspective on stresses and issues in life is very difficult to keep. Sometimes we get bombarded like in a game of dodge-ball that we have to find a corner to hide in or catch the balls coming at us. Whatever we do, there are times when we really just need to stop and find a way to catch our breath, regroup and hit the reset button.

If you're stressed and feeling bomarded, it is time to take a moment and do a reset in life. Don't keep trudging through everything because you think you have to. If you stop and rest a little, you'll fuel your body back up to take on everything coming at you. If you exhaust yourself, you will be taken out by the dodge balls!


*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Emotional Vomiting

It started out, as a peaceful morning. The sun was shining and while the outside air felt humid, it was not too warm. The agenda for the day was not too hectic at that moment. As my attention turned toward the computer and my online friends, I saw a posting that I quickly commented on. Thinking I was really just commenting to the friend that posted it, I had the temporary lapse of rational thought that everyone out in cyber space connected to this friend could read the comment as well. But yet, in my mind, it was a conversation between me and my friend, not between me and the rest of the world.

Quickly, a friend of hers that I do not know posted a very strong response accusing me of being short sighted and part of the problems in the world. I was quite shocked and surprised that it generated this type of response because in many ways, I did not disagree with the points this person was slapping me with. We probably shared more in common than not but I never got the chance to explain anything. It was like this person was the judge; jury and executioner of what I said and that really irked me. Since it was on a friend’s page, I did not want to cause a scene and out of respect to them, I deleted the comment. Thinking that would be the end of the story, I quickly found out that this action inflamed the person further which surprised me all the more. The other commenter suggesting that I was a coward because I deleted the comment could have not been further from the truth. I no longer feel I have to prove what is right or wrong in these things. I just let it go. And finally after I had enough of this back and forth bantering, I just said whatever and banned this person from seeing anything connected with me or I from them.

Not that anything the person said was in disagreement with how I feel but the way in which it was done left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Sometimes people say far more in how they respond than what they actually say in words. So be it. I’m over that but it turned a good morning into the start of a bad day without me even realizing it in the moment. And it was unfortunate in many ways because this person may have been able to share some things that I am not aware of. However, now my ears are turned off to this person because my boundaries were violated and there was absolutely no respect.

This may sound like an experience that just needs to be dropped and for me to move on. At face value, I would agree but as the day grew on, I realized just how this impacted a series of events that culminated into my spending time in front of the porcelain god puking my guts out. This even though, would not seem as if it was connected to anything else until much later.

Later in the day after mowing the yard in the hot heat and struggling with allergies, I could feel the pressure of a sinus headache beginning. We also had a visitor come over to do some taping of Jeff for a movie he is creating. The guy seemed very nice with his grey hair and raspy voice but the moment he arrived through the front door, the stench of cigarette smoke almost took my breath away. The raspy and somewhat loud, nervous voice filled the room. Little did I know that these things were beginning to play ping pong with me and connecting dots I was not aware of at that moment.

As the afternoon wore on, and I heard the guy going through the interview process with Jeff, the voices seemed to carry upstairs and be amplified a hundred times. I grew exhausted as my headache began to intensify with every moment that passed. It seemed like an eternity when in reality it was only a couple of hours. I stayed upstairs away from the noise just hoping that would help alleviate some of the irritation I felt. Then as the guy left, I watched out through the window as he backed into the garbage can spilling the contents and driving off as if nothing had happened. Just another random event in the day that acted as glue for the connection of the dots, yet I was not even aware of what was going on.

I began to watch a movie that had of all things, a wife appearing to be beat and murdered in the first scene. Probably not something I should have watched this day after looking back but at the time, it didn’t seem too far out of line and it was such a quick scene that I just tried to overlook it. However, it didn’t overlook me!

Part way in to the movie, my stomach began hurting as my head began pounding from the headache. Heartburn was picking up and I felt like my stomach had a balloon in it that was being blown up as it became bloated. The temperature in the room seemed to increase by a thousand percent as my face and body felt so warm. The lights in the room and the sounds around me began to be irritating to an exponential degree. After some time of trying to bare this, I gave up and went to my bed to lie down. Only then did things really intensify.

Trying to use ice packs on my head helped momentarily but the pain was so intense that part of me just wanted to lie down and die. A jackhammer on my head could not have been any more intense. It was excruciating. I would move the ice pack to my stomach to help alleviate the discomfort and again, it would help momentarily but then just as the pounding in my head, it would come back in full strength as a wave crashing into the shore.

During this time, I could begin to feel a lot of anger come up within me but not anger that was directed at any one thing. It was the random anger I get that has no hooks necessarily to hang anything on. It is the anger that seems to bubble up as a spring of water from the ground with a never ending source. Yet, in the moment, there does not seem to be any events to go along with this anger.

