Living with Nausea: My Story in Six Charts

For those with no clear diagnosis for similar leading to “It’s IBS” I _highly_ recommend gut directed hypnotherapy. I am as science, tech, engineering as you can be but after 3 months of similar (but not as bad) symptoms as the author I happily tried the Nerva app at a dieticians recommendation. This was after every test you van do ruled out anything life threatening, bacterial or physical.

It started to work for me very quickly and helped me isolate triggers (none were food, all work and stress related, even though I didn’t feel stressed at all) and now, after about 3 months the I’m mostly fine again.

The mind gut connection is strong and very very real.

I hope the author continues to get better.

So my kid has ARFID. I am not a doctor, but what I have learned is that eventually, anything that causes nausea associated with eating can progress into ARFID, even if the original underlying cause resolves. ARFID is technically an eating disorder, like anorexia, but it isn't related to poor body image; it is, basically, a food aversion to, well, food. All food, or nearly all. This is what happened to my kid; there’s an underlying disorder that can be treated with meds, but when not treated causes nearly constant nausea. Once we diagnosed and treated the underlying cause, the nausea didn’t go away. My kid's brain had learned to associate eating with being sick, and that association persisted even when the original illness resolved.

My kid at one point was admitted to the hospital for two weeks because said kid had lost so much weight. They inserted a gastric tube, and kid discovered that kid did not become nauseous when fed through the tube. We knew kid had ARFID, but this was ah “a-ha” moment for kid, because it showed kid irrefutable proof that the problem was not a physical issue with kid's gut. It was very clearly related to the experience of eating. Kid has subsequently learned to “eat through the nausea” as described in the post.

That's what this sounds like. There was likely an underlying physical cause of the nausea; that cause may or may not have resolved, but the nausea is now it's own thing. The OP indicates a series of consults with a behaviorist; I would imagine being screened for eating disorders is what that was about, but ARFID is not a common eating disorder, and may or may not have been considered.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance describes how motorcycle maintenance by the owner is qualitatively different from motorcycle maintenance by a professional mechanic. The professional mechanic can examine the motorcycle at a single point in time, but the owner rides the motorcycle and can collect observations as the motorcycle runs.

Understanding your body can be similar. While medical expertise is absolutely worth consulting, doctors can only base their diagnoses on your self-reported symptoms and on their examinations at single points in time. The more data you collect and report to the doctor, the more likely you can work out exactly what's going on.

I know someone who lived with chronic discomfort, observed over several years, and after many doctor visits finally pinpointed the root cause. Best wishes to the author on his search.

Hey there, i have crohns' which isn't nausea based for me but definitely i understand the debilitating nature of gastrointestinal issues. It really just kills your ability to think, to talk socially, it completely and totally stole my adolescence. I'm sure you've done endless research, I'm not gonna tell you i have a cure. But if you haven't, you should look into gut microbiota. My understanding is that the balance of types of bacteria in the stomach and intestines has so so so much more to do with our daily experience than anyone realizes. And that any kind of infection or antibiotic regiment or just normal living can precipitate a change in the balance that just obliterates peoples lives. And we just don't know much at all about it yet. I've seen many people talk over the years about experimenting with different probiotics, even down to ordering exact strains of bacteria to make yogurt and test. If you need a new path to research and try things you can look there. As i said, doctors don't know much about it yet so it you probably can't find one to guide you through it. You'll have to figure it out, but it's possible, people have been helped, and at the end of it all, i hope it gets better for you. <3

If the author is reading this, might want to consider the possibility of an onset of chronic "silent migraines" which can have quite the nauseating effect but without the headache. I suffer from them and they are debilitating. While reading your article, I kept thinking it would eventually get to the part where you discovered you are having migraines (which also tend to run in cycles of a couple weeks to a month for many people, myself included), but no mention of this anywhere, so thought I'd point it out.

I cannot believe how exhausting (and expensive) this investigation has been for you. I had a GI surgery and one of the possible outcomes was permanent nausea, and when I woke up I had nausea for about 3 months and it was horrific. The symptoms resolved on their own after a while, and for a time I believe them to be psychosomatic, so I began meditation. In the end I don't know, but that must be scary.

I'm curious if fecal microbiota transplantation has been discussed? From what I can tell the gut biome is under studied and the effects are pretty scattered and wide. Thoughts?

Hi author,

I have an uncannily similar physical and symptomatic profile. Do you experience anxiety? My symptoms were so intense and unpredictable that I developed anxiety from it. I had to learn to manage and distinguish both issues, which helped a ton. I never had any formal diagnostic as every doc basically says "everything's normal", but I now suspect a heightened stomach sensibility due to multiple COVID-19 infections coupled with a highly stressful period in my life. I haven't had COVID in a while now and my stress levels are much lower so symptoms are mostly gone.

I understand how debilitating and hellish it can be. I wish you all the best!

I had GI surgery, and afterwards, I had an "Ileus" (intestines don't move food through), which is apparently a low probability side effect. I was utterly miserable for a week, with horrible nausea and vomiting. Even water. If my wife had not made me go back to the hospital, I'd probably have died from dehydration.

I cannot imagine living with nausea for months or years.

I apparently have a food allergy. I thought it was acid for years. It wasn't until I moved somewhere with much higher pollen levels that my stomach symptoms were way worse and I noticed the cross-reactivity. Usually allergies are faster but when it's not it the food makes it into your stomach and your whole body has issues. It's something I'm still kind of figuring out as we speak. Some people I think call it a mast cell disorder but I just call it a food allergy that I take Zyrtec for. Could it be described as "hives but in your stomach"? I mention this because you mentioned Dramamine, which, in fact, is also an antihistimine.

The emotional turmoil of trying to get help from the medical system with an unknown chronic illness can be just as bad or worse than the illness itself at times. I hope the author gets to the bottom of things and is able to find treatment or treat themselves.

Is it same as the case + solution in this video w Forstall?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiuVggWNqSA&t=2490s

I will be honest, I only skimmed the article… But I did not see any mention of exercise. Not sure if the author will read this, but the best way I know to increase metabolism is to walk or swim. Ideally work up to something more intense like yoga or weightlifting as you start to feel better. Basically, activity work at building up an appetite and eat high fiber foods.

Also check out the fodmap diet to get your gut in order before working up to exercise.