Good morning Karen,

What you describe is not a common symptom of Bipolar Disorder, unless she was on meds such as Lithium in which lithium toxicity can cause vomiting and nausea.

My 1st sense was that this was a Psychosomatic condition: distress, fear, great anxiety and high emotionality can bring on this vomiting-- this is very common, so your instincts are probably right. You say she is overweight and has poor eating habits, this too can cause vomiting, especially if she's overeating on a regular basis (but I didn't get this sense from your description).

I would 1st look in the home environment to see if there are any stressors that create tremendous anxiety, worries, or nervous tension. It's well known, for example, that families that have a lot of "expressed" emotion where members are overly-intrusive, highly emotional about the illness and how it affects the family, any hostilities, extremely expressive and overly concerned, or stressed-out themselves, can bring this about. I'm not suggesting this is what's happening here at all, but it is very common and also a significant cause of relapse and rehospitalizations for many. Expressed emotion shows up a lot in the literature on schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and some other conditions-- especially most childhood ones. Here is an excellent and well detailed reading of it: Expressed Emotion and Relapse

If she works or has outside responsibilities, they can cause a great deal of distress, as can even the shear act of getting up in the morning and having to face the world, even if it is just the family. The fact that she had anxiety going to school and did the same strongly suggests this.

I'm not hearing a significant pattern here, such as daily vomiting or even vomiting 2-3 times per week, so it doesn't sound as if she has a medical condition; however, to be on the safe side, it might not be a bad idea for her to see a gastroenterologist as she could have any number of other conditions.

Karen, this must be very difficult for you, especially if she is nit on meds. I was wondering if you could talk about the no meds piece a little?

Good luck Karen I truly hope this helps.

Compassionately,
Baaku