I tried my hardest to breathe and scream into my pillow but it seemed as if I had no energy to do this and I felt further exhausted. As my body sank back down into the bed and I found a moment of peace and comfort, I drifted off into a relaxed state. All of the sudden from out of nowhere, my right leg jerked as if it was going to fly off of me into outer space. It woke me from the relaxed state and then I felt my body shiver and shake with trembling. As these things happened, my headache came back with a vengeance and the heartburn within me increased while my stomach grew more agitated. The ice packs that I was using were not helping alleviate the growing nightmare of pain within my body. I tried to work on my enteric brain but even that was providing little comfort for me. The pain was overwhelming. The pain was unbearable.

It was in this moment that a series of images came to my mind along with some smells. The image was of my father storming out the door after he and my mother had fought or I should more accurately say after he beat the daylights out of her. In the image, he got in the car just like I remember and took off into the night. It would be many hours before we would hear him come back through the door and even though I was supposed to be asleep, my eyes remained opened. The terror alert level was quite high. He would come back home sometime many hours later into the early morning, smelling of smoke and appearing intoxicated. I would listen to him apologize to my mom and then they would make up as if everything was fine. No one would ever talk about this the next day or dare utter a word about it. It was a secret that was not to be told. These things filled in the image my mind recalled as I laid on my bed with my head pounding and my stomach violently shaking with pain.

As I ran into the bathroom and knelt next to the porcelain god, my stomach vomited its contents with fury and frequency. My body wanted to collapse on to the floor but the events of the moment would not allow it. In a weakened slumber, I made my way back to the bed and collapsed into my pillow. My body had no strength to hurt or move any further but the headache had decreased significantly at that moment. I fell into a restful moment of sleep waking up not feeling as bad as I did only a short time before.

As I recounted all of the things that happened during the day, I could begin to see how the smell of the cigarette smoke, the grey hair of the visitor and his loud voice, the confrontation with the lady online and feeling as if I had to take cover from the loudness of the events going on in the house were all connected. Each activity in itself did not paint a picture but when you put them all together, it was easy to see the entire portrait.

Even though it is hard for me to admit, I saw so many horror filled moments in my house. My younger brother shared with me many years ago, the things he remembered, yet to me it is like he is talking about some other family. I know that loud noises especially voices get to me and I know that there are some smells and scents that just about bring me into a full rage. For the most part, I cannot explain either of these things except as being triggers to events I have witnessed.

While there are many people who go into town to the bars to drink, I did not think my father was one of those. For the church we went to completely condemned drinking any alcoholic beverage. Our church preached time and time again where I can almost quote it from memory that if you take one drink, you will become an alcoholic because one drink leads to another and another and soon you cannot stop. Even going into a restaurant or establishment that served alcohol was prohibited because someone might see you and think you were drinking which then might cause them to drink and become alcoholics. Since you were responsible for your brothers (fellow man), and if you caused them to become an alcoholic, you were responsible for their sins.

That is what was taught and of course it was backed up with scripture in the bible like the verse in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 which reads, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. It is a lovely verse of scripture but when used to control and manipulate others, than it becomes dangerous as so often the purpose of this verse or others like it by the strict sect of Baptist churches (GARBC – General Association Of Regular Baptist Churches) we attended.

So this secret that my Dad had which I didn’t not even fully realize until now went against every teaching of the church which he used to control and manipulate all of us with. What a conflict of monumental proportion! When you mix that in with all the other events taking place, it creates such confusion that for me has been difficult to sort out. The lines and the boundaries are all blurred and unclear. The horrors lurk in the shadows as the infliction of pain is witnessed. It is the existence of the well that bubbles up from within that has no paintable portrait but a feeling of despair, anger and exhaustion.

These events make me wonder about myself at times. I feel like the oddball in life, the oriental reject as my dad once called me and I feel as if I don’t fit in. Sometimes, I struggle to know what is real and what is not or why the anger within me builds. I could fool myself into thinking that these things don’t exist and I could try to just push forward in life acting as they don’t but I would only be fooling myself. It is in these times, that I know I’ve got to heal through them rather than continue running from them but this is nothing short of being extremely difficult. I would love things to be different. I would wish and hope that no other person would be a witness to the events I have seen. It is a daily horror that haunts me and a complete healing of wholeness that I long for.

I remind myself of just how far I have come but my eyes still cannot close to all they have seen. Once again, I am a witness to how our emotions, the events of our past and our memories impact not only our current day but the core of our body and mind.

It Took A Miracle

Several days back, I was at the point of wishing life would really stop. Life as I know it had given me a lot to deal with and culminated in an episode of vomiting and complete exhaustion of my body. One could make a claim that I had a 24 hour flu bug or that I had eaten something that didn't agree with myself but the facts would not support these theories and hypothesis. However, there was one factor that played a significant role in this entire night of horrible anguish.

Leading up to this night, I was full of anger that seemed to just replenish itself every moment that I drew from its well. There was no end to its supply. On top of that, my neck muscles, back muscles and overall body were in a state of tension from stress with pains radiating from many different parts. It included the creep crawly feeling on my legs along with the muscles twitching that drives me nuts! Headaches were coming and going and my eating diet was so far off with wild mood swings from one extreme to another. I felt like a pendulum going back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth.

Than when the fury of the night unleashed its gigantic storm on me, I sat on the bathroom floor wishing this would stop but knowing if I continued to resist it, things could and most likely would get worse. By the time, the vomiting had stopped; I could barely stand up on my two feet or make it to my bed to just go to sleep for the night. Every internal organ inside of my body was twisting and turning and I could feel every movement which was not enjoyable. I just wanted the night to be over and all of this to end. I had reached my end point. I had reached the point of saying enough was enough and did not have the ability to even begin fighting this in the moment. I had reached fatigue. I had reached exhaustion. There was no going back at this moment. The only way beyond was to accept the current state I was in and worry about the next moment when it arrived.

The next day, I still felt horrible as far as abdominal pains from the night of vomiting. I was weak and had little desire to eat anything at that point. I was extremely tired and desired sleep. However, my body felt much more relaxed than it had felt in some time. The tension was remarkably less. The headaches were gone. It felt as if my body had gone through a big release as if I had been through a bodywork session on a table. You could argue and probably would be correct that the night of vomiting was point that built up to the release in my body. However, my body was not the same as it was the previous day and even though my mind was still tired and exhausted, I knew there was a change.

As I regained my strength throughout the day, I finally broke down and said, "Universe - you win". I continued speaking to the universe that what I had been given in life to deal with was more than I could take. I needed a break. I needed a reprieve from it. I just could only deal with so much and it seemed as if I had been given more than my fair share. I remember uttering the words "I really need a miracle" and I was not going to share that point with anyone. I wanted the miracle to come my way totally unsuspected and in a way that I knew I was not creating it. I just left it at that. By this point, I felt strong enough to start doing some yard work and so I spent a couple of days outside in the sun not worrying about any of the stresses I had to deal with in life at that moment.

Then on Monday morning bright and early, I was awakened by a phone call. While that was annoying, I stepped back and saw that what this person had to share with me was a prompting to pick up a project that I had almost given up on. I was sitting there thinking - wow.. that's amazing! Later that day, I found out about an opportunity to sell some music through a national retailer website that just had not connected in my mind and so that process started. On Tuesday, I had sent an email to someone and so wanted to be able to attend an event coming up but knew there was no possible way. Out of that email, came a response that completely changed every aspect of that particular situation. In the process of this time, I was able to connect with an online friend who up until this point, I was too shy to talk to on the phone and that single act of speaking on the phone was a big moment for me. The possibilities of that single phone call are out of this world.

Tuesday morning of course was met by another phone call for a 5 day contract job. While the pay was less than normal, it was 5 full days of work which was a welcomed relief. Things had been getting pretty dire with income and so after going many weeks without any phone calls, this contact meant so much. Later Tuesday afternoon, I was working hard on a project when a call came through from a friend on the Yanni Fan Club message board. I missed the call initially but then check the messages and knew I needed to call her back right away. She had initially bought tickets for her family to see Yanni in Orlando next but her husband just had pace maker surgery and was advised not to travel to Orlando. That meant, she had an extra ticket and she just wanted someone to be able to use it. While she had called others about this, I was the first one to return her call and I’m so happy I was. The ticket is in the 4th row and I've never been to a concert where I sat in the 4th row before. She gave me the ticket and wanted nothing for it. Without this act of her kindness and generosity, I would not have been able to go see Yanni. I never expected something like this to happen when I woke up yesterday.

My mind is drifting back to the statement I made to the universe just a couple days ago "I need a miracle". I didn't get "ONE" miracle. Instead, I received several miracles. And I wrote the following, "I love it when the Universe and the Angels let me know they are there and today, it has been in some very dramatic ways. I asked for a miracle and I'm amazed at how quickly things happened. Wow... Why did I ever doubt this? That's the lesson I still haven't fully learned."

Yes, I still struggle with the issue of knowing I'm not alone in this world. My upbringing led me to the point of not ever relying or asking for or accepting any help whatsoever. I was taught that if you did, than the people who were giving these things to you could and most definitely would demand how you ran your life and what decisions you made and every little thing you would do. I was taught by example that once you accept help, than you give up all freedom. When I look back at the previous week, it is obvious that I'm not alone and it is very obvious that there is something out there listening to me. You may want to call it the Universe, God, The Angels, The Spirits or a host of other identifiers. To me, it doesn't matter what I call it, because I know they exist. However, I usually refer to them as my Angels or as the Universe. It is what fits for me.

My heart is filled with joy at this time because of all that has transpired for me. I can see that if we drop our guard down and allow ourselves to connect with all that is around us, than we truly are not alone and we are blessed beyond imagination. I realize that we don't have to go any further than what is right around us. It isn't something that we need to look to others for the answers but is something that is right within us. Others may help us discover what is within ourselves, but we can access it at any time.

Of course, like many others, I fail to remember this. That just gives me the opportunity for further growth and continued steps on down my journey. So once again, I'm reminded of all that I am part of and all that is a part of me. May I remember this as I draw on the strength I need to fulfill the purpose that is before me.

Can Anger Make You Vomit?

Can Anger Make You Vomit? I’m not sure I know the definite answer to this one. My suspicions are that it can because I know that stress can cause tight muscles, worry can cause ulcers and digestive problems, lack of making decisions can affect feet and leg issues, sexual abuse can affect hip and pelvic region problems and the list could go on and on. Of course, it is probably important to note, that one thing may not necessarily affect the other but these do have the potential of doing these things. So why would vomiting not be caused by anger? That I cannot answer either way.

All I know is that when I get stressed out, I tend to get headaches along with the tight muscles but headaches are usually the more preferred route it seems for me. Lately, I’ve been feeling stressed about several things (personal of nature) and somewhat depressed and just seem like the harder I try to move forward in life, the more I tap into the fears I have. These fears include a lack of self confidence, thinking others really don’t like/love me and are only appearing as they do, and just being afraid (almost paralyzed) to go out in public and get things moving. On top of this, it triggers the release of this anger pit hidden deeply within me and makes me want to go hide in a cave. I’ve struggled for years to regain these things but for some reason it seems like they still appear in gigantic form to me.

The stress though has been building and the headaches have been picking up in frequency. Even with trying to do things to help myself release the stress, it just seemed like nothing was working. The anger kept rising; the stress was steady with no end in sight. I just wanted to be alone and in many ways I didn’t want to be with myself either. Unfortunately, I am not able to escape myself as much as I would like to.

Last night was the culmination of the stress I believe and this time it was not going to let me get away. Of course, I know I have some food sensitivities and so there is a possibility that it could have been something I ate. However, I’ve not been able to narrow that down but I know that my cravings and diet has really been messed up lately. Food hasn’t tasted right and until recently when there was chocolate in the house, I just could not say no to it. It so easily becomes like an addiction to me and the only way around it is to not have it in the house. It doesn’t mean I don’t get the cravings for it. It just means it is harder to eat.

Last night, the headache intensified which is never a good sign when you’ve suffered from headaches and migraines most of your life. The bloating started in which in the past (like around Christmas or other times), has meant that I ate something which I’m sensitive to. I know that garlic and onions in a minute amount will not treat me well. The pressure build up in my abdomen became unbearable and I felt like I had a balloon inside of me that kept being filled with air. The only temporary relief I’ve found from this is an ice pack applied to my abdomen.

As things progressed, I began to vomit violently and it didn’t seem like it would end for some time. My stomach hurt so badly from this and by the time it was over, I was so weak I could barely stand up, let alone walk. Once I knew things had settled down, even though I could feel every digestive organ inside of me moving around, I went and collapsed in bed. I was exhausted but still somewhat hurting and uncomfortable that it was hard to let myself go to sleep.

And today, even though my stomach muscles still hurt from being sick and I feel a little weak yet, I don’t feel sick. By sick, I mean that I am running a temperature or something. It is like either it is a bad reaction to something I ate which right now I am not sure what that is, or it is one big release for the anger that seems to build within me deeply. I wish I knew the answer. I wish it would all make sense. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a connection of these events to either a combination of an emotional time along with eating garlic or onion by mistake. Of course, this time, as far as I know, I did not eat any onion or garlic.

So I’m left wondering what is going on with me. I hate it when I don’t know the answers but yet I feel it is important to write down what is going on in my mind. Maybe the connection between things will yield some answers at some point and maybe I’m already on to something here. I just would hate to make an argument out of the facts I presented because I know I couldn’t prove that getting sick is the result of anger.

On the other hand, I can remember times of getting sick in the past that had nothing to do with a flu bug or virus. I can remember going through some of the healing bodywork I’ve done and feeling like I’ve had to “throw up” something deep inside of me. I remember a session one time where I felt as if there was this big black ball of thick goo inside of me and by the time the session was over, it was gone. I also know that I have tended to stuff my feelings and emotions deep within me. It was my place of refuge and it was my hiding place.

For now, I only have questions. I hope the answers will begin to present themselves so that this all makes sense. For I feel as if it robs me of so much in life – whoever “it” is.